Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Teacher Workforce topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
MSDE report: teacher vacancies, conditional licenses and National Board certification show improving trends but persistent gaps
Summary
MSDE presented statewide data showing declines in vacancies and attrition compared with recent peaks, continued growth in conditional licenses and a small but growing National Board Certified teacher pool; board members requested additional disaggregated data and exit/stay surveys.
Maryland Department of Education staff presented a teacher workforce update showing modest declines in statewide attrition and vacancies compared with recent peaks, while highlighting persistent diversity gaps and a substantial gap between new completers and statewide demand.
Kelly, the MSDE licensure official who presented the report, summarized several key metrics. MSDE reported a statewide attrition decline of 1.3 percentage points in 2024–25 and a 17% decrease in vacancies compared with the prior year. The agency also reported a decline in conditional licenses from a prior peak and noted that some part of that decline reflects expiration of pandemic-time waivers and renewals. MSDE reported approximately 1,600 teacher vacancies (measured on the first day of school) for the most recent collection and said vacancies had fallen toward pre-pandemic levels.
The presentation stressed demographic patterns: conditionally licensed teachers and novice teachers tend to be more diverse than traditional-preparation completers, but Black and African American teachers remain more likely to be conditionally licensed and more likely to leave the profession early. MSDE reported that National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) comprise roughly 3% of the active teacher workforce (2,279 NBCTs actively teaching as of October 2024) and that Maryland produced the largest cohort nationally for two consecutive years; still, NBCTs are less diverse than the broader teacher population.
Board members requested additional data to inform policy: disaggregated vacancy and conditional-license counts by LEA; conversion rates from conditional to professional licensure (and completion rates disaggregated by race/ethnicity and LEA); attrition by NBCT status; and historic enrollment/completer trends from Institutional (TPAR/APR) data. Several board members urged development of a standardized exit survey for educators leaving the profession and a complementary survey for those who remain, to capture retention drivers.
MSDE staff said some of the requested data were not in the current presentation but could be produced, and they agreed to provide supplemental tables and, where feasible, an appendix of disaggregated numbers for the board's April meeting. No board action was taken; the presentation was informational.
