Ironwood Technology Charter School logo: a white I and T monogram on a navy rounded square Ironwood Technology Charter School Austin, Texas · Tuition-free public charter

Faculty

Fourteen of our twenty-one career instructors still work professionally in the field they teach. That is the single design decision this school is built around, and it is the reason our schedule looks unusual.

What "working instructor" actually means

A working instructor teaches two or three days a week and spends the rest of the week on the job. It complicates the timetable and it means some courses are co-taught. In exchange, students learn current practice rather than practice as it stood when a textbook was last revised, and the instructor arrives with a professional network the student can eventually use. Our work-based learning placements come overwhelmingly through these instructors rather than through cold outreach.

Career instructors

Cybersecurity

Taught by practitioners currently working in security operations for Austin-area employers. The incident-response simulation our seniors run each spring is built from real, sanitized case material.

Computer science and robotics

A mix of full-time faculty and working software and hardware engineers. Every competition robotics team is paired with an industry mentor for the build season.

Electrical and HVAC

Licensed electricians and HVAC technicians who take contracts outside school hours. Both instructors sit on the advisory committee that keeps our lab hours aligned with apprenticeship requirements.

Welding and automotive

Certified welders and ASE-certified technicians. The automotive shop has shifted a growing share of its curriculum toward hybrid and electric vehicle service at the instructors' insistence.

Core academic faculty

Our English, mathematics, science, and social studies teachers are full-time certified educators, and they plan jointly with the track instructors. When the welding lab hits trigonometry, the mathematics teacher knows it is coming and teaches into it. That coordination is easier to describe than to schedule, and it is a standing agenda item rather than a happy accident.

Interested in teaching here?

We hire working professionals for part-time career instruction on a rolling basis, particularly in electrical, HVAC, and cybersecurity. Texas certification support is available for candidates coming directly from industry.