Charles, St. Mary’s and Calvert County school officials came together for the second annual Southern Maryland Teacher Preparation Pipeline Summit. The work focused, in part, on challenges and strategies for getting high school students, non-teaching staff, and conditionally licensed educators into fully certificated teaching roles.
In early spring St.Mary’s County Public Schools hosted the second annual summit to explore successes and challenges as well as develop strategies to improve the capacity and longevity of the public school teaching profession in Maryland. Many of the outcomes from the day clarified how educators are entering the profession now, how they are supported, and how this system can work in concert to elevate the profession itself, to inform long-term pipeline sustainability plans. These efforts are specifically driven around pillar 2 of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future (Blueprint) which is the requirement to increase the quantity, quality, and diversity of educators serving K-12 students across the state.
The gathering included 22 organizations working to establish the groundwork for sustainable partnerships that bridge the region’s school systems and higher education institutions. On this note, the morning session included the announcement of a new, flexible online licensure program tailored for conditional teachers, that was announced by the Dr. Jennifer Lynch, Associate Vice Chancellor at the University System of Maryland (USM). This is now in addition to the four primary teacher licensure pathways:
- Teacher Academy of Maryland for high school students aspiring to be educators (TAM)
- Registered Teacher Apprenticeship for support staff stepping into lead roles
- 2+2 Program combining community college and four-year institution programs
- Conditional Teacher Licensure for career changers or non-traditional entrants
The day consisted of work groups evaluating the successes and challenges of each pathway and how school leaders can remove barriers for candidates on any of the four tracks. The southern Maryland summit and other collaborations across the state are locally driven efforts to develop strategies around pillar 2 and work towards the continued implementation of collaborative time in the 2028 – 29 school year.
This is a topic that has been on the minds of lawmakers in recent years, and lead to some statutory changes that were proposed by Governor Moore and eventually adjusted and passed into law by the House and Senate. One of those primary changes was the pause in implementation of the collaborative time component in the Blueprint. The administration substantiated reasoning for the legislation – HB 504 / SB 429 – with an informational overview of the proposal.
In the midst of a national teacher shortage affecting Maryland’s ambitious education goals, the estimated 15,000 additional teachers needed to fulfill the Blueprint’s requirement that teachers set aside 40% of their time for collaboration is not yet logically feasible to drive the intended benefits for student learning. Enrollment in educator preparation programs, which had been on the decline for years, has grown by nearly 50% since the beginning of the Blueprint’s implementation. Maryland’s education goals are dependent on recruiting and retaining high-quality, trained teachers for every classroom.
The Governor’s 2025 legislative changes for the Blueprint were covered in depth on the Conduit Street Podcast.
Explore documents and presentations from the Southern Maryland Summit.
