5/30/2023 0 Comments The classical guitar shedIt's hard to know the size of the problem "They're not beating the table down trying to get to Jackson," Nalls says toward the end of the fair. And he's proud to make that pitch to the eight candidates he interviews at the fair and the half dozen more who leave their contact information. Jackson is on the rise, he points out, earning a C rating from the state last year. Nalls leans into these headwinds with patient optimism. I think that's why most people stray away from teaching there because of what's been said on the news a lot." "Why not?! We've got some of the best elementary schools in the state!"Ĭarr leaves her name and email on Nalls' interest list, while admitting she has reservations about teaching in Jackson: "It's kind of scary. "You hadn't considered ever coming to work and teach in Jackson?" Nalls asks playfully, low-pressure. "And I just want to have fun with the students, basically." "I'm looking for a good work environment," says Kierra Carr, who plans to become an elementary school teacher. It takes 20 minutes for the first teacher candidate to pause at Nalls' table. Just a few years ago, Jackson was an F-rated district, and this job fair has plenty of districts with higher salaries and technicolor banners trumpeting their A ratings. In Mississippi, districts are publicly rated on student performance – a rating novice educators are well aware of. Jackson's shortage is also exacerbated by a years-long water crisis and poverty, which can follow students to school in the form of trauma, disruptive behavior and lower test scores. Salaries there start at just $44,000, and, back at the job fair, Nalls has to compete with a suburban Texas district, a few tables over, advertising $58,000. On average, Nalls says, the district loses 1 in 5 teachers every year. Jackson's story is instructive, if not unique. But they also shared stories of creative, committed efforts – from San Antonio to Hooper Bay, Alaska – to grow a new generation of teachers, while doing more to make sure veteran teachers want to stay. Researchers and educators also point to a cultural undertow pulling at the profession: a long decline in Americans' esteem for teaching.Įducators shared stories of students learning Spanish from computers, and superintendents doing double duty as substitute teachers. Interviews with more than 70 experts and educators across the country, including teachers both aspiring and retiring, offer several explanations: For nearly a decade, fewer people have been going to school to become teachers pay remains low in many places and, with unemployment also low, some could-be teachers have chosen more lucrative work elsewhere. And schools that serve high-poverty neighborhoods and/or a "high-minority student body" were more likely to have vacancies.įor several months, NPR has been exploring the forces at work behind these local teacher shortages. Limited federal data show, as of October 2022, 45% of public schools had at least one teacher vacancy that's after the school year had already begun. Many districts across the country are grappling with teacher shortages large and small. On this sun-kissed morning in March, he's a couple hours north of Jackson, in a ballroom on the campus of Mississippi State University, at a job fair full of soon-to-graduate teachers and school district recruiters from all over the state, and even out-of-state, competing to hire them. "They have to have this certain grit, that certain fight," says Nalls, director of recruitment for Jackson Public Schools, in Mississippi's capital city. And, as badly as his district needs teachers, Nalls doesn't want just anyone. In a ballroom full of job candidates, no one wants to dance with a desperate partner. Wearing an effortless smile and a crisp, gray suit with a cloth lapel flower, Tommy Nalls Jr.
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