Oswego State has started a program to encourage technical experts to gain a teaching degree and begin educating the next generation on key technical skills.

The program, known as the Career and Technical Education Undergraduate Certificate Program, is a two-year program that recently partnered with the New York State Education Department and SUNY. The director of the Oswego State arm of the program, Jan Woodworth, said the partnership allows the program to recommend its students for certification.

Teachers for career and technical education are allowed to teach without a standard teaching license by getting a transitional certification, which is obtained from the district or BOCES that hires them and gives them three years to get their initial NYS teaching certification.  There is also no specific degree requirement for a CTE teaching certification, allowing those who have not achieved a master’s degree to still teach, provided they get a certification in some way.

“The program is made up of those who have already been hired as a [Career and Technical Education] teacher by a school district or BOCES, but who do not have teaching experience,” Woodworth said.

The program gives its students all the courses they would need for both an initial certification, which is good for five years, and a professional certification, which is a permanent certification. Woodworth said they only recommend those in the program for an initial certificate. 

Woodworth said additional coursework is required for a professional certification, including three years of teaching experience and an exam. The CTE undergraduate certificate program prepares those who go through it too.

Woodworth said the CTE undergraduate certificate program seeks to address the high turnover rates that many schools have in their technical education departments.

“One of the issues that has been seen through the years when hiring CTE teachers who have no teaching background is there is a high turnover rate due to their lack of preparation as teachers before entering the classroom,” Woodworth said.

The retention rate of teachers that have gone through this program is one of the strongest markers of its success, Woodworth said.

The program uses online courses in the fall and spring semesters, as well as classroom coaching, mid-semester meetings for professional development and support for new teachers as they acclimate to the classroom setting.

One teacher who went through the program, Christopher Freeburg, was a chemistry and biology teacher for two years in the California Bay area before coming to Syracuse to teach forensic science.

Freeburg moved to Syracuse so his wife could attend Le Moyne College’s physician’s assistant program and decided to pursue the challenge of a forensics position at the Syracuse City School District.

“I began teaching forensic science in 2014,” Freeburg said. “I took part in the [Southern Regional Education Board] courses through the Syracuse City School District training, which also provided credit through SUNY Oswego.”

Freeburg said he found the community the program fostered between the different candidates in the program to be the biggest positive, giving him the ability to collaborate with different people.

aylor Woods | The Oswegonian