39: We'll Just Start One - Starting Local and Going Statewide

43: Elizabeth Bennett on the Future of Career & Technical Education

In this episode, Kathleen Vail interviews Elizabeth Bennett, Associate Vice President for Career and Technical Education at Northern Essex Community College and former Associate Commissioner for College, Career, and Technical Education for the state of Massachusetts. Bennett shares how her career journey — from classroom teacher to state leadership and now higher education — has been driven by one goal: expanding equitable access to career-connected learning for students. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE CONVERSATION CAREER-CONNECTED LEARNING MAKES SCHOOL MORE MEANINGFUL Bennett explains that students increasingly want to understand why they are learning something and how it connects to their futures. She argues that career-connected learning helps students see the relevance of academics by tying classroom lessons to real-world applications and careers. She shares examples of students using advanced math concepts in manufacturing labs and emphasizes the importance of helping students connect their strengths to possible career paths. CAREER AWARENESS SHOULD START EARLIER A major theme of the conversation is the need to introduce career exploration before high school. Bennett believes middle school — and even elementary school — is the ideal time to help students explore possibilities and build confidence in their abilities. Rather than allowing students to define themselves by what they aren’t good at, schools should help students identify where they thrive and how those strengths might shape their future. COMMUNITY COLLEGES CAN STRENGTHEN THE PIPELINE Bennett discusses how community colleges are evolving into stronger workforce and career partners. She highlights innovative partnerships that allow students to earn college credits, industry credentials, and workplace experience while still in high school. She also emphasizes the importance of supporting first-generation college students as they transition from high school into postsecondary education. HOW THE PANDEMIC INSPIRED EDUCATOR PATHWAYS During the COVID-19 pandemic, Massachusetts launched new opportunities for high school students to support classrooms while exploring teaching careers themselves. Bennett shares how this effort helped spark broader educator pathway programs across the state. The initiative also strengthened collaboration with Educators Rising, providing students with curriculum, mentorship, and authentic exposure to the teaching profession. “AFTER DARK”: EXPANDING ACCESS THROUGH INNOVATION One of the most powerful stories in the episode centers on Bennett’s “After Dark” initiative, which expanded access to CTE programs for students who were stuck on waiting lists. By using school facilities during unused afternoon hours, districts were able to provide students from underserved communities with access to advanced manufacturing and other career pathways that led directly to college and high-paying careers. THE FUTURE OF CTE IS INTEGRATION Looking ahead, Bennett believes the traditional divide between academics and career and technical education will continue to disappear. Her vision is for every student to experience internships, work-based learning, and career exploration as a normal part of high school — not as a separate track for only certain students. TEACHING AS A CALLING The episode closes with Bennett reflecting on her own path into education and the teachers who shaped her life. She shares how the educators who made her feel seen, valued, and encouraged ultimately inspired her to become a teacher herself — and why helping students feel connected and supported remains central to her work today. ABOUT THE GUEST Elizabeth Bennett currently serves as Associate Vice President at Northern Essex Community College. Prior to this role, she served as Associate Commissioner for College, Career, and Technical Education for the state of Massachusetts, helping lead statewide efforts focused on equitable access, career-connected learning, and innovative CTE programming. She was recognized last summer as an Educators Rising Champion at the 2025 Educators Rising National Conference in Orlando.

42: The Long Game: How Hawaii Is Investing in Its Future Teachers

Hawaii is one of the most geographically isolated places on Earth — and one of the most complex when it comes to recruiting and retaining teachers. In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Janet Kim, a tenure-track faculty member at the University of Hawaii at Manoa whose job is one of a kind: recruiting the next generation of educators into the profession full-time. Janet traces her own winding path from Northern Virginia military kid to elementary special education teacher to the first (and possibly only) tenure-track university faculty position dedicated exclusively to teacher recruitment. Along the way, she shares how she helped bring Educators Rising to Hawaii — and why she believes it's the missing piece the state's teacher pipeline has long needed. We cover a lot of ground in this conversation: the revolving door of mainland teachers who come to Hawaii but don't stay, the statewide coalition that finally stopped the blame game and started building solutions, differential pay for hard-to-fill positions (special ed, Hawaiian language immersion, rural/remote schools), and why recruitment without retention is only half the answer. Janet also shares her "Ed Rising moment" — and a second-grade teacher named Miss Sweet who quietly changed everything. In this episode: * Why Hawaii's geographic isolation creates a unique case study for teacher recruitment * How Educators Rising fills a gap that other CTSOs don't: a space dedicated exclusively to future educators * The statewide stakeholder coalition that helped Hawaii move from identifying problems to building solutions * Hawaii's differential pay strategy for special education, Hawaiian language immersion, and rural positions — and what it's teaching them about the limits of recruitment alone * Why early, hands-on experience is the strongest predictor of teacher retention * Janet's personal "Ed Rising moment" and the story of Miss Sweet's hall pass Dr. Kim was recognized at the 2025 Educators Rising National Conference as an Educators Rising Champion. © 2026 PDK International.

41: What inspires someone to become an educator — and what keeps them in the profession?

