/After years of inaction, Delta teacher shortage reaches ‘crisis’ levels

After years of inaction, Delta teacher shortage reaches ‘crisis’ levels

Nonprofit Mississippi News This story is part of a series on the teacher shortage in Mississippi. It was produced by The Hechinger Report (a non-profit, independent news agency that focuses on inequality and innovation within education) in partnership with Mississippi Today. You can sign up for the Hechinger newsletter here and the Mississippi Today education edition newsletter here. The second story is about districts being forced into online programs. The third story is about grassroots efforts. MARKS, Miss. Cortez Moss, the 2016 Quitman County Middle School principal, realized that his first month would be almost entirely devoted to teacher recruitment. One March afternoon, while he was working on an Excel hiring tracker from home, he realized that only four of the school’s 24 teachers would be returning to the classroom in the fall. The 26-year old had to find 20 replacement teachers, as well as a custodian and two secretaries and a guidance counsellor, before school reopened in August. He said, “I was like I thought I had taken the wrong job.” Moss’ struggles are commonplace in a state that has struggled with teacher shortages for many decades. This is especially true in the Mississippi Delta. According to the Mississippi Department of Education, the problem has worsened over the past 20 years. Six times more teachers are needed than in 1997, when the Legislature tackled the problem with the Critical Teacher Shortage Act. The state has failed to address the problem, leaving Moss and other local leaders struggling to resolve a problem they say is beyond their control. The problem is caused by cuts to education funding, low teacher salaries, and a shrinking supply of teachers willing to work in the Delta, which is predominantly African-American and predominantly low-income. A 2017 Mississippi Economic Review study found that the most severely affected districts have a low local property tax base, high numbers of black students, and are located in the Delta. According to a 2017 Mississippi Economic Review study, a Delta district is 114x more likely to experience a shortage than one that is not. In counties that have multiple districts, the shortages are more severe in those with high black student populations. In North Panola School District where 97% of students are African American, 9 percent of teachers did not have proper certification for the 2017-18 schoolyear. In South Panola School district, 55 percent of students are African American, only 2 percent were certified. Devon Brenner, one the authors of this study, stated that although the results aren’t surprising, they are alarming. They present real challenges that we need to consider. How can we help students from other areas to be able to work in these schools? How can we make sure that school leaders create teachers workplaces that teachers love to join? Moss first called all Quitman Middle teachers to find out why they were not returning. He learned that many of them had difficulty passing the Praxis exam to become a teacher in Mississippi. He then posted his vision on Facebook and encouraged people to apply. He also targeted his outreach by calling ex-teachers and other staff who were familiar with the school and had previously worked there. He was able convince some of them to return. He then reached out to teachers in other areas and students in college to try to get some graduates to teach at his school. Moss still had vacancies in July despite his tireless efforts. He said, “I was really frustrated throughout the entire time.” Many Mississippi communities, especially those in the Delta like Quitman County, face challenges when it comes to recruiting teachers. These include low pay, limited housing options and a lack job opportunities for spouses. According to the National Education Association (the nation’s largest teacher’s union), Mississippi teachers earned less than any other state in 2016-17. The average salary for teachers was $42,925, compared with the national average of just below $60,000. According to their education level, starting teachers in Mississippi can earn between $34,000-$39,000. Maurice Smith, Superintendent of the Delta District North Bolivar Consolidated said, “You can get it at Walmart.” He also stated that raising teacher salaries is essential to solve the teacher shortage problem. The Delta’s median income is $34,000. Although local pay supplements can be provided by districts to teachers, they may vary from one district to the next. For example, in the Desoto County Schools District, teachers who have a bachelor’s degree were eligible for a $4,204 local supplement for 2018. This is in contrast to the $825.65 North Bolivar Consolidated. According to data from MDE, the supplement in East Tallahatchie Consolidated Schools District was $9.72. In 2014, the state passed a law that would reward schools that perform well or show improvement. These schools received more than $20 million in pay increases in 2017. Schools with poor performance are not eligible for funding. This means that the funds won’t be available to those schools. Only 422 of the 882 state public schools received funding from the program in 2017. Only 62 of these schools were located within the Delta. Related: What has Mississippi’s legislature proposed to improve education this year? Other attempts to increase salaries were not made law. Two bills were introduced by lawmakers during the 2018 legislative session. They were House Bill 699 (House Bill 993) and House Bill 993 (House Bill 993). These bills were intended to give educators a financial boost. Both bills were not able to make it to the House floor in time for full debate. They both died in committee. This defeat has been disappointing for educators who feel that their contributions to the state’s economic and civic well being have been overlooked. Jason Jossell, Quitman County School district’s band director, stated that teachers are responsible for training your next doctors, lawyers, and leaders. “Throughout history, we’ve forgotten this.” He said that teachers can earn