Charmain Satree has taught career and technical education for 25 years, but last fall, she was scrambling.
The first-time teacher she’d hired to teach woodworking and computer-aided design at Lincoln North Star quit after the first quarter. He’d been the only applicant for the job, and now she had classes in place and no one to teach them.
“We had to find somebody," she said, "and there isn’t anybody.”
Satree’s dilemma illustrates a significant challenge looming over Lincoln’s Career Academy and a growing number of school districts starting similar programs: a shortage of teachers for the classes they’re developing.
“There’s nobody to pick from unless they’re moving (from one school to another),” Satree said. “We’re all picking from the same pool.”
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State and local officials say it’s a perfect storm of sorts: A resurgence of interest nationally in career and technical education driven by a need for skilled workers in health, technology, agricultural and manufacturing fields; years of shrinking industrial education programs in high schools and in the number of college programs training those teachers; and large numbers of veteran teachers nearing retirement.
The Nebraska Department of Education recently looked at career education in the state, and the teacher shortage was a primary area of concern.
“Getting teachers in the pipeline is our number one issue,” said Richard Katt, the state's Director of Career Education.
State and local officials say the shortage is critical not just in rural areas -- where programs are at risk of shutting down -- but also in Lincoln and Omaha.
This year there were 18 openings for career and technical education teachers across the state. To date, just four have been filled, said Eric Knoll, who was hired last fall to restart a skilled and technical education program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln cut in 2009 as a money-saving measure.
“All over the state, they’re building career centers ... and we’re running out of teachers,” he said. “It’s really critical that we get some teachers trained.”
And bigger problems are looming: Of the 516 career and technical education teachers in the state, more than 100 of them have 30 years or more of service, Knoll said.
At Lincoln Public Schools, about two-thirds of the family and consumer science teachers have retired over the past five years. Three positions are currently unfilled, said Eric Weber, associate superintendent for human resources. Six career and technical education teachers retired this year, said Carol Andringa, LPS career and technical education specialist.
The shortage isn’t new, and it’s not just in Nebraska.
Over half of all states are facing major shortages in career and technical education, said Sean Lynch, spokesman for the Association of Career and Technical Education in West Virginia.
One of the challenges is the unique skills set required, which makes those who work in the profession good candidates -- except they have no training in teaching.
Another problem is the demand for skilled workers, who often make more in that profession than they would in teaching.
Feeding the need are programs like the one in Lincoln: a new $25 million career center, a partnership between LPS and SCC, planning to offer advanced and dual credit courses in a variety of career fields.
Lincoln isn’t the only district beefing up career and technical education programs. Omaha Public Schools, for instance, plans to convert Benson High School into a career academy.
Lincoln’s Career Academy will open this fall, and so far 399 students have signed on, said Dan Hohensee, the academy’s director. Most of the teachers for the program have been hired, he said.
The program requires 18 full-time positions, but they will be filled by 24 teachers, some of whom are teaching part-time. Of those 24, 14 are SCC instructors and 10 LPS teachers. Half of the LPS jobs were pulled from existing focus programs being absorbed into the Career Academy, and one is a Lincoln Northeast teacher with a homebuilding course who will remain at Northeast but be associated with the Career Academy. Four LPS positions were added because of the new program.
One of the biggest issues, Hohensee said, was making sure the SCC instructors had the certification needed to teach high school students.
And that’s an issue that the state is trying to address, modifying the requirements for professionals to become qualified to teach and creating orientation programs for them along with mentoring.
Although Hohensee is negotiating with at least two retired teachers to come back to teach some of the more specialized courses, Weber said finding teachers for the Career Academy isn’t his main concern.
He’s more focused on making sure there are enough teachers at the high schools to teach the introductory courses needed to get students interested in the Career Academy. The district is working hard on recruiting, he said.
Knoll left his longtime job at LPS to restart the skilled and technical education teaching program as an assistant professor at UNL’s College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.
When he got into the business, six of Nebraska’s colleges had career and technical education teacher programs. That dwindled to one -- at Wayne State College.
“There was lots of disappointment when these programs went away, because we knew we’d be in trouble,” Knoll said. “And now we’re in trouble.”
Niel Edmunds, who helped build the teacher education program at UNL in the 1970s, said in its prime, the program was graduating more than 30 students a year. It was a unique four-year degree program where students took hands-on courses at SCC.
Many of the teachers he trained are now nearing retirement, and their loss means not having people in high school introducing students to those professions and the jobs available.
Higher education programs have shut down across the nation, he said, part of a societal shift where earning a four-year degree became a minimum standard for everyone and what was considered “shop” classes got second-tier status.
Knoll is working to recreate the UNL program, but with a twist.
He has agreements in place with four community colleges to coordinate programs. Students can attend community college for two years, earning an associate’s degree and the necessary skills for an endorsement in a field, then get pedagogical instruction and a bachelor’s degree from UNL.
Lincoln’s Career Academy, he said, can help, allowing students to earn enough dual credits to pick up their four-year degree -- and be ready to teach -- in 3½ years.
At North Star, Satree had three applicants for next year, and she hired a teacher from Lincoln Southwest who will take over as department chair. She’s confident he will help build the program.
She’s optimistic about the career center, but she -- like others -- believes finding passionate teachers is vital to the program.
“If you don’t have teachers passionate about what they do, I’m afraid we’re going to go through a tough time.”