The Mississippi State Board of Education announced last week that Robert Taylor would serve as the new Superintendent of Education for Mississippi. Taylor will be leaving the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to fulfill the position if approved by the State Senate. He will start in January of 2023 and will be the second person of color to hold the position in the state's history.
Taylor's hire comes after the retirement of Carey Wright in June, who was the longest-serving superintendent since the board's creation. Interim superintendent Kim Benton was appointed after Wright's retirement and will remain in the role until Taylor takes over.
Taylor addressed media personnel Monday morning, and answered a variety of questions about his hopes and plans for the state. Below are some questions and answers from the press conference.
What are your initial priorities in this new role?
My initial priorities are certainly to get to know the staff at MDE. They've been doing this work a long time, so they're going to be very familiar with all the things that are taking place in the department. I certainly want to make a conscious effort to get out and meet superintendents of districts, visit schools, just get a feel for what we know is good in Mississippi and areas where districts know they need help. So just getting out and meeting people and getting to know the state better.
What do you think are some of the biggest challenges facing education in Mississippi?
I think the biggest challenge is what all districts face, and that's quality teachers or teacher shortages. This is certainly one of the questions that I was asked about and how we plan to handle that. There are a number of ways I think we can do this work, certainly by having relationships with universities and understanding how we can make their teacher education programs better… [and] looking at alternative licensing approaches for teachers so we can get more teachers in the field. I certainly want to see us do more work with administration in how they supervise the actual work that takes place.
You’re a native Mississippian and are now coming back home. What are some challenges you want to look more into now that you’re back?
I'm glad to be coming home. I can tell people that while I have been in North Carolina the past 30 years, I make visits to home all the time. My family is still there. My wife is from Mississippi. So we do have a vested interest in the state. I think the challenges that Mississippi has are the same challenges that districts across the nation have dealing with: funding, dealing with teacher shortages, dealing with teacher ed programs. How do we make sure students are properly prepared to go out into the workforce? And so that is the challenge that we have. My goal is to certainly get in and examine those things that have been working well for the state and then determine how we build upon that. We certainly want every community, everybody in this state to invest in public education. I think we all know that at some point we were impacted by it. And so we want it to be something that is productive for the state of Mississippi, whether a kid is college or career ready. It is our absolute duty to make sure that when they walk across that stage after having attended our public schools, that they're going to be viable candidates. I know that when we make this kind of concerted effort as a state, that is what attracts businesses to your state. So we want people to understand that if you come to Mississippi, we've made the investment in education and you won't be sorry for coming.
Could give us an idea about how you anticipate working with the state legislature?
I think our responsibility at the MDE is to talk with the legislature about what we know, what's going to move the mark in Mississippi and the type of legislation that's needed to support it... We can't do this work without them. We want to be partners with them. We want to continue to have those kinds of conversations to say, “this is what our data shows us.”
I know one of the topics that particularly the lieutenant governor has talked about is incentivizing districts to go to a year-round calendar. What are your thoughts on that kind of adjusted calendar versus the traditional? I think that's absolutely beneficial. We know that when districts go to a year-round calendar, it reduces the amount of time between sessions. We know that has a large amount to do with the learning loss. I think we learned so much about that during the COVID crisis that when kids are out of school, there's a tremendous amount of loss that they have. We've known for years that there's a summer learning loss that we have to make up for when kids come back to school. And so by going to a year on calendar, I think every district or school that participate in that will see a benefit. So anything that we can do to shorten the amount of time that the students are out, I think that's great. If the lieutenant governor believes this is a program that we can do to… incentivize districts to participate, I think that's absolutely wonderful. And so the results when you look at the research, will show that it is positive.
There is talk that you are a supporter of critical race theory. What is your response to that?
What I can tell you is critical race theory is not something that we teach in school. I remember in 2020 when the topic first came up, I had to say to myself that I'm an educated man, but I'm afraid I can't speak intelligently about what critical race theory is. So, if anyone has a notion or anything that says, I support critical race theory, that I absolutely reject that notion in public education, we are about teaching children the standards and making sure that they have access to that. My entire political career has been about not taking on those type of stances. In public education, I know that when parents send their children to us, they trust that we're going to do the right thing, that we make them critical thinkers, of course, but we don't drive them in a particular direction. And so, I actually taught social studies for a number of years. And what I can tell you is I've never taken an opportunity to tell anyone to feel guilty for who they are. And so that is a part of critical race theory. We all know and understand that is not taught in public schools. It is, as I understand, the law school theory. I've never been to law school, so I've never studied critical race theory. It's just not something that I do.
What are your thoughts on testing? Do you feel like we overtest here in Mississippi?
