Provisional and Emergency Licensure: Maryland
Hiring Policy
Analysis of Maryland's policies
Emergency License(s) Availability: Maryland allows teachers who have not met the state's licensure requirements to teach under a conditional teacher degree certificate or a conditional teacher nondegree certificate. The conditional teacher degree certificate requires a bachelor's degree, while the nondegree certificate is intended for those teaching in a career and technology area that does not require a bachelor's degree. A local school system may request a conditional certificate if it is unable to fill the position with a qualified person who holds a professional certificate.
Maryland now offers an adjunct certificate. This certificate must be requested by the local superintendent, and an applicant must have a high school diploma or equivalent, an industry license if applicable, and at least five years of satisfactory occupational experience. Persons with this certificate may only teach part-time in the area of their occupational expertise.
Emergency License Validity Period: Maryland's conditional certificates are valid for two years. They can be renewed once at the request of the superintendent, provided the teacher has
completed 12 semester hours of coursework toward the professional
certificate and passed the required teacher certification test.
The adjunct certificate may be issued for one year and can be renewed by request of the local school system. It is unclear how many renewals are possible.
COVID-19 State Policy: Maryland has implemented the following changes to its rules regarding Provisional and Emergency Licensure. The state board of education modified the Waiver and Special Certification Provisions to allow teachers who have completed a preparation program but are unable to take licensure exams to teach on an emergency certificate while they complete the testing requirements. An emergency certificate can also be issued to a teacher who has a conditional degree or nondegree certificate and has completed all requirements of the evaluation except certification assessments. The emergency certificate is valid for six months from the date that the state of emergency is declared over. The emergency certificate cannot be renewed. COVID-19 policies do not
affect the state's grade in
Provisional and Emergency Licensure.
Requirements for Out-of-State Teachers: Because licensure requirements for out-of-state teachers are scored in Requirements for Out-of-State Teachers, only the state's policies regarding emergency/provisional
license(s) are considered as part of this goal.
Recommendations for Maryland
Ensure that all teachers pass required subject-matter licensing tests before they enter the classroom.
All students are entitled to teachers who know the subject matter they are teaching.
Permitting individuals who have not yet passed state licensing tests to teach
neglects the needs of students, because it enables adults who may not
be able to meet minimal state standards to earn teaching licenses. Maryland should
ensure that all teachers are required to pass licensing tests — an important
minimum benchmark for entering the profession —before entering the classroom as the teacher of record.
Limit exceptions to one year.
Although suboptimal, there may be limited and exceptional circumstances under which
conditional or emergency licenses are necessary. In these instances, it is
reasonable for a state to give teachers up to one year to pass required
licensing tests. Maryland's current policy puts students at risk by allowing teachers to teach on conditional certificates for up to three years without passing required licensing tests.
State response to our analysis
Maryland recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
Updated: March 2021
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How we graded
6B: Provisional and Emergency Licensure
- Content knowledge: The state:
- Should not, under any circumstance, award a license to a teacher who has not passed all required content licensing tests.
- If it finds it necessary to confer emergency or provisional licenses to teachers who have not passed the required licensing tests, should do so only under limited and exceptional circumstances and ensure that all requirements are met within one year.
The total goal score is earned based on the following:
- Full credit: The state will earn full credit if all new teachers are required to pass each required content test as a condition of receiving provisional or emergency licensure, or the state does not issue emergency or provisional licenses. A state cannot get full credit in this goal if content tests are not required as part of its initial licensure policy.
- Three-quarters credit: The state will earn three-quarters of a point if it grants emergency or provisional licenses to teachers who have not passed the required content tests, but such licenses are granted for no more than one year and are not renewable. OR The state will earn three-quarters of a point if it grants an emergency or provisional license to a licensed teacher to teach out-of-field for no more than one-year without passing the applicable content test.
- One-half credit: The state will earn up to one-half of a point if it allows for emergency or provisional licenses to be granted for longer than one year, but the state has strong requirements for applicants (e.g., content area major or preparation program completion without requiring a content test). The state will also earn one-half of a point if the state does not issue emergency/provisional licenses, or issues emergency/provisional licenses with strong requirements, but content tests are not required as part of the state's overall initial licensure policy.
- One-quarter credit: The state will earn one-quarter of a point if it maintains minimum requirements that fall short of the requirements listed above or only offers emergency or provisional licenses to teachers under "extenuating circumstances."
Research rationale
Teachers who have not passed content licensing tests place students at risk. While states may need a regulatory basis for filling classroom positions with a few people who do not hold full teaching credentials, many of the regulations permitting this put the instructional needs of children at risk, often year after year.[1] For example, schools can make liberal use of provisional certificates or waivers provided by the state if they fill classroom positions with instructors who have completed a teacher preparation program but have not passed their state licensing tests. These allowances are permitted for up to three years in some states. The unfortunate consequence is that students' needs are neglected in an effort to extend personal consideration to adults who cannot meet minimum state standards.[2]
While some flexibility may be necessary because licensing tests are not always administered with the needed frequency, making provisional certificates and waivers available year after year could signal that the state does not put much value on its licensing standards or what they represent. States accordingly need to ensure that all persons given full charge of children's learning are required to pass the relevant licensing tests in their first year of teaching, ideally before they enter the classroom. Licensing tests are an important minimum benchmark in the profession, and states that allow teachers to postpone passing these tests are abandoning one of the basic responsibilities of licensure.
[1] Research often finds a correlation between teachers' content knowledge and their effectiveness. For how this effect can play out in elementary ELA, see: Carlisle, J. F., Correnti, R., Phelps, G., & Zeng, J. (2009). Exploration of the contribution of teachers' knowledge about reading to their students' improvement in reading. Reading and Writing, 22(4), 457-486.; For how this effect can occur in secondary STEM subjects, see: Monk, D. (1994). Subject-area preparation of secondary mathematics and science teachers and student achievement. Economics of Education Review, 13(2), 125-145; For broader information about teacher qualities and student achievement, see: Goldhaber, D. D., & Brewer, D. J. (1997). Why don't schools and teachers seem to matter? Assessing the impact of unobservables on educational productivity. Journal of Human Research, 32(3), 505-523.; National Council on Teacher Quality. (2010). The all-purpose science teacher: An analysis of loopholes in state requirements for high school science teachers. Retrieved from http://www.nctq.org/p/publications/docs/NCTQ_All_Purpose_Science_Teacher.pdf.
[2] Research has shown that "the difference in student performance in a single academic year from having a good as opposed to a bad teacher can be more than one full year of standardized achievement." See: Hanushek, E. A. (1992). The trade-off between child quantity and quality. Journal of Political Economy, 100(1), 84-117.; Hanushek has also found that highly effective teachers can improve future student earnings by more than $400,000, assuming a class size of 20. Hanushek, E. A. (2011). The economic value of higher teacher quality. Economics of Education Review, 30(3), 466-479. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w16606