Project Lead The Way teacher John Fuller attained a Career and Technology Education credential in the last year. The credential allows him to continue teaching engineering classes and access additional funding for his program.

Credentials open opportunities for teachers to further their careers and programs. Fuller finds he has benefited from his CTE credential in the form of being able to receive additional funding, funding which he could not get from just PLTW trainings.

“Although I’ve attended multiple PLTW trainings, I don’t have access to funds unless I have my credential,” Fuller said. “Having a credential makes all the difference in purchasing high-tech equipment.”

However, Fuller values experience in the subject field over having multiple credentials, and believes in some cases experience can act as credentials for teachers who have taught their subject for years.

“It really comes down to my experience teaching things rather than my masters,” Fuller said. “Sometimes the length you’ve been teaching something can almost be your certification.”

Assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction Jess Borjon sees both experience and credentials as important for instructors to gain in their subjects.

“I don’t see it as one or the other. A professional should consider always growing within their profession as they gain experience,” Borjon said in an email. “The added credentials and degrees will add to their experience and make them a better professional.”

Fuller believes more teachers would seek additional teaching credentials if they did not face as many obstacles in the process.

“[Additional credentials] are hard to get. They are a lot of money and there are a lot of hoops to jump through,” Fuller said. “If the process was much more streamlined, we’d have a lot more teachers with credentials.”

Not all new courses, however, require teachers to acquire advanced, specific credentials. For example, Valerie Erb did not have to acquire a specific credential to begin her Peer Helping program.
Erb began teaching the course 21 years ago. She gained experience through drafting curriculums, creating prevention programs, attaining her masters in Emotional Intelligence and undergoing trainings in her field.

“I didn’t look for it,” Erb said. “These things found me and I kept getting training through my experiences because people wanted me to fill those spots in their schools.”
Fuller feels the growing access to educational tools online for both students and teachers rivals the benefits of attaining a masters degree.

“Nowadays I feel like its almost irrelevant because so much of what students learn is online,” Fuller said. “Students should be teaching themselves and teachers should be there to direct student’s knowledge and to facilitate learning. [They should] not so much be masters in their content area as masters in helping students learn and helping students achieve their goals.”

Senior Peer Helper Emily Taketa joined the program in her freshman year. After witnessing Erb’s teaching for six terms, she feels that Peer Helping succeeds due to Erb’s personal experiences.

“I don’t know how credentials would affect anything,” Taketa said. “It’s mostly about what she’s learned through her life and what Peer Helpers have accumulated through their experiences.”