Mississippi’s Critical Teacher Shortage

Biology teacher Tanya Rodges teaches ecology to 10th graders at Shaw High School

At a time when other industries are cutting jobs, many school districts in the Magnolia state are searching for highly qualified personnel. In a new series “Mississippi’s critical teacher shortage” we look at why the state cannot attract and retain enough qualified teachers. MPB’s Sandra Knispel takes us first to the small Delta school district of Shaw.

[Nat sound teacher rapping about predators, prey, herbivores etc]

You may not have had a rapping biology teacher drilling ecology stanza by stanza -- but anything goes to make memorization – well more memorable. Tanya Rodges has been a science teacher for 12 years, nine of those spent at Shaw High School in the Delta. She’s one of those teachers – engaging, highly qualified and with staying power – who are in short supply in many school districts.

"A lot of the younger teachers they come in, but a lot of them have left. I’ve seen some that have gone to other professions, I’ve seen some that have just gone back to school and they’re working on other professions,” says Rodges.

Here in Shaw, a tiny town south of Cleveland, many of the 2,300 residents have little. The only clinic closed, and local shopping is limited to mini marts and gas stations. At the high school, only one student is not African American and the percentage of free or reduced lunches hovers in the mid nineties. But make no mistake, teacher shortage here does not mean empty classrooms.

“When we talk about a teacher shortage – we are able to fill all of our teacher slots. However, we are unable at all times to find highly qualified teachers. That is a problem," says Dr. Cederick Ellis.

Ellis has been superintendent in Shaw since last August. This small school district with just 600 students has one of the state’s highest percentages of teachers on so-called emergency licenses – one fifth the be precise – which allows those without certification to teach. By state law those emergency teachers have just three years to obtain the necessary credentials, or face expulsion.

“It’s going to hit us very hard, but you had those teachers who kept applying for a one-year-interim certificate and not doing what was necessary on their part to become certified, which hurts the district," says Dr. Ellis.

Location, location, location is key to attracting and retaining teachers, says Shaw High School principal Martha Jackson.

“Here in Shaw there’s no industries," says Jackson. "There is really ‘nothing for the adults to do.’ So, young people gonna look at places where there’s something for them to do after work.”

It’s also a question of money. Teachers are paid little by comparison to other college graduates. The fact that those trained in Mississippi can work under a reciprocity agreement in other states where salaries are roughly $10,000 higher – means additional teacher drain.

“We lose a lot of teachers to Memphis, Tennessee, in the Delta. Texas and Tennessee," Jackson explains.

Nearly a third of Mississippi’s 152 school districts are so-called critical teacher shortage areas. For the current school year nearly 2,600 teachers worked under emergency licenses, that’s 7 ½ percent of all teachers in the state. State Superintendent of Education Dr. Hank Bounds...

“I think it’s a crisis that for too long has been ignored and I think it’s one of the prime reasons that we are ranked among the lowest-performing states in this country on almost all academic measures. The number one difference maker in terms of whether students are successful is the quality of the teacher in the classroom," says Bounds.

While many parents in high-poverty school districts are paralyzed by apathy, Shaw PTA president Jeanette Ollie, a college graduate who works as a maintenance planner, is one of the few fighting for a better future.

“We don’t have much, but we should have our schools if nothing else," says Ollie. "Because the kids have nothing else to look forward to in Shaw except for the stuff they are headed to now, which is drugs and babies. That’s where it’s going.”

Like many other districts, Shaw simply cannot afford to lose any good educators like the rapping biology teacher at its high school [nat sound rapping] – the consequences are simply too dire.