Yesterday, I posted about the clear discrimination that occurs with Career Technical Education (CTE) teachers in California. Today, I want to talk a little more about solutions to the problem, as I’m not usually the type of person to just whine about something. Further, I suspect that most administrators and academic teachers don’t even realize that they are discriminating.
There are two solutions that can help alleviate this problem.
- Educated CTE Teachers so they know what their credential allows them to already do, so that they can work with their administrators to develop applied/integrated academic courses within the industry sector they are teaching. For teachers who have had a credential since before July 1, 2002, they can use the HOUSSE process to become recognized as being a Highly Qualified Teacher in academic areas.
- A simple piece of legislation needs to be passed that allows holders of Designated Subjects credentials (which includes CTE and Vocational credentials) to be able to obtain a supplementary authorization to teach academic subjects (on their own), following the same rules a Single Subjects or Multiple Subjects credential holder follows to obtain such an authorization. The fact that CTE teachers can’t currently get a supplementary authorization, is another clear instance of discrimination occurring against CTE teachers, as it logically makes no sense that a CTE teacher who is already allowed to teach K-12 cannot teach an academic subject that they also have an in-depth knowledge of, as proven through the number of college credits they have in that subject.
These two things can make a huge difference in lessening the amount of discrimination that occurs to CTE Teachers. But further, it helps our students to have CTE Teachers teaching them academics, as I will talk more about soon.
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