The number of Baltimore County teachers lacking full credentials is declining, but such teachers are still disproportionately concentrated in low-performing, high-minority schools, according to a report presented to the county school board last night.
Of the district's 7,925 teachers, 649 lack full credentials. Last year, the district had 7,663 teachers, of whom 856 lacked full credentials.
Despite that improvement, Southwest Academy, Old Court Middle, Woodlawn High and Randallstown High - all in western Baltimore County and more than 90 percent minority - have more than twice the school district average of teachers without full credentials.
Countywide, 11 percent of middle school teachers and 15 percent of high school teachers are "conditionally certified," meaning they lack full credentials and have a limited time in which to earn them. At Southwest Academy, a middle school in the Woodlawn area, 36 percent of teachers are conditionally certified. At Randallstown High, the number is 33 percent.
Other schools with a disproportionately high percentage of conditionally certified teachers are Deer Park Magnet Middle, Woodlawn Middle, New Town High and Milford Mill Academy.
The report comes as the school district negotiates with its teachers union over a new rule limiting the ability of fully credentialed teachers in low-performing schools to transfer to other schools within the district. The rule prohibits a "highly qualified" teacher from transferring from a low-performing school without a "highly qualified" replacement.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires all teachers to be "highly qualified" by the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year. For middle and high schools, that means teachers must pass a test or otherwise show mastery of the subjects they teach.
District officials say the limit on teacher transfers, first used this school year, has helped lower the number of teachers without full credentials at low-performing schools. At Old Court Middle, for example, the percentage of teachers without full credentials declined from 45 percent last year to 29 percent this year.
"Hopefully, the whole question of the transfer will be moot by 2007, when every teacher and every aide has to be highly qualified," school board President James R. Sasiadek said in an interview before last night's meeting. "In the meantime, we must meet the letter of the law."
