Part Time Teaching Licenses: Maryland

Analysis of Maryland's policies

Maryland does not offer a license with minimal requirements that would allow content experts to teach part time.

Recommendations for Maryland

Offer a license that allows content experts to serve as part-time instructors.
Maryland should permit individuals with deep subject-area knowledge to teach a limited number of courses without fulfilling a complete set of certification requirements.  The state should verify content knowledge through a rigorous test and conduct background checks as appropriate, while waiving all other licensure requirements.  Such a license would increase districts' flexibility to staff certain subjects, including many STEM areas, that are frequently hard to staff or may not have high enough enrollment to necessitate a full-time position.

State response to our analysis

Maryland recognized the factual accuracy of NCTQ's analysis. The state added that "as a first step toward developing routes to assist content-strong but non-credentialed teachers to teach on a limited or part-time basis, a revision to COMAR entitled the Specialized Professional will be presented to the MSEB August 2011. If approved, this provision will bring greater flexibility for specialized areas of public school teaching not otherwise easy to staff with traditionally certified teachers."

Last word

NCTQ looks forward to reviewing the state's progress in future editions of the Yearbook.