Maryland schools rank below the national average for mentoring and on-the-job training for teachers, a new report shows.
The study, by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, the same organization that publishes the highly respected Education Week, gave the state a C-minus, or 26th in the nation, for its support to educators for prekindergarten to 12th grade.
“We don?t even deserve a C,” said Brandon Arvesen, a ninth- and 12th-grade English teacher at Thurgood Marshall High School in Baltimore.
“It?s not that we don?t get enough professional development, it?s that we go over the same stuff over and over again.”
Instead of repeatedly espousing the benefits of planning lessons and aligning the city and state curriculums, Arvesen says he thinks schools should listen to the teachers about what training they really need.
He spoke of a fight that broke out between two of his ninth-grade male students during the last class Thursday. It reminded him, he said, that many teachers would benefit from conflict-management training.
Maryland didn?t score higher in the teaching category because the state doesn?t pay higher salaries for teachers in science and math, where shortages in educators exist, and also lacks a statewide pay scale, state schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick said.
The report also criticized the state for not having a measure in place to reduce class sizes, which grow as large as 40 to 50 students, and for lacking a state-required mentoring program for new teachers.
“Too often, teachers just out of school are thrown into the classrooms without guidance,” said Daniel Kaufman, spokesman for the Maryland State Teachers Association, the state?s largest teachers union.
Gov. Martin O?Malley, who wants Grasmick to resign so his appointees to the state school board can pick a replacement, was “delighted” with Maryland?s overall third-best ranking, saying he hoped it would attract better principals, teachers and federal funding.
“I think it?s a reflection of a lot of work being done by a lot of people,” he said.
But he declined to answer a follow-up question about whether Grasmick deserved some of the credit.
