His children were nearing high school, and he thought about how he could spend more time with them before they'd graduate. Simultaneously, Intel offered an early retirement option. Then a friend sent him a job posting from the Chandler Unified school district looking for a career and technical education instructor to teach engineering, automation and robotics, and semiconductor manufacturing. He applied, and was hired for this school year as the district's first instructor for its new CTE program in semiconductor manufacturing.
"It just happened to align, timing wise," Muñoz said.
The timing proved fortuitous not just for Muñoz, but also for the Chandler Unified, a large and growing suburban district outside of Phoenix that needed a CTE instructor with experience in the niche world of semiconductor manufacturing to launch its inaugural program.
"He was like our golden ticket. He was retiring, and he was looking to keep working," said Lindsay Duran, director of CTE at Chandler Unified. "What better place to utilize his knowledge that he brought into the next-generation workforce?"
These sort of win-win hiring circumstances are rare when recruiting CTE instructors. Over half of all states (28) reported CTE teacher shortages to the U.S. Department of Education in the 2023-24 school year. Administrators responding to a national 2024 Brookings Institution survey said they had trouble filling CTE positions 57 percent of the time, compared to 39 percent of the time when recruiting teachers for academic positions.
Further, possessing an occupational license or expertise in a "high-growth" CTE area makes CTE instructors more likely to leave the teaching profession, the Brookings report concluded — often for a return to better pay and fewer hours.
Duran in Chandler knows these challenges all too well. The district was forced to shutter its certified nursing assistant CTE program at one of its high schools after the teacher, a nurse with industry experience, chose to return to the field for higher pay and a better work-life balance. The district posted the vacant position for several months unsuccessfully and eventually decided to end the program.
"It's hard to keep them because they're going to make less money working way more hours," Duran said.
But with a recent rise in CTE offerings, driven largely by growing student demand, districts need to find ways to recruit and retain qualified professionals to teach these practical, skills-based, hands-on courses. There's no silver bullet, of course.
And pay differences between industry and K-12 education jobs will likely remain an obstacle — especially in emerging technology fields like cybersecurity and semiconductor manufacturing, where professionals could make three or four times more in the private sector than in teaching, observed Alisha Hyslop, the chief policy, research, and content officer of the Association for Career and Technical Education.
Despite these challenges, districts committed to CTE — like Chandler Unified, where students can select from among such 21 programs across its six high schools — use a number of strategies to find qualified candidates and support them once they're hired.
SUPPORT FOR STRONG CTE INSTRUCTION STARTS AT THE TOP
Leadership support dictates, to a large extent, the success of district initiatives. Hiring and retaining qualified CTE instructors dovetailed with several goals outlined in Chandler Unified's most recent strategic plan, such as developing engaging learning environments; integrating real-world learning experiences into the classroom; and establishing industry partnerships that integrate students' interests and guide them toward successful career pathways.
"Our superintendent wanted to make sure our students are workforce-ready and knowledgeable," Duran said.
For students studying in the district's marketing CTE pathway and looking for work-related experience, for example, the district might try to connect them with an internship in a marketing firm — providing them with more relevant experience than the typical teenage job at a fast-food chain.
"We want to give them bigger opportunities," Duran said.
Local business connections help create these opportunities — not only for student experiences but also for strengthening the CTE programs in general, which can include growing a pipeline of prospective instructors.
"We're constantly talking to our community partners, whether it's the chambers or city business partners, and just saying, 'Hey, we're getting ready to do this program, or this position has an opening, do you know anyone?'" Duran said.
The 3,300-student district also created two positions within the last few years, each of which commits time to growing connections with the local business community.
Janet Hartkopf, who formerly taught high school cybersecurity courses in Chandler and, earlier in her career, trained professionals in technology, was recently tapped to become the district's emerging technology coordinator. When the district decided to pursue the new CTE program in semiconductor manufacturing, Hartkopf said she picked up the phone and called 50 local companies connected to the industry. Eventually, representatives from some of these companies became advisers to the program.
Three years ago, the district hired Tiffany Bellows, a workforce development coordinator who worked for Boeing for 20-plus years before accepting this role, her first in an education setting. Her deep industry knowledge and connections have helped the district grow its own network of community-based business partnerships, making it easier to get the word out to industry professionals about open CTE positions.
INSTRUCTIONAL SPECIALISTS PROVIDE A LAYER OF SUPPORT FOR CTE INSTRUCTORS
Hiring a qualified industry professional as a CTE teacher is just the first hurdle in ensuring students get adequate instruction. Like Muñoz, most don't have teaching experience.
While each state's requirements for teachers vary, Arizona's department of education provides five ways for these CTE instructors educators to get their teaching license.
For instance, CTE instructors with a bachelor's degree in their area of concentration, plus 240 hours of work experience, can receive certification. Hires who come directly from industry and can prove — with a signed form from their former company's HR department — that they've worked 6,000 hours in the field in which they'll be teaching can qualify to be certified without a bachelor's degree.
But these career-switchers still need help learning how to teach students, Duran said. Classroom management and learning how to present often-complicated material are common skills these instructors need to hone.
The district's five instructional specialists, each dedicated to a specific CTE cluster, provide that needed support.
Years ago, Duran served as the lone instructional specialist for all CTE programs before moving into her current role. Like the instructional specialists currently employed by the district, she had a teaching background. But she was stretched thin and thrown into CTE programs she knew nothing about.
"I told our administration: 'We need people that are experts in these fields,'" Duran said. And they listened.
The district's current instructional specialists, each of them former teachers with backgrounds in the industry clusters they're supporting, work closely with CTE instructors for their first three years, then on an as-needed basis after that. They sit in on the class, sometimes co-teach, and otherwise assist with instructors' needs.
For Muñoz, that extra support included knowing how to motivate and manage a class of high school students.
"I used to manage technicians, but this is different," he said. "Here, you have to know how to approach behavioral issues. And sometimes, the knowledge and motivation levels with a class really vary."
© 2026 Education Week (Bethesda, Md.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
