News of Interest

October 26, 2010

The Maryland State Board of Education this week declared teacher shortages in a number of key subject areas, ranging from special education to secondary school math and science.  At the same, new statewide data found that teacher shortages have declined significantly over the past two years.

Dr. Louise Tanney and Assistant State Superintendent Jean Satterfield explain the trends in teacher staffing before the State Board.

Maryland remains an import state for classroom teachers, with colleges and universities in the State not preparing enough educators for the classroom openings posted each year.  But Maryland colleges this year are expected to produce the highest number of education graduates in at least 15 years, and non-traditional teacher certification pathways continue to grow.

Alternative preparation programs produced 674 new teachers in 2009-2010 and another 560 this fall, a combined total larger than any single traditional higher education program. Teach for America and New Teacher Programs in both Baltimore City and Prince George’s County are among those non-traditional avenues making a difference.

“The data remind us that that teacher preparation involves a variety of both university- based programs and alternative programs,” said State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick.  “Our alternative programs this year provided Maryland school systems with 15 percent of our newly hired classroom teachers.”

School systems in Maryland this year hired an estimated 3,690 new teachers, compared to 4,143 last year and 8,046 in 2005-2006.  Improved retention strategies, combined with a soft economy, have dramatically reduced the number of teacher openings. 

There remain some shortage—in addition to special education and upper-level math and science, there are shortages in computer science, Chinese, Spanish, English for Speakers of Other Languages, and career and technology areas.   Shortages were reported in 19 of the 24 school systems.  Only Baltimore, Caroline, Garrett, Kent, and Somerset Counties did not report shortages of certified teachers in certain areas.

The State Board also continued to declare shortages of male teachers and teachers who are members of minority groups.  Seventy-seven percent of the new teachers hired last year were female.  Moreover, the percentage of minority teachers in Maryland schools has declined over the past five years, from 30.5 percent in 2005-2006 to 24.3 percent in 2009-2010.

The Maryland Teacher Staffing Report, which MSDE started publishing in 1986 as the Maryland Teacher Supply and Demand Study, uses information from local school systems and Maryland higher education institutions with teacher preparation programs.

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