MCPS Careers: Career Growth
In MCPS, we believe that it is the employees who make the difference. We are committed to providing them with the opportunities to grow professionally over the course of their careers here. These opportunities come in several forms: partial tuition reimbursement, a system of coordinated job-embedded professional growth supports and pathways for career advancement.
Tuition Reimbursement
To keep our knowledge and skills up to date, employees take academic courses and training, which is important to our mission and their professional growth. Many courses, workshops and trainings are offered for free by MCPS. However, partial tuition reimbursement for college course work relative to the work is available to all employees in all jobs.
For more information about tuition reimbursement, go to—
- Teachers includes all certificated, nonadministrative positions
- Supporting Services includes all noncertificated positions such as paraeducators, secretaries, building service workers, bus operators, cafeteria workers, IT staff, etc.
- Administrators & Supervisors includes assistant principals, principals, supervisors and directors
Professional Growth Systems
MCPS believes that each employee should identify the areas where he or she wants or needs to grow. We have "professional growth systems" to support them. These professional growth systems can best be defined as a set of interconnecting activities, events or supports. There are three professional growth systems in MCPS, one for teacher-level positions, one for supporting services employees and one for administrators and supervisors. Each one includes clearly defined job standards/expectations/competencies and a peer support system for those who are developing skills. While each professional growth system is unique to the roles and responsibilities of the unit for which it was designed, all of them have fair and equitable evaluation processes and mentors to help everyone be successful, whether they are brand new to the job or need to fine-tune some skills.
For more information about professional growth systems, go to—
- Teachers (PDF) includes all certificated, nonadministrative positions
- Supporting Services includes all noncertificated positions such as paraeducators, secretaries, building service workers, bus operators, cafeteria workers, IT staff, etc.
- Administrators & Supervisors includes assistant principals, principals, supervisors and directors
You can easily and electronically keep track of all your professional development activities on Professional Development Online.
Career Advancement
No matter what your job is in MCPS, you will have the opportunity to either grow in your chosen career or take other pathways. Supports are built into the professional growth systems to help employees fine-tune their skills to go to the next level within a job category or into another job category or leadership opportunity. The employee unions and the leaders of MCPS are working to develop a defined system of pathways and opportunities for professional growth. Here are some examples—
- Teachers includes all certificated, nonadministrative positions. A Career Lattice has been developed and will be implemented over the next two years. The Career Lattice is a framework that includes definitions of leadership responsibilities; processes for application, identification, and evaluation; and a compensation structure that is aligned with the leadership responsibilities. It provides recognition and career planning opportunities for exemplary teachers to retain direct responsibility for students, while accepting additional responsibilities as leaders, coaches and facilitators of school improvement.
- Supporting Services includes all noncertificated positions such as paraeducators, secretaries, building service workers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, etc). Training is available for paraeducators to become teachers.
- Administrators & Supervisors includes assistant principals, principals, supervisors and directors. The Leadership Development Program is designed to help participants develop the knowledge, skills, strategies, attitudes and aspirations to become effective school-based leaders and to improve student learning. School leaders face increasingly high demands to reach higher standards and raise student achievement. The Leadership Development Program aspires to develop the strong leadership that is needed to meet these challenges. The Leadership Development Program content and design acknowledges the changing roles of school administrators to meet challenges such as a greater focus on academic standards and outcomes; increased interest in more collaborative leadership; more demands for community involvement; new instructional strategies; data-driven decision making; and technology.