Just two years ago, Baltimore was searching nationwide to fill its 1,200 teaching vacancies, and often administrators had to settle for teachers with no experience and no professional credentials.
This year, the school system has had to hire far fewer teachers - half the number of two years ago - and it could afford to be picky.
All of the 580 teachers hired have a professional certificate or are in a program such as Teach for America, which helps new teachers get the training they need to become certified.
"The quality of our [new] teachers has drastically improved," said Shelia Dudley, director of human resources for the school system.
Two years ago, about half of all new hires didn't have the proper credentials.
In fact, the system may have been too aggressive in its hiring. School officials said several weeks ago that they believed they had 120 excess teachers. Two weeks ago, they said they might have to lay off new teachers because enrollment is down.
Pay, retention
Several factors combined to improve the system's ability to attract teachers, including five years of large pay increases. A teacher's starting pay is $34,973 for teachers with a bachelor's degree and $37,157 for those with a master's.
The system also has worked hard to retain its teaching staff, said Dudley, by providing new teachers with mentors and better classroom support.
"Obviously, this is wonderful progress. It reflects years of efforts to raise teacher salaries and it reflects the value of the mentoring program," said Sam Stringfield, vice president of the school board.
But Dudley also acknowledges, "The economy doesn't hurt."
Higher unemployment and the recession have combined to make teachers less likely to want to leave their positions.
In addition, 200 people who had been academic coaches last year were turned back into highly qualified classroom teachers as part of a cost-saving measure.
Programs help
The system also has gotten a boost from several programs: Teach for America, Project Site Support and the Baltimore City Teacher Residency Program.
Teach for America is a national organization that takes talented recent college graduates and places them in schools. Under Project Site Support, three universities - Johns Hopkins, Morgan State and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County - use federal funds to help people who want to leave their profession for teaching.
