Maryland officials announce dramatic decrease in teacher vacancy rate

The number of teacher vacancies fell from 2,145 in the 2022-23 school year to roughly 572 for the current school year, state officials announced Monday, a 70% drop that was attributed to programs to expand recruitment and retention of teachers.

The drop — from about 3.4% of teaching positions in the 2022-23 school year to about 0.9% for the 2026-27 year — was announced by Gov. Wes Moore (D), State Superintendent Carey Wright and state Board of Education President Joshua Michael at Hillsmere Elementary in Anne Arundel County.

The announcement was held in that county based on this statistic: Teacher vacancies decreased from 283 in 2022, which was Superintendent Mark Bedell’s first year in the district, to 16 on the first day of school in August this year.

“The hard work to reduce teacher vacancies has many pieces to it,” Bedell said. “Compensation and training programs are certainly huge factors, but so is creating supportive cultures where every teacher feels a sense of belonging. We are very proud of the work we have done in all of those areas.”

State officials attributed a few programs to the drop in teacher vacancies in a state with more than 64,000 educators.

The state’s Grow Your Own initiative not only focuses on expanding teacher and staff pipelines, but also boosting diversity in the profession and establishing apprenticeships.

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As part of the initiative, the governor announced in August nearly $15 million in grants to support 845 educators who focus on high-need areas such as special education and early childhood. The first round of grants, announced last December at $19 million, sought to slice vacancies nearly in half from more than 1,600 to 886 last year.

“Our administration has tackled barriers to entry and strategically invested to create opportunities for passionate educators to pursue their dream of teaching,” Moore said in a statement Monday. “We are proud of the historic progress we’ve made, and we won’t stop until every vacancy is filled to deliver the world class education our students deserve.”

Another statewide push to decrease the vacancy rate comes from TEACH Maryland, a program that allows aspiring educators or those seeking a career change to seek out a teaching career. With Maryland being one of the states hardest hit by federal layoffs and job reductions in the first years of the second Trump administration, some federal workers were left looking for employment elsewhere, including teaching.

One continued initiative to improve teaching in the classroom is the statewide teacher development program.

The General Assembly approved $14.2 million during this year’s 90-day legislative session toward the program to hire more than five dozen educators who will act as instructional coaches for literacy and math teachers for this school year. The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Accountability and Implementation Board, which oversees the 10-year education reform plan, recommends the legislature continue to allocate funding.

Wright is a major supporter of the program known as “coaching,” which she has said helps to ensure stronger teachers, but also produces better students.

“These results show that targeted investments and partnerships are making a measurable difference for students and schools across the state,” she said. “We will continue advancing strategies that attract, prepare and support excellent educators for every classroom.”