Here’s how we can address MD’s teacher shortage

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May 4-8 is Teacher Appreciation Week in the U.S., but the recognition continues all month long. Around Maryland, schools and parents are showing teachers some extra love; gestures like signs, banners and daily lunch buffets in the teachers’ lounge are undoubtedly welcome, but true appreciation needs to go much deeper and broader.

Maryland faces a continuing shortage of teachers because it’s still too difficult to become one and, too often, the rewards are outweighed by the challenges. If we really want to show how much we value teachers, we’ll break down those barriers and beef up the rewards.

Building the pipeline

The good news is that this work is going on all over the country, with initiatives to build more and better pathways to the classroom and to best support teachers once they’re in place.

Some of the most exciting of those are taking place in Maryland, where Gov. Wes Moore announced the state will invest $19 million in grants to help non-licensed school employees become fully certified teachers. “Grow your own” has always been one of the most efficient ways to develop committed educators. This latest initiative directly addresses a parallel, urgent need in education – too few men teaching in public schools – by prioritizing grant applications that seek to recruit and retain male teachers.

At Western Governors University, we’re all in on building a better teacher pipeline. Competency-based education models like WGU’s allow future educators to move more efficiently toward their goals, creating their own schedules and advancing quickly through skills they’ve already mastered. Our bachelor’s degree programs for those just beginning their careers include field work and full student teaching in local school districts. For degree-holders in other fields who want to pivot to teaching, our Master of Arts in Teaching leads directly to a teacher’s license.

Regardless of where a candidate is starting, prospective educators need pathways that reflect their lived experiences. So much of Maryland’s untapped potential educator workforce is simultaneously juggling family life, work and other responsibilities. They’re looking for a path into the profession that makes sense for them, and Maryland is uniquely positioned to lead by championing the competency-based approach and providing that flexibility.

Signs of progress

Efforts like these are already bearing fruit. In the wake of recruitment and retention programs already underway, teacher vacancies in Maryland fell by nearly half in a year, from 1,619 at the start of the 2024-25 school year to 886 for the current year.

There’s some progress nationally, too. While the number of teaching graduates in the U.S. remains far below the 1971 peak of 176,307, data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows new growth. From the low of 82,599 in 2018, numbers have rebounded to 89,410 in 2022.

Partnerships are helping make this growth possible and expanding them is necessary to build on it further. As a foundation, higher education institutions should partner with state agencies and local school districts to create apprenticeship programs through which non-degreed employees and current high school students can begin their journeys to licensure.

These partnerships thrive when they include on-the-job training and course credits, which can be pursued at a partnering community college. And when students have achieved their degrees and licenses, additional partnerships should be in place with school districts across America to help new teachers find positions quickly. That’s our model at WGU, and it works.

The work still ahead

Now, if we magically filled every teacher vacancy tomorrow, we would still face a major challenge to keeping those positions filled: pay levels leave new teachers earning significantly less than their peers in other professions.

Wage tracking figures from the Economic Policy Institute show that this problem is unfortunately still worsening. The “wage penalty” for teachers stood at 6.1% in 1996. By 2021 it had grown to 23.5%, and by 2024 it was at a record-high 26.9%. Taking fringe benefits into account shrinks the gap, but only partly. Total compensation for teachers in 2024 was 17% lower than for other degree-requiring professions.

It’s important that we do all we can to smooth the path to becoming a teacher, but it’s just as important that we retain talent after licensure. All stakeholders have a part to play in ensuring teachers stay in the profession by supporting competitive pay and bolstering positive working conditions.

My sincere hope is that by Teacher Appreciation Week next year, we’ll have more teachers-to-be, more teachers in Maryland classrooms and more reasons for them to love their work.

Dr. K.L. Allen serves as Regional Vice President of Western Governors University, where he leads efforts to expand access to affordable, career-relevant higher education across the Northeast. With a background in education leadership and workforce development, he champions partnerships that connect students with in-demand skills and economic opportunity.