A Maryland study offers a more precise case for grow-your-own teacher programs.
Teachers whose first teaching job was in the same district as the Maryland public high school they had attended were 11.6 percentage points more likely to be teaching in that district three years later, and 16.6 points more likely at five years, compared with teachers without a Maryland public-high-school record. Those are adjusted differences from a July 2026 University of Maryland working paper.
For a district leader who has watched the same vacancies return year after year, that is a finding worth paying attention to. It gives weight to the idea behind grow-your-own teacher programs: people with connections to a community may be more likely to build their teaching careers there.
The study also puts a limit on that argument. Local roots predicted staying much more clearly than they predicted student achievement.
The retention finding is only part of the story
Researchers Nicolas Dominguez-Mel, Wesley T. Morris, Sarah Montana, and David Blazar examined records for 35,246 first-time public-school teachers hired in Maryland between 2012–13 and 2023–24. They separated three things that often get bundled together: growing up locally, preparing to teach locally, and working in schools before becoming a teacher. Retention was measured at three and five years, with follow-up available for different numbers of teachers at each point.
That separation matters. A person can grow up in a district, train elsewhere, and return. Another can move to Maryland for a preparation program. An aide can spend years working in a school before pursuing a teaching credential. Calling all of them “local” can hide what their experiences actually contribute.
When the researchers examined math and English language arts achievement in grades 3–8, local upbringing alone showed no statistically significant early-career advantage. The stronger associations were with entry pathways. In the analysis pooling teachers' first two years, several prepared routes were associated with higher math achievement than entry through conditional certification before age 28. The corresponding ELA differences were not statistically significant.
These are observational findings from one state, rather than proof that a particular training route caused better teaching. They nevertheless give districts a reason to distinguish the value of community ties from the value of preparation. A candidate's connection to a place and their readiness for a classroom are related considerations, each deserving attention.
A local pathway still has to prepare a teacher
Grow-your-own teacher programs recruit and prepare people connected to the communities where they will teach. New America's national scan describes pathways for school employees, adult community members, and high-school students. They can share a commitment to local talent while offering very different experiences.
That variation is substantial. In an analysis of 94 GYO initiatives published in Educational Researcher, Danielle Sanderson Edwards and Matthew A. Kraft found differences in goals, participants, and program features. An open working-paper version is also available. A program introducing teenagers to teaching has a different job from one helping employed adults complete preparation and earn a credential.
The Maryland findings make those differences harder to overlook. Recruiting someone who knows the community can help address one part of a staffing problem. What happens during preparation still matters to the students that person will eventually teach.
Consider a paraprofessional who already works in a district. Their experience may include relationships with families, familiarity with school routines, and time supporting students. Becoming the teacher responsible for planning instruction and leading a classroom brings additional demands. A local pathway is valuable partly because it can make that transition possible, with preparation that recognizes what the candidate already knows and develops what comes next.
Former aides performed similarly to other novices in Maryland's pooled first-two-years analysis, with no statistically significant math or ELA difference associated with prior aide experience. Their five-year retention advantage was statewide, without a significant advantage in their original district. That is a reason to take school employees seriously as future teachers, while keeping the claims about that pathway specific.
What a district should expect from growing its own
A district can reasonably value continuity. Teachers who remain have more time to know their students, work with colleagues, and become part of the school's life. Repeated vacancies make those relationships harder to sustain.
Students also need the teaching itself to be effective. The appeal of a familiar face cannot carry the whole case for a program, just as a completion or certification rate cannot describe everything happening in a classroom.
In our view, this is where the Maryland study makes the grow-your-own argument more useful. It gives local recruitment a clearer purpose and gives preparation a responsibility that recruitment cannot fulfill. Districts are investing in people with reasons to stay and in the education and supported practice that help them become teachers.
The question is therefore bigger than whether a local pipeline will fill the next vacancy. What evidence will tell us that the people we help enter teaching are becoming effective teachers who can build a career here?
At Craft, we help districts address the work behind that question, through pathway-design support and tools for recording candidate hours, mentor feedback, and competency progress. If those pieces are difficult to connect in your local teacher pathway, schedule a conversation with Craft about where your team needs support.
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