Legislators Hear Reports On Teacher Training, Career Technical Education

Legislators are looking at the burden extra training for state educators creates.

At the start of the Joint Standing Committee on Education Tuesday, Deputy State Superintendent Michele Blatt provided legislators with a roundup of the 24 trainings required for educators and support staff. 

Some trainings are annual, while others need only be completed once every few years and range from topics like CPR to acceptable use of technology. Many lawmakers questioned the burden the trainings create for teachers and work staff, as well as their effectiveness.

“We would be happy to discuss and have further meetings of how maybe we can streamline some of these trainings and make it more user friendly for our staff and then also free up some time so that we could focus on professional learning around academic achievement,” Blatt said.

Blatt stated that many of the trainings are required by law, both state and federal.

The rest of the meeting was spent on an update on career and technical education, as well as presentations about CTE and STEM education products.

Adam Canter, director of Career and Technical Education Innovation for the Department of Education, told lawmakers that over 50,000 students participated in some type of CTE course last year.

“We have a wide range of students that are being served and we just continue to expand that,” he said. “We believe it’s very important for all students to have a chance to not only have a simulated workplace environment in the classroom, but to have an actual experience on the job. The new push for CTE is classroom to career. We’re trying to give those students opportunities to move out of the classroom and into a career.” 

Canter credited various pieces of legislation passed over the years for putting the state’s CTE programming in an advantageous position.