In this episode, Kappan editor Kathleen Vail sits down with Dr. Gladys Cruz, Superintendent of Questar III BOCES and past president of AASA, to discuss the personal experiences, leadership strategies, and innovative programs shaping the future of education. Dr. Cruz reflects on the educators who changed the course of her life and explains how those moments of encouragement ultimately led her from a planned career in dentistry into education. The discussion also explores how Questar III BOCES built strong teacher pathway programs long before teacher shortages became a national conversation. Dr. Cruz explains how Educators Rising became a natural extension of that work, helping students connect their passion for education with real-world pathways into the profession. The episode takes an honest look at today’s educator workforce challenges, including nationwide shortages in special education, math, science, foreign languages, and multilingual learner instruction. Dr. Cruz also speaks candidly about the growing difficulty districts face in retaining talented educators amid budget pressures and increased competition between school systems. One of the most compelling parts of the conversation focuses on retention through professional growth. Dr. Cruz shares how Questar III partnered with the University at Albany to create paid, stackable micro-credential programs for teaching assistants and career and technical education instructors. The initiative has strengthened instruction, increased staff confidence, and improved retention — while helping educators see new possibilities for their careers. The conversation also highlights the expanding role of career and technical education in helping students discover meaningful futures. From aviation and welding to culinary arts and education pathways, Dr. Cruz argues that students need exposure to a wide range of opportunities — and that hearing directly from successful students is often the best recruitment tool of all. Throughout the episode, Dr. Cruz offers a hopeful but practical perspective on leadership, mentorship, and the responsibility educators have to help students discover both their talents and their purpose. Dr. Cruz was honored by PDK/Educators Rising at the 2025 Educators Rising National Conference as an Educators Rising Champion. In this episode: •Why encouragement from teachers can change a student’s entire trajectory * How Educators Rising aligned naturally with Questar III’s teacher pathway efforts * The realities of teacher recruitment and retention nationwide * How professional learning can serve as a powerful retention strategy * Why CTE pathways are critical for student success and workforce development * The importance of student ambassadors in promoting career pathways * How mentorship and coaching help educators “pay it forward” © 2026 PDK International

39: We'll Just Start One - Starting Local and Going Statewide

Tracy Kern has spent more than two decades at Harrisburg High School in Harrisburg, South Dakota — a district that has grown from 750 students to more than 5,000 since she arrived in 2000. A Family and Consumer Science educator and longtime CTE pathway teacher, Kern was honored as a 2025 Educators Rising Champion at the national conference, recognized for her role in building one of the largest and most active Educators Rising chapters in South Dakota. In this episode, she sits down with Kappan Editor-in-Chief Kathleen Vail to talk about what it really takes to build a chapter that lasts. Kern was there at the beginning — literally. Around 2017, she and a small group of administrators sat down to figure out how to launch an Educators Rising chapter at Harrisburg without a state association in place to support them. Their solution: start one. Within a few years, South Dakota had a functioning state association with more than 500 student members. Kern's chapter, the largest in the state with around 50 students, draws members both from her Education and Training classroom and from students outside the course, using Ed Rising as the connective thread that keeps future educators engaged across multiple years. The chapter's programming is anything but a passive club experience. Kern's students open the school year by welcoming new district staff with handmade bulletin board kits, address a thousand-person faculty meeting to talk about the educators who inspired them, mentor elementary students during "learning days," and serve as room consultants at professional education conferences. The chapter's signature event is a Future Teacher Signing Day held during Teacher Appreciation Week — a ceremony with university representatives, an institutional pledge, and the kind of weight typically reserved for student athletes. Kern created it from scratch in 2018 and has refined it every year since. Beyond her own chapter, Kern actively mentors advisors across South Dakota, including in rural districts where CTE infrastructure is thin and a single passionate classroom teacher might be the only thing standing between a student and the education pathway. She's matter-of-fact about why it matters: she wants future teachers in every corner of the state who are as passionate as she is, including, eventually, the ones teaching her grandchildren. After 30 years, she's still not thinking about retirement — at least not until the work stops being exciting. It hasn't yet. Throughout the conversation, Kern speaks with the energy of someone who has never stopped being a student herself. She reflects on the full-circle moment of watching a freshman experience the same confidence breakthrough she had as a CTSO student decades ago, shares her philosophy on mentoring advisors in rural districts across South Dakota, and makes a direct case to prospective teachers: the challenges are real, but so are the rewards — and if you're still excited to be with kids every morning after 30 years, that's all the answer you need.

38: It's a Family: Karley Picou on Building Educators Rising in Calcasieu Parish

In this episode of There's Power in Teaching, host Kathleen Vail speaks with Karley Picou, a school administrator from Lake Charles, Louisiana, and lead advisor for the school's Educators Rising program. Picou was honored as an Educators Rising Champion at the 2025 Educators Rising National Conference — part of PDK's annual recognition program celebrating the school leaders, teacher leaders, state partners, and other champions who are advancing the future educator pipeline across the country. Picou shares how she first got involved with Educators Rising in 2022 at Washington Marion Magnet High School, starting with just five students, and how the program quickly grew into something that transformed the culture of her building. She describes the unique structure of her middle school club — which focuses on hands-on, school-related service and gives younger students a window into the high school program — and explains how the two clubs operate as a feeder system, collaborating across campuses and building a sense of shared identity and purpose within the Lake Charles community. Throughout the conversation, Picou speaks to the qualities that make Educators Rising students stand out: their professionalism, their willingness to give and receive feedback, and the open mindset that the program deliberately cultivates. Drawing on her experience as a school administrator who has sat on both sides of the hiring table, she reflects on why these are exactly the qualities that sustain long careers in education — and why she has become one of the program's most passionate advocates, working to bring the entire community, from parents to local organizations, into the work of supporting the next generation of educators.