about $15,000 more by moving across state lines. He asked, “What is the point of trying to compete with schools in Tennessee?” Vernita and Kaitlyn Burnett, teachers in Clarksdale Municipal Schools, are acutely aware of the problem. Barton, who is originally from Flowood has a little more than three years of teaching experience. Burnett, a Clarksdale native has eight. Burnett and Burnett sat in Burnett’s class, which is filled with inspirational messages and photos of books. They shared their stories about trying to make ends meets on a teacher salary. Burnett, who earns $44,000 per year, admitted that she had difficulty paying rent, car and other expenses before having a child. Burnett used to share bills with a roommate, which made her expenses more affordable. To make extra money, she now has “side hustles,” which include styling hair, creating flyers and invitations, or helping graduate students with their papers. Barton, who earns a little more than $37,000, says that nearly all her colleagues are in similar situations. She said, “I don’t know any teacher who is childless and doesn’t have at most one roommate.” “I have a roommate. People live in four- and five-person houses to save rent. Burnett and Barton thought about quitting teaching, but they hope to make it work and get promoted to administrative positions. Barton said, “It’s a shame you have to move closer to students to get more pay.” “This is why the most talented teachers leave the classroom,” said Barton, a native Mississippian who wants to remain in her home state. However, Barton indicated that she might eventually move somewhere in search for better pay and working conditions. The slideshow below gives a glimpse of Kaitlyn Barton’s day as she teaches, does a second job, and then returns home to prepare for her next day in class. All photos by Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today. The 1998 Critical Teacher Shortage Act was designed to ease the financial strain on Mississippi’s teachers. The bill provided an incentive for college education majors to teach areas in need by covering all tuition costs, including housing, meals and books. It paid up to $1,000 for moving expenses to students who were going to areas with high unemployment. Also, it reimbursed travel costs for job interviews. It established a Mississippi Department of Education office specifically for the purpose of recruiting teachers. The act also created a program to provide home loans for teachers in areas of critical need. In one district, the act funded rental housing. The state has spent $15 million on these initiatives since 2008. Related: Survey finds Southern voters want to spend more on education. Eddie Anderson, the executive director of Delta Area Association for Improvement of Schools (DAAIS), said that the original law made a significant difference in recruiting teachers to high-need areas. He said that students would ask, “Are you in an area of critical shortage?” “They wanted to be in a place where they could receive the benefits.” However, over the years the law was amended to provide undergraduate financial assistance including forgivable student loan to any teacher who is willing to teach in Mississippi, even those in areas with a shortage of teachers. Anderson stated that the state made it available to everyone and that it reduced its impact. Although state spending has fluctuated over 10 years, it has generally trended downward — almost $4 million in 2011, compared to $860,000 this year. The state has seen a decline in the number of teachers in recent years due to the low salaries. Over 5,000 students were enrolled in teacher preparation programs in the state in 2011. According to the most recent Title II National Teacher Preparation data, enrollment had dropped to 2,795, by 2016. Similar declines have been seen in neighboring states like Arkansas and Alabama. According to data from Mississippi Department of Education, the teacher shortage in Mississippi is six times worse today than it was twenty years ago when the Critical Teacher Shortage Act was passed. Clarence Hayes is the Clarksdale High School principal. It was glorified to become a teacher… but no one wants to continue that path anymore. It’s very sad.” Hayes also mentioned low wages as a reason. He said that you must love it to be able to do it. Teachers may be discouraged by structural obstacles like low salaries, but there are also things that can hinder their ability to teach, such as a lack in morale. Teachers say that lawmakers constantly tell them that traditional public schools don’t make sense. Only twice has the Mississippi Legislature fully funded the education budget in the last 20 years. This has resulted in significant losses at the local level. According to MDE data, Clarksdale Municipal Schools District serves approximately 2,600 students. It has suffered a teacher shortage since 2007. Clarksdale Municipal Schools District has seen a loss of nearly $16million in budget cuts since 2007. The problem has been exacerbated by top federal and state education officials advocating for school option programs. These programs include voucher schools and charter schools, which take funding from traditional public schools. Related: Are Mississippi’s rural charter schools financially viable? Teachers are also under constant pressure to ensure their students score well on state-standardized tests. This is another factor that can undermine morale. Due to cuts in state budgets, the second-largest state school district, Jackson Public School District, which has 25,000 students, has seen a loss of $116 million over the past 10 years. Three charter schools have been opened in the district since 2015. This has not helped and cost the students of the district as well as the money they would need. Between 2015, the year charter schools opened, and 2018, the public school enrollment fell by approximately 2,400. The charter schools enrolled 944 students in that time period. In March 2018, rumors circulated that lawmakers would convene in a special session in order to establish a new school funding formula. However, those hopes were crushed when Sen. Gray Tollison (R-Oxford), the Senate Education chairman, announced