Josie Gage, second row, far left, is a first-year industrial arts teacher in Hodgeman County USD 227, in Jetmore. She's pictured with the seventh-graders in her district who made and customized their own step stools. (Photo submitted by Josie Gage.)

As a first-year industrial arts teacher for the 2025-26 school year, Josie Gage wanted to know what areas of her job she needed to make a priority. She also wanted to know what factors her fellow Kansas career and technical education (CTE) colleagues believe lead to the greatest job satisfaction. 

Gage, a self-professed over-achiever, decided the best way to find out was to conduct a survey. Of the 120 industrial arts-related educators she sent the survey to, 87 responded and rated five job satisfaction statements and this question:  

What elements lead to the most favorable setting for a Kansas CTE/TEE (technology engineering education) educator’s optimal job satisfaction?  

Gage said she wanted to know whether the answers to this question would help in the much needed recruitment and retention of CTE teachers in Kansas. 

“Based off of my research, I was then able to make better informed decisions about the things that I needed to prioritize as a first-year teacher,” said Gage, who teaches woodworking and drafting at Hodgeman County High School, Hodgeman County USD 227. “But the main thing that I found that leads to optimal job satisfaction for CTE teachers in Kansas is support. For most veteran teachers, that's probably not going to come as a surprise. However, when I was in college, we didn't really talk about support being the main thing that's going to set you up for success as a teacher.” 

Gage presented her data in the presentation, “From Research to Reality: Lessons Learned as a First-Year CTE Teacher,” at the annual Kansas CTE conference, Feb. 2-4, in Manhattan, hosted by the Kansas Association of Educational Service Centers (KAESA). 

Bret Compliment, a CTE teacher at Paola High School, Paola USD 368, said he agreed with Gage’s conclusion that support is the greatest influence on whether a CTE teacher is successful.  

“I don’t think enough teachers who are new to the profession pay attention to those things,” he said. “They’re probably looking at salary, they’re looking at the job title, the content that they’re teaching, their lesson planning and all of that. For her addressing new teachers, those things are probably crucial for people new to teaching to think about. It’s realizing that teaching is not just content, it’s relationships.”   

Gage collected and analyzed the data for various factors  including gender, geographic location, class size, experience, etc.), but found that support was the only factor with a meaningful impact on job satisfaction. In addition to the amount of support a CTE teacher feels they have, the data showed additional factors that impacted job satisfaction such as what a district does to promote CTE, the value a district places on CTE and how CTE is included in a district’s overall learning activities. She also presented the lessons she’s learned from her own classroom experience and the lessons she’s learned from other CTE teachers. 

Cara Speer, a CTE teacher in South Brown County USD 430, said feeling supported by the entire school community is vital for any teacher. 

“Making sure I have a support system is very important because I’m not going anywhere else (outside of the Horton community),” she said. “If you don’t feel like you have that support system within your school district, you kind of feel lost. To me, it’s not just CTE teachers (who need support). It’s all teachers.”