What happens if MCPS isn't staffed by the first day of school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s use common sense. If a school has 5 kindergarten classes and only four teachers, then they break up the class with no teacher and disperse those students. So, your class of 25 may end up being a class of 30. If a school has 4 kindergarten classrooms and 3 teachers but they have an interventionist for reading then that interventionist will continue their pay but be put back in the classroom. In other words, it’s a game of moving things around. What else are they going to do, deny your child entry?

Doesn't that violate state law on class sizes?

Which state law would that be? MCPS only has class size "guidelines."

And if a school has 5 K classes and only 4 teachers, they get a sub for the 5th class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am seeing 432 open teaching positions including long term subs. Last year was pretty similar, and the number dropped to about 250 by the start of the school year.

There's only 286 1.0 FTE (which eliminates the substitutes).
150 ES
78 MS
48 HS
10 other
This is a lot better than last year at this time.

Why are there so many ES teacher positions vacant? That is surprising to me

There are a lot of elementary schools and class sizes in ES are smaller than in MS and HS, so the number of teachers total needed per grade level decreases as kids move from ES to MS to HS. There are 136 ES, 40 MS, and 26 HS total. On average, each school needs 1-2 teachers.

And to a PP who said this doesn't count positions being filled by long term subs (because they couldn't find a FTE), um, yes it does. These ARE the positions that will end up with a LTS if they don't find a full time hire. But there are still 4 weeks to do so and teachers still move into the area or recent graduates still hunting jobs will widen a search.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, our private school is fully staffed with the exception of an art teacher. Another reason private school is worth it.

This is what you came here to share? That your private school, probably ES, that needs at max 50 teachers is fully staffed???

First, could you scream I need attention any louder. Second, how difficult do you think it really is to staff one single school vs a district w/ more than 200?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, our private school is fully staffed with the exception of an art teacher. Another reason private school is worth it.

Private schools hire teachers publics do not consider credentialed. Thanks for dropping by.

LOL, but the teachers are highly qualified and motivated vs. the union member teachers who look for any reason to not show up. And, news flash, mcps is hiring teachers who are not credentialed now.

Keep telling yourself that to justify the insane tuition you pay for teachers who probably aren’t credentialed or have been removed from public districts. That’s usually where private school teachers come from. Private schools pay less than public. You’re not getting the best of the best, but I’m so glad you think you are. That’s exactly what they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, our private school is fully staffed with the exception of an art teacher. Another reason private school is worth it.

Private schools hire teachers publics do not consider credentialed. Thanks for dropping by.

LOL, but the teachers are highly qualified and motivated vs. the union member teachers who look for any reason to not show up. And, news flash, mcps is hiring teachers who are not credentialed now.

Lol

Lmao

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, our private school is fully staffed with the exception of an art teacher. Another reason private school is worth it.

Private schools hire teachers publics do not consider credentialed. Thanks for dropping by.

LOL, but the teachers are highly qualified and motivated vs. the union member teachers who look for any reason to not show up. And, news flash, mcps is hiring teachers who are not credentialed now.

Keep telling yourself that to justify the insane tuition you pay for teachers who probably aren’t credentialed or have been removed from public districts. That’s usually where private school teachers come from. Private schools pay less than public. You’re not getting the best of the best, but I’m so glad you think you are. That’s exactly what they want.

And there is a huge difference in the teacher qualifications of a top private vs. a typical private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, our private school is fully staffed with the exception of an art teacher. Another reason private school is worth it.

Cool! More backdoor private recruiting!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, our private school is fully staffed with the exception of an art teacher. Another reason private school is worth it.

Private schools hire teachers publics do not consider credentialed. Thanks for dropping by.

LOL, but the teachers are highly qualified and motivated vs. the union member teachers who look for any reason to not show up. And, news flash, mcps is hiring teachers who are not credentialed now.

Keep telling yourself that to justify the insane tuition you pay for teachers who probably aren’t credentialed or have been removed from public districts. That’s usually where private school teachers come from. Private schools pay less than public. You’re not getting the best of the best, but I’m so glad you think you are. That’s exactly what they want.

And there is a huge difference in the teacher qualifications of a top private vs. a typical private.

They still arent retaining the best because they dont have competitive pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am seeing 432 open teaching positions including long term subs. Last year was pretty similar, and the number dropped to about 250 by the start of the school year.

There's only 286 1.0 FTE (which eliminates the substitutes).
150 ES
78 MS
48 HS
10 other
This is a lot better than last year at this time.

