This is the first installment in a series on Johns Hopkins' involvement in the Baltimore City community.
While receiving a master's education from Johns Hopkins, 240 students at Hopkins' School of Professional Studies Department of Teacher Preparation are currently teaching in Baltimore City schools
This marks the seventh year that Hopkins has been involved in partnership programs with the Baltimore City schools. The Masters of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program was developed by the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education's Graduate Division of Education. These teachers make up nearly a third of the Baltimore City district's new teachers.
"Over time, we've brought a lot of quality, young career-changers to Baltimore," said Larry Kimmel, lead coordinator for Baltimore's Professional Masters of Arts in Teaching's (ProMAT) Department of Teacher Preparation.
"The main concept behind these programs is that urban districts such as Baltimore have difficulty recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers," said Elaine Stotko, professor at the School of Professional Studies and chair of the Department of Teacher Preparation. Stotko said that this initiative provides a way for educated individuals to receive advanced training while increasing the strength of the city's schools.
"This is specifically designed to find quality teachers to teach in what might be considered a hard-to-teach-in environment -- a challenging job in a challenging community," Kimmel added.
Kimmel noted that one of the biggest challenges for the new teachers is adapting to teaching from the start.
"None of these teachers are education trained. However, from day one they are the teacher in the classroom," Kimmel said.
The MAT program is available in three formats, each of which demands completion of 39 credits but provides candidates with part-time study, full-time study with city school immersion, or part-time study with profession immersion. Candidates receive their degrees and state certification upon successful completion of their course work and after passing the state's Praxis I and II tests.
"Many individuals, particularly career changers have an interest in teaching in and a commitment to high needs schools," Stotko said. "But they do not have the certification needed to be hired by school districts.
Due to time commitments and lifestyles, traditional education in the style of graduate school may be an unrealistic option."
The MAT program allows candidates the ability to choose whether they would like to complete the program in either two or three years. 70 percent of their tuition during the time they are teaching, with a maximum amount of 12 credits per year, is paid for by the Baltimore City Public School System.
"By allowing people to teach while they are completing requirements for certification, our program benefits the children in the district by providing them with a teacher who has strong content preparation and who is being supported in their first years of teaching by all the support systems of a graduate-level teacher program," Stotko said.
The intensive program includes support provided by university and faculty advisors, as well as bringing candidates together to form their own peer support group. Teachers also receive help from Teach for America and the Baltimore City Teaching Residency programs, which both provide continuing developmental activities.
"We try to work hard with Baltimore City to make sure that teachers are clustered in schools so that they have companions," Kimmel said.
Candidates draw on their own experience from the classroom, mixing theory and practice as they develop teaching strategies and learn about child development, in addition to assessment tactics and collaboration with the school district and community.
Current upperclassmen at Johns Hopkins can enter the program of Accelerated Master of Arts in Teaching (AMAT), which allows individuals to begin their master's degree and teacher certification before completing their bachelor's degree.
Stotko points out that Maryland is currently experiencing a teacher shortage. "Baltimore City faces the challenge of finding enough qualified teachers every year" and that the MAT program is "a way in which JHU is being responsive" to this problem.
"Initially the recruitment was difficult, but it's not as difficult now. The challenge is now finding ways to meet the needs of Baltimore City schools," Kimmel said.
The main concept behind the founding of this program, according to Stotko, is to enrich Baltimore City through its schools.
"We see our Baltimore ProMAT program as a way to impact the lives of children in Baltimore schools, one teacher at a time," Stotko said.
