600 teachers and school staff in Baltimore City and Baltimore County left the classroom on the last day of the 2022-23 school year — and they won’t be returning in the fall.
According to data from school board meeting agendas, many of these resignees quit after working for a year or less in their positions — leaving key vacancies in special education and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).
At Baltimore City Public Schools, 44% of those who resigned after the last day of school left the district before hitting the one-year mark.
President of the Baltimore Teachers Union Diamonte Brown said the new use of unannounced evaluations this past school year increased anxiety, especially among early career teachers.
“Our evaluation, unlike many other school districts, is tied to our pay,” Brown said. With an unannounced formal observation, Brown said, teachers lack the time to prepare their students for the disruption or face-to-face time with an evaluator to explain their lesson plans.
First-year teachers also often struggle to balance the complex factors in a classroom, said Cindy Sexton, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County.
Between student behavioral needs and standardized testing requirements, “there is so much a teacher has to do before they can even start the actual instruction,” Sexton said.
“There’s just so much pressure for educators to do it all and do it all right away when you’re still trying to figure out you know how to be a teacher,” she said.
16% of county school employees who resigned from June to July left after a year or less. And nearly one-fifth of those who resigned worked in special education.
Sexton said special educators have a heavier workload than others, which weakens retention.
“There's so much paperwork at the state level, at the local level, the national level that’s required by law,” she said. “In addition, they’re looking at the curriculum and then they’re modifying it for each individual student.”
There are two possible ways to reduce special educator workload, Sexton said.
“The way you fix that is either decreased caseload, fewer students that they are responsible for, or help with the paperwork,” she said.
Chief of Human Resources Homer McCall said Baltimore County schools are offering $4,000 signing bonuses this year to recruit new special educators, and reward existing teachers who take on special education roles.
In city schools, Brown said special educators are not the only ones feeling unsupported in city schools.
ESOL teachers often have to find their own resources, Brown said. And they report being used as “floaters” to cover other classroom needs.
“They’re asked to substitute or cover other classes versus being able to use their expertise,” she said.
Brown said the teachers’ union is in negotiation with the city school board to increase school employee salaries and better support ESOL teachers.
“We need to keep people in and bring people in,” she said.
