WASHINGTON – Maryland schools have filled almost all of the 8,100 teacher vacancies they faced for the 2001-2002 school year and most school systems will begin the year fully staffed, the Maryland State Department of Education said.
As of Friday, there were just over 200 unfilled teaching slots in the state, the department reported, compared to 553 vacancies at the same time last year.
“There is much less of a teacher shortage than before,” said Assistant State Superintendent Ron Peiffer. “A lot of people began recruiting early.”
School personnel officials also attributed the success of their recruiting this year to higher teacher salaries, new incentives to lure teachers back into the field and innovative recruiting techniques, like Internet sites.
Sharyn Doyle, supervisor of teacher personnel at Anne Arundel County Schools, points to the Teacher Initiative Program, which was created by the state to boost starting teacher salaries after officials saw that many prospective teachers were leaving college and going into higher-paying industries.
“One of the things that helped us recruit is that teachers’ salaries were increased by 6 percent last year and 5 percent this year,” said William Ekey, director of secondary education at Harford County Public Schools.
Doyle also said that Internet recruiting sites, such as Teachers- Teachers.com, helped Anne Arundel County screen certified teacher candidates.
Peiffer said the state is aiming to recruit more entry-level teachers, rather than luring away older teachers who are that much closer to retirement already. He also said the state has put a renewed emphasis on keeping its homegrown teachers: Of the 2,500 persons who graduate from state universities with teaching certifications, 1,500 work in Maryland schools, he said.
State school systems routinely hired 3,000 to 4,000 teachers a year in the past, but the number has doubled in recent years, said Peiffer. He attributes the increased demand to higher enrollment from the “baby boom echo” and the increasing number of teachers reaching retirement age.
Enrollment in elementary schools peaked in the early 1990s, as children of baby boomers started enrolling in school, Peiffer said. As those children have grown up, the bulge in the school population has shifted up to middle schools and high schools.
At the same time, many teachers from the baby boom generation are approaching retirement.
In Maryland, teachers can retire after 30 years without penalty, and the state has begun to provide incentives for them to stay on board. The Retired/Rehired Teacher/Principal program allows retired teachers to return to schools without affecting their retirement funds.
While that program has helped schools in recruiting, Peiffer noted that it only delays the inevitable.