December blog: Is there hope for our schools?

What can school leaders do to increase teacher retention? How can administrators retain high quality teachers, or is it even up to the school leaders? 

Part of me says, no it is not up to the school leaders. For many towns in the Delta or in the Black Prairie we are looking at economically depressed under developed areas. If I am a young teacher looking to start a family I have to ask myself an important question. Would I send my child to the school where I teach? If my answer is no, then the town has no hope of retaining young, unattached teachers. Thus the deck is already stacked against the principals, superintendent, and the school board before the teacher has a chance to interact with them.

Putting the issue of location aside, the struggling districts of Mississippi have the issue attracting and retaining high quality teachers because every day a teacher goes to work in places like Greenville, Greenwood, Jackson Public Schools, Noxubee, West Point, Meridian, Benton County, and much more, they are preparing for battle against the students, parents, administrators, implementation specialists, and the state department. 

Administrators can attempt to retain high quality teachers by first giving them more time during the school day to fulfill their professional responsibilities. This would most likely take the form of two planning periods each day. If Tupelo high school and Quitman County middle school could find a way to give teachers two planning periods, other school need to step up. It’s unfair to ask me to sacrifice my one planning period to do online professional development, contact parents, meet with my department, communicate with the TST, and hold another teacher’s class on top of my other responsibilities as a classroom teacher. 

Administrators need to revamp the discipline system. Every “priority status” school is required to reduce the number of discipline referrals in order to meet a marker on their improvement plan. Refusing to acknowledge office referrals for behavior that disrupts learning and belittles the classroom teacher is NOT effectively handling or managing discipline. It is simply turning a blind eye to students’ flagrant disrespect for authority. 

How do administrators fix this problem? Don’t use nonsense like the "discipline matrix" seen in Jackson Public schools, Meridian, and Greenville because it just means that a child can literally curse out a teacher and assault a teacher without getting suspended. Students need to be held accountable for their actions. Flagrant disrespect should result in a loss of privileges. That being said schools need to rethink their jailhouse approach to monitoring students. 

This requires a discipline plan based on a privilege/loss of privilege system once a student's behavior is referred to an administrator. Firstly, within each classroom, teachers must design and implement a 4-step discipline ladder. Students may only be referred to the office if they have climbed up the discipline ladder, for major classroom disruptions, or for flagrant disrespect of authority. 

Once referred to the office a student's discipline may include one or more of the following: loss of privileges for 1 week for first offense, after school detention for 1 week, Saturday detention for 2 weeks, community service for 2 weeks, or out of school suspension for 5 days

(privileges include but are not limited to: bathroom, library, eating lunch in the cafeteria, attending school sponsored events, participating in school sponsored events)

*Students automatically receive out of school suspension for involvement in a physical altercation on campus, bringing weapons to school, or using profanity directed at a faculty member

**Suspended students have 30 minutes to vacate the premises with a parent/guardian. Failure to do so will result in he student being held at the local police station

*** If a student gets out of school suspension a second time, a case will be brought before the school disciplinary committee. If this child continues to be a discipline problem upon returning from his/her second out of school suspension, the child will either be expelled or sent to alternative school for the remainder of the school year.  

With respect to Mississippi specifically, do you think the image of the state needs to change before qualified teachers will stick around?

With respect to Mississippi specifically, the image of the state has very little to do with qualified teachers sticking around. The issue is the reality of the state. The reality is that Mississippi is one of only seven states (including the District of Columbia) who have a high school graduation rate below 70%. Of those seven states/regions Mississippi’s graduation rate is only better than the District of Columbia. (per the 2014 report on the condition of education conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics)

The vast majority of Mississippi's school districts are rural and poor. Given this overwhelming poverty, districts cannot afford to pay teachers a decent wage. If I am an exceptional teacher with no family ties to Mississippi, why would I choose to sacrifice my livelihood, wellbeing, and happiness to stay in a state that pays new teachers ~$34,000 when I could go to literally any other state (except for New Mexico) and make more money as a teacher?

In other states, the teachers are paid anywhere from $5,000-$10,000 more if they choose to work in critical needs districts. This is not even close to the reality for Mississippi. Somehow the money is not there, so there is nothing to entice good and great teachers to stay.