What I can tell you is that nearly all assessment systems across the 50 states are about the same. You can find subtle differences, but it's going to come down to reading and math in your third through eighth grades and specific subjects in the high school. And then, [there’s] the question about proficiency versus growth. If you ask me, are we overtesting children? Absolutely we are. And I think everybody in the nation sees that and understand that… so many states are now engaged in looking at their assessment systems and determining if they need to do something different, if they need to include different kinds of assessments, different measurements. I think at the end of the day, we have to have a clear focus on what we call proficiency and growth, meaning, what is it that we want to know? Do we want to really understand if a student is proficient in the standards and the curriculum that we've laid out, and if they are, that's what we want every student to be. But we also recognize that students come to school with different experiences and different levels of education. I don't see many differences between Mississippi and other states. Again, it comes down to growth in proficiency and in determining what is it that we truly want to know about how well our kids are doing in school?
Can you kind of elaborate on your decision to come back to Mississippi?
Mississippi's always been home for me. My wife and I, we've talked about this for several years… We knew that once we retire from North Carolina that we would come back south. And Mississippi was certainly at the top of that list. Anyone who knows me knows that one of my dreams has always been to return to Mississippi as the state superintendent to lead the efforts from a state perspective. So for me, this is the pinnacle of my career to say that I can take nearly 30 years of experience of working in schools and districts at the state level, and then bring that experience and work collaboratively with the people in the MDE, in the districts across the state of Mississippi.
One of the questions I was asked is” where do you see the state in X number of years?” And I see as a state that continues… to say that we may not be at the top of the list, but we certainly want to be the national symbol of how you provide a quality education in a state that has the demographics and the economics that Mississippi has. I certainly want to be a part of that conversation. I look forward to working with the MDE staff, the superintendents, the legislature and the governor, because this is our state, this is our home, and we want to see it continually improve. What could be a greater gift to a native?
We are the poorest state in the nation. Do you have any idea or plan or hopes for children in Mississippi that are living in poverty?
When we talk about children in poverty, that has everything to do with the knowledge and professional development that we give teachers about how they teach these children. Our responsibility as educators is what we do with those children when they come into the school. One of the greatest things that I've seen in Mississippi that I'm really so proud of is to see the community eligibility program where students are allowed to participate in the school lunch program at no cost… I was informed that 99% of the schools in Mississippi are a part of this program… That means we are making a conscious effort to deal with those issues with kids. If we think about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, we’re addressing the food issue. A kid can't learn if they're if they're hungry. So, we put the work in to make sure that we do that. But I was a child who grew up in poverty. I never knew that. But it was teachers that invested in me that saw that I could be more than what ended that door. And so, we think about children in poverty. We want to give them access to quality education and give them the ability to make conscious choices about what their future looks like. That's something I've committed myself to my entire educational career, and I will do that until I'm no longer in education.
What do you think is going to keep teachers here or bring teachers to the state of Mississippi?
Anything that we can do to address teacher compensation, that's going to always be a plus. But we also understand that teachers want to be able to do quality jobs and know that they're doing a quality job. When we provide them good professional development, that grows them as professionals, when they see that they're effective, that's what causes a person to remain in the classroom. So we can always, from a financial perspective, do things to attract people. But the real question is, what are we doing to keep those people? How do we support teachers that are in the classrooms? Do they see it as something that's worthwhile? Do they see that they have the support from that particular employee? We do those things. Then we get people to remain in the profession and remain for quite some time. What I can tell you is teachers by nature are altruistic. They do this work because they want to do it. And for that reason, they may not always be compensated as they should. But I certainly appreciate what the legislature did to address teacher compensation in Mississippi. And I think that goes a long way into letting teachers know that they are appreciated.
What's your message to both teachers who may be seeing parts of this interview today and then also parents who have children in the public school system in Mississippi?
I would say to teachers that you have someone who understands the work, who has done the work, and he wants to do everything that he can to help you improve as an educator because no one understand why you do this work. Most teachers will have a story in terms of why they got into this profession. I want them to remember that story and let that ground them and the work that they do. As far as parents are concerned, I want them to know that they can trust that when they send their children to school that we're going to do our very best. I certainly believe that parents are the first teachers. They should have the loudest voice as it relates to how their children are educated. I think that is the thing that has always put parents at ease when they've had an opportunity to talk with me… as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent. I always keep a picture of my children on my desk because it reminds me that I'm a parent first and that when a parent comes into my office, that is their number one priority. What I've always told teachers, and I want parents to hear this… anything that you do for children, if you wouldn't do for your own children, that you can't do for the ones that come to the school. I want both parents and teachers to know that as your state superintendent, I see it as my duty to make the experience for your children the best they can be and the experience for teachers to be the best they can be.
You are only the second black person to be named the new state superintendent of Mississippi education. Can you just speak briefly to what that means to you?
I hope that for students of color that they see that they have the opportunity to rise to a position such as this. I would certainly like to think that I was not selected because of my color, but because of my body of work. But I do recognize that there are a lot of young black boys and young black girls that will see themselves in me. But I will ask them to not only see themselves in me, but see themselves in everyone that they come across. Because that's certainly what happened to me when I was a teacher. There were those black teachers that I model myself after. There was also Basil Smith, who was my math teacher in high school. He was a white gentleman, and he and I are friends to this day. And so I would say to people that don't look at me on the surface as a particular person, but look a little deeper than that. And that I'm a person who is committed to this work. And I certainly hope we all take the opportunity to look beyond the surface of a person.