that there would not be a special session to discuss funding for education. Tollison noted that the Legislature still had other matters to attend to, including the state’s infrastructure problem. Barton, the Clarksdale High teacher, said, “You carry the weight of the entire world on your shoulders. You’re supposed teach the next generation, and yet, you still have people saying, ‘Those who can’t do, Teach.'” “You’re expected to do everything for everyone, but you don’t get the same professional respect and professional courtesy as other professions.” Ronnie Musgrove, former Mississippi governor, said that teachers and school administrators are often subject to “the weight of the world” and “are constantly fighting with city hall and being told to improve or increase. “Everything that comes from the state seems to be, “We have a faster, better solution and it doesn’t involve public schools.” In the Delta, particularly where schools for black students were underfunded during legal segregation, there are deep historical roots to teacher retention and recruitment. Even though the schools were supposedly desegregated by the mid-20th Century, many of the wealthiest residents in the area had less to do with public schools’ survival or success. Brenner was one of the authors in the 2017 Mississippi Economic Review. He said that the problem is compounded by the fact most aspiring teachers in the Delta are white and not prepared to teach in a predominantly African American community. According to the most recent Title II National Teacher Preparation Report, 2,141 of the 2,795 students in Mississippi’s teacher education programs were white while only 547 were African American. Related: Opinion. Confessions of an Urban Teacher. “We must address racism in teacher education with students,” she stated. She also noted that more formal training is needed in Civil Rights movements, and instruction on implicit bias. This training would reduce the “downward spiral”, which results in teachers being sent to Delta classrooms without understanding the needs and backgrounds of their students, according to Dana Franz, a Mississippi State University professor and co-author of 2017 Mississippi Economic Review. Franz stated, “We take these students who have not been prepared in the classroom and then we place them in these teacher preparation programs that don’t do a good enough job of teaching them the pedagogy or the content knowledge they need.” Franz said, “Then they return to the classroom unprepared to teach.” Although the state has made some progress in addressing the problem, much of the work to address the teacher shortage is still left to local leaders. Many are trying.
To think creatively about ways to keep teachers happy at work. Clarksdale High School has, for example, created social activities to allow new teachers, especially those who are less experienced and may be more inclined to leave, to build relationships with veterans. Charles Reid, an art teacher, holds “Painting with a Twist,” a school-based class in which teachers paint while sipping wine. Teachers and school leaders have also been to Cleveland to bowl together. Hayes said that they have also attended workshops to improve their communication skills. In 2015, Clarksdale school officials established signing bonuses of $2650, which were split into two installments for three-year commitments. Dennis Dupree (superintendent of Clarksdale Municipal Schools District) said that they have also established a teacher advisory panel to seek teacher input about how to create a healthy work environment. (The bonus-plus-commitment approach has been tried in other districts as well; leaders say it’s common for teachers to leave after they finish their commitment.) Related: Mississippi College’s attempt to address teacher shortages. Officials at the Coahoma Country School District in Clarksdale hope modestly higher salaries, a rise of $1,400, will aid with retention. The May increase was approved by the school board. Mildrica, a second-year teacher at Friars Point Elementary School who teaches third graders, claims that the extra money has already improved teacher morale. She said that teachers are now working harder. Considering the state’s history of being lax, such local efforts are crucial. Moss, who was the principal and had to work hard to fill 20 Quitman County teacher vacancies two years ago, actually succeeded with all of them being filled by qualified teachers. Moss did not have to make one recruitment call in his second year of principal. Retention is a very difficult battle for many districts. He said that he had neglected other areas due to the fact that he spent so much time on retention and recruitment. He said, “Building relationships between teachers, building relationships avec families and parents — these things were affected.” Teaching was once a popular profession. However, it is no longer a dream job. It’s very sad. Moss is no longer a principal. Instead, he works for the state department education. Staffers updated the state board in August on a renewed push to hire teachers. Moss stated that he would like two pathways for teachers to become licensed in the state, one without the need to pass Praxis. These routes would be determined by teacher candidates’ performance as well as their practical experience in the classroom. MDE announced in September that it had received a $4.1million grant to test these pilot programs across four districts. Moss admitted that MDE used “Band-Aid” solutions to address teacher shortages before he started working for it. His new job is part of his mission to find more permanent solutions so that the temporary fixes can eventually be obsolete. Moss stated that there is nothing wrong with a Band-Aid solution. Moss said that while there is nothing wrong with a Band-Aid solution, it’s important to think about preventative measures. This story was produced by The Hechinger Report in partnership with Mississippi Today. You can sign up for the Hechinger newsletter here and the Mississippi Today education edition newsletter here. To support this important work, make a regular donation to the Hechinger Foundation today as part of the Spring Member Drive.