Maryland’s teacher shortage trickles down to substitutes, but Baltimore area seeing some improvements

Morgan Wu became concerned about her fourth grader’s education early in the school year when his first report card had several participation grades rather than actual graded assignments. She also noticed him struggling with basic spelling and grammar comprehension and says he never completed the grade’s quarterly reading project because there was no one equipped to lead him through it.

Her son, Phoenix, attends Phelps Luck Elementary in Columbia, and his teacher spent the first part of the school year on maternity leave. Wu says the class has had a mix of a couple long-term substitutes and about four paraeducators who would rotate throughout a given day. She believes her son’s education has suffered because of it.

By fourth grade, students should be able to quote from and make inferences about text, according to curriculum standards set by the state. They also are expected to know how to write clear, cohesive sentences. Wu said Phoenix is a good reader but is struggling with writing.

“The issue was basically that the daily substitute I don’t think is necessarily like trained to carry out a curriculum,” she said. “And so he was basically just treading water. He wasn’t even sending home homework. He wasn’t putting them through the writing parts of the curriculum that they were supposed to be doing.”

The substitute struggles at Phoenix’s school are not unique and a symptom of the statewide teacher shortage that’s impacted Maryland schools, experts say.

Although several districts in the Baltimore region are seeing higher substitute teacher fill rates — the average number of daily absences filled by subs — and more consistency compared to the immediate post-pandemic school years, there’s still a struggle to recruit and retain substitutes.

In 2022, the Maryland State Department of Education released data showing 2,000 teacher vacancies statewide as of September 2021, the most up-to-date number the department has, a spokesperson said.

Data from the Institute of Education Sciences showed that during the 2021-22 school year, more than three-quarters of public schools in the U.S. said it was more challenging to get substitutes than it was before the pandemic.

Additionally, 62% of public schools in the northeast U.S., which includes Maryland, reported increased difficulties with finding substitutes compared to pre-pandemic years.

David Blazer, a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park who researches education policy, said the substitute and teacher shortages go hand-in-hand. Essentially, not as many people want to become certified teachers, meaning not many people take up substituting as a side job as they work to become certified.

“[The substitute shortage is] related to a decreased interest in teaching amongst college-educated students over the past decade, several decades,” Blazer said. “I think [it] means that fewer people would be interested in teaching, period. [This] would also mean that we have fewer people interested in substitute teaching.”

Cheryl Bost, president of Maryland’s teachers union, echoed Blazer’s sentiments.

“When we have a shortage of educators, that will trickle down, and then when they’re out, you have a shortage of substitutes,” she said. “So all of this is all related to the educator shortage that we’re facing.”

There are no state regulations that govern substitute employment eligibility, leaving local school systems to determine requirements, an education department spokesperson wrote in an email.

For example, long-term substitutes in Howard County’s school system must have a college degree, and short-term subs must have earned a minimum of 60 college credits. But in nearby Anne Arundel County, a minimum of 48 college credits is required to substitute.

To be a full teacher in Maryland, conversely, one must complete an approved educator preparation program and pass certification exams.

Poor working conditions and low salaries are often cited as the reason for the shortage in Maryland and nationwide. The stress of the job paired with increased responsibilities and low compensation are driving forces for the mass exodus of educators nationwide, according to a report from Edweek.

In a 2022 article published by the National Education Association, America’s teachers union, President Becky Pringle said the pandemic has exacerbated existing staffing issues and the students are suffering because of it.

“It is preventing educators from giving their students the one-on-one attention they need. It is forcing them to give up their class planning and lunch time to fill in for colleagues who are out due to COVID,” Pringle said in the piece. “And, it is preventing students from getting the mental health supports needed.”

In August, the Baltimore City Public School System reported 227 teacher vacancies. As of Dec. 19, BCPSS had 536 substitutes on its roster, a spokesperson said in an email. The district was not able to provide its substitute fill rate by publication time.

Cristina Duncan Evans, teacher chair of the Baltimore Teachers Union, said the union is hearing mixed responses from members about how the substitute shortage is impacting their jobs.

She said the district has adopted a virtual substitute program in which there is someone on a screen teaching class while a school staffer is present in the room to perform tasks like passing out papers.

The virtual substitutes, however, are putting a strain on staff, particularly paraeducators who are often tapped to be the in-person adult in the room. Additionally, there are classroom management concerns.

“At the end of the day, we still have concerns about whether or not the students are actually doing the work,” Evans said. “Some of our paraprofessionals have concerns because they have been left with the class when the virtual sub goes into a breakout room with the students who are listening.”

BCPSS did not provide answers to questions regarding virtual substitutes.

In Baltimore County Public Schools, the 2021-22 school year saw a 57% substitute fill rate, a spokesperson said in an email. The district partnered with Kelly Education, an education staffing firm, in 2022 to manage its substitute program. The two-year, $50 million contract permits Kelly Education to recruit, onboard and train substitutes, while BCPS pays salaries.

As of Dec. 1, the BCPS fill rate had climbed to 85.5%.

Cindy Sexton, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County union, said she was initially concerned about the contract, as substitute recruiting has traditionally been done in-house.

[It’s] a concern when that money is being paid to the contractor … because it’s less money that’s available for other needs that our school system has,” she said.

As of Jan. 24, Anne Arundel County Public Schools has 118 classroom teacher vacancies. A spokesperson for the district did not respond to requests for information on the vacancies or substitutes within AACPS.

In Carroll County Public Schools, a spokesperson said the district was experiencing “some shortages” but also improvements.

On Jan. 8, 159 absences needed to be filled in CCPS. On that day, 150, or 95%, of them were filled. The spokesperson did not respond to follow-up questions regarding the average fill rate or the total number of teacher vacancies.

A spokesperson for Harford County schools said the district had 113 substitutes who have a set schedule at a predetermined school to cover any absences that are left unfilled for the day.

Harford County Public Schools currently has an 83% daily substitute fill rate and only four teacher vacancies.

“We currently have 936 active substitutes,” the spokesperson said in an email. “Ideally, this would be sufficient to fill our average amount of absences reported daily. However, because substitutes do have the flexibility to create their own schedule and specify location and content areas, we could always use more substitutes to accommodate the variety of coverage needed.”

David Lamer, head of human resources for Howard County schools, said the district has a majority of its 38 teacher vacancies filled by long-term substitutes. In addition to the existing vacancies, there are still hundreds of teachers out on any given day for various reasons. He said the district has 200 daily substitutes to fill absences.

In response to Wu’s concerns over the quality of education provided by substitutes, Lamer said that most of the time, long-term substitutes “aren’t as good” as full-time educators.

Even with the return of Phoenix’s teacher, Wu is still worried he’ll be behind.

“They’re not doing anything to give these kids extra help because they don’t have a teacher,” Wu said. “So at a certain point, I just don’t know. I don’t know how they’ll be able to catch up, becoming more and more behind.”