Salary Placement for Career and Technical Education Teachers

Most districts have procedures in place for determining new teacher salaries that are based on creditable years of service in education, but salary placement for new Career and Technical Education (CTE) educators, who typically have work experience directly related to their job outside of education, is another story.

Career and Technical Education courses are on the rise and for good reason. CTE courses provide students with real-world skills, training, and knowledge necessary for success in both the workforce and college. Further, CTE students report graduation rates 10 percent higher than the national average.

CTE Teacher Shortage

Although CTE courses are on the rise, school districts in Texas and across the country continually report shortages of qualified CTE teachers. Having procedures in place to pay CTE teachers for their years of related work experience will support district efforts to recruit and retain staff in these hard-to-fill positions.

Salary Placement

While the commissioner’s rules on creditable years of experience provide some guidance on experience credit for CTE teachers, the rules only address credit for the two years of work experience required for career and technical certification, as documented on the CTE teacher’s Statement of Qualifications (SOQ). Granting placement credit for additional work experience outside of education is a local decision but can help a district provide stronger, market-competitive salaries for CTE teachers.

Districts deciding to grant additional work experience credit may choose to adopt the following procedures, adjusting to meet their unique needs and objectives:

Career and technical education teachers may be granted additional years of placement credit for work experience that is directly related to the career and technical field in which they are currently teaching.

Credit above the two years of work experience requirement as defined by state regulation may be granted in the following manner:

• 1 year of placement credit on the teacher scale for every 1 full year of related experience up to 10 years (“1 for 1” credit); and
• 1 year of placement credit on the teacher scale for every 2 full years of related experience for more than 10 years up to the hiring schedule maximum (“1 for 2” credit).

Example: Marketing teacher with 12 full years of previous public relations and marketing experience

Placement goals

There may be some especially difficult to fill CTE positions for which a district chooses to grant all related work experience with no “1 for 2” limit, such as a Health Science teacher. Pay placement credit determinations should be applied consistently and communicated clearly to the teachers at the time of hire.

A good pay system is designed to support the recruitment and retention needs of the employer. Including procedures for placement of new hires, including CTE teachers, is a simple way to ensure the greatest flexibility to meet those objectives.