Spotlight: Erie County, Pennsylvania
Erie High School – Erie City School District
Contact: Donna Newell, Welding Instructor | dnewell@eriesd.org
At a Glance:
Erie High School uses a teacher-led Professional Learning Community (PLC) model to build collaboration, professional development, and retention for CTE instructors. These bi-weekly sessions are tailored to meet the real-world needs of teachers and create a supportive environment grounded in shared learning and instructional improvement.
Challenge:
CTE teachers often work in isolation, without consistent opportunities to share ideas with others in similar fields. This can lead to professional burnout, difficulty onboarding new teachers, and a lack of job satisfaction or instructional growth.
Solution:
The school implemented bi-weekly teacher-led PLCs where instructors:
- Share strategies and classroom practices
- Support one another in addressing challenges
- Collaborate on curriculum and instructional design
- Prioritize professional needs based on teacher feedback
By giving teachers voice and ownership over their development, the PLCs foster trust and belonging—two critical factors in retention.
Impact:
- Stronger collaboration among CTE teachers
- Improved retention, especially for newer instructors
- Increased instructional effectiveness through shared strategies
- A positive professional culture rooted in peer support and leadership
Solution:
Under the leadership of Administrative Director Eric Kahler, RMCTC developed two innovative self-contained CTE programs to support this population. These programs, Institutional Food Services and Building Trades, focus on:
- Delivering a functional skills curriculum within specialized instructional settings.
- Emphasizing individualized goals through task-based learning, rather than using traditional CTE task lists or standardized skills assessments.
- Providing structured career experiences in a supportive environment.
- Building strategic partnerships with districts and school boards to ensure alignment with Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) guidelines.
Erie County Technical School (ECTS)
Contact: Matt LaVerde, CTC Director, mlaverde@ects.org
At a Glance:
To address high turnover in specialized teaching roles, Erie County Technical School partnered with local industries to offer part-time employment opportunities to CTE instructors. These flexible work options, particularly during evenings, weekends, and summer, help attract and retain industry professionals interested in teaching without sacrificing their trade-based income.
Challenge:
ECTS faced a recurring issue with filling and retaining instructors for high-demand technical areas. For example, one Information Technology teaching position turned over six times in just two years, making it difficult to provide consistent, high-quality instruction for students.
Solution:
In collaboration with local industry partners, ECTS created a dual-role opportunity for teachers, allowing them to:
- Work part-time in their field (nights, weekends, or over the summer)
- Maintain current industry credentials and income
- Gain the flexibility needed to balance classroom and trade-based work
This innovative approach allows professionals to ease into teaching roles without fully leaving their industry careers while keeping their technical skills current. For example; the information technology teacher at ECTS works for Velocity, an ECTS computer systems contractor during the summer creating a win/win for the contractor, instructor and ECTS.
Impact:
- Successfully stabilized the Information Technology program after years of turnover
- Attracted skilled professionals who otherwise may not have pursued teaching full-time
- Strengthened school-industry relationships, reinforcing curriculum relevance
- Created a sustainable recruitment model for hard-to-fill CTE positions