Picture a welding instructor on the first Monday of the school year. He has spent a decade mastering his craft on job sites and is an undeniable expert in his trade.

Yet, by Friday afternoon, he is expected to manage a classroom of teenagers, plan standards-aligned lessons, and execute meaningful learning activities, all before completing a formal teacher preparation program.

Under California’s Designated Subjects CTE Teaching Credential, this pathway is intentional. Qualified industry professionals can step straight into the classroom with at least three years of field experience, without needing a bachelor’s degree or prior teaching background. While this brings incredible real-world expertise into schools, it also presents unique pedagogical challenges for new educators.

The retention challenge: Investing in CTE educators

Attracting top-tier talent from industry is only half the battle; retaining them is where the real work begins. Nationwide, career and technical education (CTE) programs face significant turnover when industry experts encounter the overwhelming demands of classroom management, lesson planning, and state credentialing without adequate scaffolding. When an exceptional instructor leaves, schools lose more than just a staff member; they lose decades of specialized industry knowledge, valuable business partnerships, and strong student mentorship.

At Antelope Valley Union High School District (AVUHSD), retention is a top priority. Teresa Howard, the district’s Director of Career Technical Education and ACSA’s 2026 Career Technical Education Administrator of the Year, recognizes that high-quality CTE instructors are the backbone of the district’s career preparation programs. AVUHSD actively strives to retain top-tier CTE educators by providing competitive support, fostering a strong culture of professional community, and offering the structural backing needed to turn a stressful transition into a long-term, rewarding career.

Today, AVUHSD offers CTE pathways spanning 11 diverse industry sectors, preparing students for high-demand, high-wage careers:

• Agriculture and Natural Resources
• Arts, Media, and Entertainment
• Building and Construction Trades
• Business and Finance
• Engineering and Architecture
• Health Science and Medical Technology
• Hospitality, Tourism, and Recreation
• Information and Communication Technologies
• Manufacturing and Product Development
• Public Services
• Transportation

To sustain robust, high-caliber programs across all 11 sectors, the district works to ensure its educators feel supported, successful, and inspired to stay.

So, how does the district systematize support and promote long-term retention for its CTE hires?

At AVUHSD, the answer is consistent, personalized feedback that teachers can immediately apply to their next lesson. To solve the logistical hurdles of delivering that support, the CTE Department partnered directly with Swivl to implement M2.

A structured induction framework designed for CTE

Working closely with the Swivl team, AVUHSD designed a tailored support framework to mentor fresh-from-industry CTE teachers alongside their credential pathways.

The structured program includes:

• Individualized Learning Plans (ILPs): Aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession (CSTP), providing a shared language for ongoing growth conversations.
• Four Structured Mentor Visits: Distributed across the school year, each featuring a formal observation, debrief, and goal-setting session for actionable next steps.
• Targeted Goal Rubrics: Tied directly to quarterly objectives, making progress clear and measurable for both mentors and mentees between visits.
• Protected Collaborative Time: Allows mentors to observe mentees in action and enables new CTE teachers to visit experienced colleagues’ classrooms to see strong instructional practices firsthand.
• Actionable Program Evaluations: Beginning, mid, and end-of-year surveys that go beyond checking boxes to measure how effectively the support system is actually working.

Elevating feedback with M2

Throughout this framework, Swivl’s M2 platform drives the recording, reflection, and feedback that make the mentorship program both manageable and highly effective.

Rather than relying on memory, CTE teachers use M2 to record lessons, reflect on specific practice areas, and bring concrete video evidence into mentor conversations. Administrators and mentors utilize M2’s custom rubric builder to generate clear feedback reports, creating a reliable, shared record of growth.

M2 enriches mentoring discussions and enables higher-frequency feedback between the four formal visits. Mentors link video evidence directly to the teacher’s learning plan to guide their next steps. Looking ahead, the district plans to utilize M2’s expanding video library features, allowing veteran educators to share best-practice videos that new CTE teachers can review anytime.

Support that matches the teaching day

In industry, expertise is built through practice, repetition, and feedback. At AVUHSD, building teaching skills requires the exact same principle. The industry experience CTE educators bring is invaluable; the district’s job is to ensure they have the tools, support, and structural backing to translate that knowledge to the next generation, and choose to stay in the classroom for years to come.

By pairing dedicated mentor time with Swivl’s M2 technology, AVUHSD is investing in teaching as the intricate, vital profession it is.

If your district is structuring support for fresh-from-industry CTE teachers, working to boost instructor retention, or looking to compare notes on mentor models, protected time, and reflective technology like M2, the CTE team at AVUHSD and partners at Swivl would love to connect.

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