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All states / Maryland

Maryland

Verified against current sources (2026-05-10) Cite this page ↓

Maryland does not offer a bilingual education credential; ELD/ESL is available both as a standalone license and as an add-on endorsement. SEI training is not mandated for all teachers. As of 2023, 12.6% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-10.

12.6%
classified ELs (2023-09-30)
view trend →
ELD
credential types offered

Credentials

Bilingual education

Not offered.

Maryland's COMAR 13A.12.02 certification chapter has no separate bilingual-education credential track (no DBE/DLBE/TBE). EL instruction is delivered via the ESOL credential.

ESOL Endorsement

  • Standalone certification
  • Add-on endorsement
Approved program
Required
Coursework
Required
Practicum
Required
Subject test
Required

ESOL Pre-K-12 (COMAR 13A.12.02.07; renumbered from .19 in the 2024-04-01 reorganization). Approved program with 54 sem hrs of required coursework, 6 sh supervised ESOL student teaching (or 1 yr ESOL teaching experience), Praxis 5362, and 6 sh in a modern foreign language at the college level for the teacher candidate. The teacher-candidate language requirement is unusual nationally.

Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)

Not mandated for all teachers.

State policy signals

Seal of Biliteracy

Recognition for graduating students proficient in English plus another language.

Adopted in 2016.

Source: sealofbiliteracy.org (opens in a new tab)

ELP assessment

Annual English Language Proficiency test used for EL identification and reclassification.

ACCESS for ELLs · WIDA Consortium member.

Source: wida.wisc.edu (opens in a new tab)

History of licensure

Dated policy and verification events shaping this state's EL teacher credentials.

  1. Maryland adopts State Seal of Biliteracy (SB 781, Ch. 232, 2016)

    SB 781 (Chapter 232, 2016) authorized the Maryland State Seal of Biliteracy, codified at Education Article §7-208. MSDE administers the credential for high-school graduates proficient in English plus one or more world languages; participation is district-opt-in.

    regs.maryland.gov (opens in a new tab)

  2. EPAA 29(100) document analysis (Leider, Colombo & Nerlino, 2021)

    Leider, Colombo & Nerlino published in Education Policy Analysis Archives 29(100) a comprehensive document analysis of every state and DC's bilingual, ELD/ESL, and SEI teacher-credentialing requirements, professional teaching standards mentions, and EL-percentage figures, based on primary SEA sources collected October–December 2019. The 2019 coding of Maryland's EL-credentialing landscape is preserved as a temporally-anchored research baseline against which the catalog's later verifications are framed.

    doi.org (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. [1] Maryland State Dept. of Education (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2019-11-15 (via Leider et al. 2021)
  2. [2] Leider, Colombo & Nerlino (2021), EPAA 29(100). Tables 2-5 + Appendix A. (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2019-11-15 (via Leider et al. 2021)
  3. [3] COMAR 13A.12.02.07 - Teaching Endorsements (ESOL, Pre-K-Grade 12; renumbered from 13A.12.02.19 in the 2024-04-01 chapter reorganization) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  4. [4] MSDE — Adding an Endorsement / New Area of Licensure (ESOL endorsement pathways; Praxis and approved-program routes) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  5. [5] NCES Condition of Education 2024 - English Learners in Public Schools (MD = 11.2% fall 2021) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  6. [6] Maryland State Seal of Biliteracy — COMAR 13A.03.07 (authorized by SB 781 / Ch. 232, 2016; Education Article §7-208; administered by MSDE) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  7. [7] WIDA Consortium membership page (Maryland member; ACCESS for ELLs) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  8. [8] Maryland Department of Education, Office of Multilingual Education — 2023-24 EL Data (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-10

Cite this page

Site content is published under CC BY 4.0. When citing a fact from this page, please cite both projectcert and the original Leider et al. (2021) paper the dataset extends.

APA
projectcert. (2026, May 10). Maryland EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/md/
Leider, C. M., Colombo, M. W., & Nerlino, E. (2021). Decentralization, teacher quality, and the education of English learners: Do state education agencies effectively prepare teachers of ELs? Education Policy Analysis Archives, 29(100). https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.29.5279
BibTeX
@misc{projectcert_md_2026,
  author  = {{projectcert}},
  title   = {{Maryland EL teacher certification}},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://projectcert.org/states/md/},
  urldate = {2026-05-10},
  note    = {Last verified 2026-05-10}
}
@article{leider2021decentralization,
  author  = {Leider, Christine M. and Colombo, Michaela W. and Nerlino, Erika},
  title   = {{Decentralization, teacher quality, and the education of English learners: Do state education agencies effectively prepare teachers of ELs?}},
  journal = {Education Policy Analysis Archives},
  volume  = {29},
  number  = {100},
  year    = {2021},
  doi     = {10.14507/epaa.29.5279}
}

See the methodology for how these data were collected, or the glossary for term definitions.