Story by Ann Houston

Gov. Commends CareerTech for Program That Keeps Teachers Teaching

Each year more teachers are leaving the profession than entering it. Yet, Oklahomans have saved more than $1.6 million through retaining its CareerTech instructors during the past five years. This is due, in large part, to the Oklahoma Department of CareerTech Teacher Induction System.

On May 5, the CareerTech Teacher Induction System development team was recognized at the Governor’s Quality Oklahoma Team Day at the State Capitol. The team, commended for good stewardship of state’s resources and providing valuable public services to its citizens, includes educators from the Oklahoma CareerTech system, Oklahoma State University, the University of Central Oklahoma and local technology centers across the state.

Since its inception in 2000-2001, 186 CareerTech instructors have benefited from the Teacher Induction System, with a nearly 75 percent retention rate. Now, in its fifth year of implementation, taxpayers and students are beginning to reap the rewards.

A study of Teacher Retention in America shows that 33 to 50 percent of teachers are leaving the profession each year.

With the success of the student dependent in large part on instructor effectiveness, both students and taxpayers bear an enormous cost due to teacher turnover – to the tune of, on average, $8,000 to 11,000 per teacher recruit who leaves the profession in the first three years, according to the Texas Center for Educational Research, 2000.

Taxpayers aren’t the only ones to lose out. Ironically, one of the best predictors of students’ achievement (beyond their own reading ability and previous grades) correlates to the length of teaching experience of their teachers.

Lack of new-teacher support leads to frustration and is one of the main reasons why teachers leave their teaching professions. The student is the person who pays that price.

Instructors at technology centers come into the classroom already as professionals, but usually not as a teaching professional, according to Karen Warner, instructional services coordinator at the state CareerTech agency. To provide a quality education, teachers need to be comfortable in the classroom.

The induction system ensures that each new instructor has a mentor to help integrate how to teach with the career expertise already possessed.

“This program is designed to fast track ‘new’ instructors by meshing what they already know with how to teach it. And, that saves taxpayers money,” Warner said. “It’s using what they know rather than spending extra seat time (which is money) re-teaching in an area of their expertise.

“ Helping instructors achieve a level of comfort requires all stakeholders working together to develop a systematic approach to teacher development,” Warner said. “The induction system is designed for any teacher entering or already within the CareerTech system in Oklahoma to continue in the teaching profession.”