Why are there so many ES teacher positions vacant? That is surprising to me

I'm not sure what the MCPS numbers are, but nationally a bit over half of all teachers are elementary school teachers, so there's likely to be a lot more positions.

[Anonymous]

In another MD district but we hardly had any student teachers this year. Maybe it’s a blip due to Covid or maybe kids just aren’t going into teaching. We already have a lot of alternatively certified teachers who tend not to last long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, our private school is fully staffed with the exception of an art teacher. Another reason private school is worth it.

Private schools typically don’t need SPED, ESOL, paraeducators, etc. They typically dont offer a competitive STEM curriculum with lots of AP’s.

😂

This poster has been on this STEM rant for years… and is pretty ill informed about the area’s top privates.

But you are right about SPED and ESOL…

[Anonymous]

When public schools have the luxury of ensuring every teacher is fully credentialed (ie not right now) that qualification/certification process is very narrow. They’d sooner hire a certified teacher who graduated from a mediocre college with meh grades than an uncertified but experienced subject-matter expert with multiple degrees but no certification who graduated from a top college/excellent program. I’m not saying grads of top colleges don’t teach in public, but as someone who has taught in both, I don’t believe that being certified equates to higher-quality teaching. Also, I’m the same exact person in both settings yet would argue that I’m a better teacher in private settings because I am less constrained by one-size-fits-all mandates and can be more creative. Also, I earn the same in private that I earned in public, so be wary of sweeping generalizations. And for what it’s worth, I don’t believe private school is better than public or vice versa. Different choices are better for different kids; different schools have different strengths and weaknesses; and even within the same school, the instructional quality can vary greatly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I, a paraeducator -- and most of my para friends -- do have a teaching degree or other college degree. Sorry yours do not.

Many do not. It's not a job requirement. We have wonderful paras with and without degrees. Since it's not required, even the wonderful paras who takes great care of our kids and are attentive and hard working, are often not capable of filling the role of the teacher. They also don't get paid nearly enough for their own role let alone filling in for a position they didn't sign up for.

Being a para with a college degree, I find most of my job is about building relationships to help SN kids navigate school. It's not about the degree. Empathy is far more useful.

The learning behind the degree is very helpful. My degree is in a hard science with a lot of psych, and I'm a computer geek by trade. God help me to support English and History!

I despise classroom management. I routinely decline teacher sub requests. I'm all about supporting my kids.

You sound like a good para. Some are good. Some do as little as possible and mostly just sit on their phones

I'm an ES para. The paras on their phones are the young 20 year olds who grew up with a screen in their hand, they're good people, just incredibly addicted. And it's annoying because other people have to pick up their slack and they don't get reprimanded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, our private school is fully staffed with the exception of an art teacher. Another reason private school is worth it.

This is what you came here to share? That your private school, probably ES, that needs at max 50 teachers is fully staffed???

First, could you scream I need attention any louder. Second, how difficult do you think it really is to staff one single school vs a district w/ more than 200?

It's a K-12 school...so quite large and diverse in needs. Thanks for chiming in though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When public schools have the luxury of ensuring every teacher is fully credentialed (ie not right now) that qualification/certification process is very narrow. They’d sooner hire a certified teacher who graduated from a mediocre college with meh grades than an uncertified but experienced subject-matter expert with multiple degrees but no certification who graduated from a top college/excellent program. I’m not saying grads of top colleges don’t teach in public, but as someone who has taught in both, I don’t believe that being certified equates to higher-quality teaching. Also, I’m the same exact person in both settings yet would argue that I’m a better teacher in private settings because I am less constrained by one-size-fits-all mandates and can be more creative. Also, I earn the same in private that I earned in public, so be wary of sweeping generalizations. And for what it’s worth, I don’t believe private school is better than public or vice versa. Different choices are better for different kids; different schools have different strengths and weaknesses; and even within the same school, the instructional quality can vary greatly.

This.

In my daughter's private, there are many PhDs who are probably not certified. Those are excellent and very smart teachers who have high expectations of their students. This is how these kids excel.

I know someone who was just hired for a top high school to teach History. Hardly a subject matter expert at all and this is her first job out of college where she graduated with an education degree. She was NOT a good student and struggled in many subjects, including history!! I just don't see what she will add to the class. She has a nice personality and hopefully she will motivate students to study. It's going to be basically a memorization class.

My daughter's history teacher majored in history and has a deep passion for it. Not certified.

See the difference?