The Front End of the CTE Teacher Pipeline: Characterizing the Prior Work Experiences of CTE Teachers

Career and technical education (CTE) teachers are unique in that they often enter teaching with previous workplace experience in industry. Understanding their prior work experiences and the financial benefits (or losses) they face when switching from industry to teaching can offer insight into how to attract and retain these educators, yet very little is known about this “front end” of the CTE teacher pipeline. In this paper, we link employment and earnings data from unemployment insurance records with data on staffing and certifications for incoming CTE teachers in Washington state to provide a descriptive look at CTE teachers’ entry into the profession. We find that CTE teachers come from a wide range of industries. We also find that CTE teachers, on average, see substantial pay increases, about $13,000 in annual earnings, upon first entering teaching. The increase in earnings is widely felt with the median teacher from every industry group receiving increased annual earnings associated with the transition into teaching.

职业技术教育（Career and Technical Education，CTE）教师具有独特性：他们往往在拥有行业职场从业经验后才进入教职行业。了解他们此前的从业经历，以及从行业转型从教时面临的经济收益（或损失），可为如何吸引并留住这类教育工作者提供洞见，但目前学界对CTE教师人才输送链的这一“前端环节”仍知之甚少。本研究将华盛顿州失业保险记录中的就业与收入数据，与新任CTE教师的人员配置及资质认证数据相结合，对CTE教师进入该职业的情况开展描述性分析。研究发现，CTE教师来自广泛的行业领域。同时研究还发现，CTE教师在初次从教后，平均年收入可获得约1.3万美元的显著增长。这一收入增长具有普遍性：所有行业群体的中位教师，在转型从教后其年收入均实现了提升。