As part of its investment in expanding career pathways, Syracuse City School District partnered with SREB to adopt Teaching to Lead, which builds new and early-career CTE teachers’ ability to plan instruction, adopt effective instructional strategies, manage their classrooms and design assessments.

Each participating SCSD teacher receives two years of T2L professional development and coaching. Through a partnership with the State University of New York-Oswego, participants earn credit for two of six needed CTE college classes for New York State Certification. SCSD worked with SREB to develop a training model and plan to sustain T2L with district staff.

Since implementing T2L, SCSD has increased the number of state-recognized career pathways it offers from four to 29.

Teacher retention has also improved. Before starting T2L, SCSD leaders estimated that over half of new CTE teachers in the district left teaching within the first three years. SCSD now reports that 88 percent of new CTE teachers hired over the past four years are still in the classroom.

In recognition of its strong implementation of T2L, Syracuse City School District in New York received the 2019 District Leadership Award. The district was honored at SREB’s Making Schools Work Conference on July 11, 2019, in Baltimore, Maryland. Learn more in the press release.