Career and Technical Education (CTE) New Teacher Mentoring Program

Program Summary

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has contracted with Resources for Learning, LLC, (RFL) to launch the Career and Technical Education (CTE) New Teacher Mentoring Program. The CTE New Teacher Mentoring Program offers ongoing mentoring and induction-type professional development, including help with lesson planning, assessments, curricular materials, and classroom management, through year-long mentoring activities and just-in-time assistance for new CTE teachers.

Get Involved

The CTE New Teacher Mentoring Program offers a wide range of resources to guide beginning CTE teachers as they navigate their first years of teaching. In this section, you will find online communities that provide an opportunity to network with other new teachers and useful resources.

TxCTE Ramp Up Facebook Communities

The CTE New Teacher Mentoring Program has built a robust online presence with the goal of providing beginning CTE teachers with online resources and mentoring access. At the core of this endeavor are 19 CTE cluster-specific Facebook communities. Master teachers were recruited to monitor the communities and serve as online mentors to the beginning teachers. The Facebook communities provide an accessible forum where new teachers can safely pose questions and thoughts as they navigate their first years. To date, there are more than 1,100 members in the CTE Facebook communities. The specific cluster groups can be accessed at the following links:

• Teacher Network
• Information Technology
• Education & Training
• Manufacturing
• Agriculture, Food, & Natural Resources
• Business Management & Administration
• Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics
• Law, Public Safety, Corrections, & Security
• Architecture & Construction
• Hospitality & Tourism
• Career Development
• Finance
• Human Services
• Arts, A/V Technology, & Communications
• Marketing
• Transportation, Distribution, & Logistics
• Health Sciences
• Government & Public Administration
• Mentor Group

Foundational Learning Sessions

In order to provide concise, accessible, and informative content on important CTE topics, a series of Foundational Learning Session videos have been written, developed, produced, and disseminated by RFL. These nine short instructional videos cover information that is critical to the development of beginning CTE teachers.

The following link provides access to a binder that contains all nine of the Foundational Learning Sessions: https://txcte.org/binder/foundational-learning-sessions

2018 CTE Best Teaching Practices

This opportunity is no longer available. If you have any questions, please contact Debbie Wieland at debbie.wieland@tea.texas.gov

During its successful first year, the CTE New Teacher Mentoring Program provided support, guidance, resources, and training for a tremendous amount of beginning CTE teachers, CTE mentors, and CTE administrators. The following items provide a brief description of the accomplishments and link to more in-depth information.

CTE Stakeholder Meetings

At the inception of the CTE New Teacher Mentoring Program, two CTE stakeholder meetings were held to discuss the needs of beginning CTE teachers and how to best address those needs. You can learn more about the goals of the meetings and read summaries of the findings here: https://www.txcte.org/resource/cte-stakeholder-meetings

Professional Development

A key component of the CTE New Teacher Mentoring Program lays in the education and training of beginning CTE teachers, CTE administrators, and CTE mentors. This professional development occurs through the development of original training content, in-person training of mentor teachers, and new CTE teacher conferences. Learn more about professional development activities here: https://www.txcte.org/resource/professional-development

Scaffolded Solutions®

One of the goals of the CTE mentor trainings was to get the mentors and their beginning teacher mentees set up on the Scaffolded Solutions® platform. Effective mentoring and induction programs provide crucial guidance and support in helping new teachers succeed. Scaffolded Solutions® is a comprehensive support system for beginning teachers as they navigate their first years in the classroom. The system draws on over 20 years of experience developing, implementing, and evaluating beginning-teacher induction programs. In addition, mentors were expected to document mentoring interactions with beginning teachers in the Scaffolded Solutions® Activity Log.

RFL was able to secure 180 subscriptions to Scaffolded Solutions®. You can learn more about the platform here: http://www.resourcesforlearning.net/solutions/

CTE Teacher Self-Efficacy Survey

An important aspect of the CTE New Teacher Mentoring Program was evaluation. One of the program's goals was to research and collect survey information on CTE teachers’ perceptions of their own self-efficacy, their pressing needs, and the quality of available supports in order to dictate future activities.
Resources for Learning’s evaluation and research team endeavored to create a retrospective teacher self-efficacy survey with incorporated needs assessment. Learn more about the survey results here: https://www.txcte.org/resource/cte-teacher-self-efficacy-survey