Wanting to do good for others led Amanda Leiter to make something good happen – just in time.
Ms. Leiter was a law professor at American University in Washington, DC for 12 years before accepting a position in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of General Counsel under President Joe Biden. She knew she wouldn’t be able to transition into the current administration. She also followed friends working in government and read headlines about the massive layoffs the Trump administration initiated once in office.
“I was actually volunteering when I was leaving the Biden administration. As soon as we saw that the Trump administration was laying off a lot of people, a group of us got together and we tried to put together resources to help people who had been laid off,” says Ms. Leiter.
Why we wrote this
With former federal employees looking for jobs, Maryland saw an opportunity to support its schools. A new program gives them three months of teacher training – and the chance to make a difference in the classroom.
She compiled a list of job banks and resume review programs.
“And one of the things I found was this really inspiring video from the governor [Wes] Moore saying, basically, if the federal government doesn’t want our dedicated public servants, we in Maryland can take advantage of you.
Mr. Moore made the video and used the opportunity to fill jobs in his state with laid-off federal employees. His state had a gaping hole of teaching vacancies in Maryland, which numbered more than 1,600 as of March. The initiative, Feds to Eds, began in June and is part of a $1 million grant awarded to 11 Maryland colleges to help train new teachers and place them in classrooms. This approach is specific to federal employees, but is ultimately a continuation of the state’s Alternative Certification for Effective Teachers (ACET) program. Under ACET, interns can earn a teaching license, but not a degree.
Schools in the Feds to Eds program include Montgomery College, the University of Maryland’s College Park and Baltimore County campuses, Morgan State University and Bowie State University.
“Maryland is taking action. We refuse to stand idly by while the new federal administration fires public employees without cause, and [we] “We are doing everything we can to put Marylanders first,” Governor Moore said when announcing Feds to Eds.
By the end of September, the Trump administration had either let go or bought out some 300,000 federal employees. Last Friday, more layoff notices were issued.
Maryland’s approach to steering job seekers into teaching positions is finding support.
“I love the idea. I think we always want professionals in other fields to consider education, and sometimes we can get them, and sometimes we can’t,” says Paul Lemle, president of the Maryland State Education Association, which represents 76,000 teachers and school employees.
Mr. Lemle, himself a teacher, says that if a biologist or computer scientist wants to try working with students and share his expertise with them, Maryland would love to have them. He notes that teacher salaries start at $60,000 and average more than $90,000 per year. That doesn’t match the salaries of some federal employees, he said, but he knows thousands of people in the state are looking for work.
“Everyone benefits when we find a great teacher: that teacher, the children, and our society,” he adds.
Montgomery College received $100,000 from this grant and used it to build two cohorts. It and Bowie State University were the only two schools to offer a summer cohort, which ended in August. Sixteen of the 18 students from that first group now teach in the classroom, says Glenda Hernandez Tittle, who directs the program. When the second cohort, currently in training, heads to class, they will do so with full pay and benefits, as well as workplace assistance when needed. For the Feds to Eds program, Montgomery College reduced what normally takes six to nine months to three months.
Of Montgomery College’s recruits, all have college degrees and 60 to 65 percent have advanced degrees, Dr. Hernandez Tittle said. Among advanced degrees, 70% are doctorates; some went to colleges and universities like Harvard or Stanford.
Ms. Leiter, who will teach high school biology in Montgomery County, Maryland, just outside Washington, is part of the second cohort of the Montgomery College program.
Courtesy of Carsen Bryant/Montgomery College
“It seemed like an important time to really engage with the next generation,” says Ms. Leiter, who was excited to see if she could apply her law school teaching to a different context. “I really enjoyed learning from [the instructors]. In fact, I wish I knew some of what they were teaching me when I was teaching at law school.
She is one of 18 members of her cohort, who meet two to three evenings a week on Montgomery College’s Rockville campus. Sometimes they meet online. Interns are trained by Montgomery County Schools teachers. They will be assigned mainly to colleges. If there are areas of critical shortage, such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics, some could be allocated to secondary schools.
Early in the program, instructors emphasize how teaching in public schools will be very different for professionals who have thrived elsewhere, says Dr. Hernandez Tittle. They also receive plenty of feedback on what they are doing right and wrong, because teaching is not for the weak.
“It’s hard for them. Imagine changing careers after working 15, 20, 25 years, and you’re learning something completely new. Where to go from all these accolades to, you know, a good job in this field,” to criticism about how to do things better. But it’s necessary, she said.
Baltimore’s teacher shortage is a reality the state must address, says Joe Manko, education program manager for the Abell Foundation, a Baltimore-based private group that focuses on health, economics and education.
He notes that Feds to Eds is analogous to initiatives such as Teach for America and the Baltimore City Teaching Residency program. They have a track record of success, which he says bodes well. What’s needed for the program to thrive, he says, is for the mentoring to continue once the new educators are in the schools. New hires will need time to learn and grow.
“There are individuals for whom teaching is a second career, and they have become very successful educators because they use their previous professional experience and are able to derive strong educational benefits for their children. »
