Our vision is to support educators from preservice through induction and throughout their careers with access to resources, rich and innovative professional learning opportunities, and a systemwide network of support.
Our mission is to develop, support, and retain effective teachers by
- Collaborating with schools, offices, colleges, and universities to develop systems of support,
- Delivering a COMAR-aligned induction program,
- Contributing to a leadership pipeline of teacher leaders who support their novice peers, and
- Ensuring we are guided by equitable practices
- in order to improve academic outcomes for students.
Interns
Baltimore County Public Schools partners with local institutions of higher education (IHE) through the Professional Development Schools (PDS) Program. These collaborative partnerships prepare pre-service teachers and other professionals and use a strategic planning process to provide professional learning opportunities for interns, mentor teachers, and IHE faculty. Interns can be placed in schools that are not professional development schools. IHE placement coordinators may contact the Office of Teacher Development directly to request internship placements for prospective candidates. Colleges and Universities should submit the Baltimore County Public Schools Internship Application to the Department of Organizational Development and Leadership. Please reference additional information specific to the internship placement process in this document.
Aspiring Teachers
Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) is currently experiencing a major teacher shortage, especially a shortage of teachers who are black, indigenous, people of color (BIPOC), teachers of special education and ESOL, and women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) content areas. The Baltimore County Government has offered the Education Foundation of Baltimore County Public Schools, Inc. (The Foundation) a $1 million dollar grant to support the efforts of the BCPS Department of Human Resources in recruiting, training, and retaining BIPOC teachers and women in STEM fields to teach in BCPS. Please click here to visit their webpage to learn more about the scholarship.
New and Non-Tenured Teachers
The BCPS New Teacher Induction Program provides comprehensive support to newly hired teachers. New educators are invited to participate in New Educator Orientation (NEO) during the month of August. Non-tenured teachers are invited to attend conference style seminars that occur during the duty-day in the fall and spring. Stipends are offered to non-tenured teachers who attend after school workshops designed to address their learning needs throughout the school year. Consulting Teachers in the Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) Program provide support for new teachers without prior teaching experience throughout the school system. The Peer Advisor Program may provide coaching support for teachers new to Baltimore County who come with previous teaching experience. For more information, visit the New Educator Resource page
All Teachers
The Office of Teacher Development organizes workshops, events, courses and programs for professional growth and to earn credits needed for recertification, salary advancement, or additional endorsements.
- Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses are organized by BCPS Offices. CPD courses are free to BCPS employees and retirees, and sessions are offered summer, fall and spring.
- Cohort Programs provide permanent employees in active service access to high quality professional growth opportunities in areas of critical need. Cohorts are advertised each spring and programs generally start in the fall. Cohorts include direct billing, which means BCPS is directly billed for tuition costs up to the rate of individual tuition reimbursement. Cohort participants pay only the published out-of-pocket costs for each course.
- College and University Programs are available on a wide variety of topics and many offer discounted tuition to BCPS employees. The employee must pay all associated costs. Employees may request tuition reimbursement for which they are eligible by following the process managed by the BCPS Office of Certification.
- Workshops on mentoring, coaching, action research, and group facilitation enable teachers to build the skills needed to collaborate and support their peers.
BCPS employees may view and register for workshops and MSDE/CPD courses by accessing the Registration System.