Mississippi Board of Education hears results of teacher retention survey, concerns over ACT prep

The Mississippi State Board of Training not too long ago held its month-to-month assembly. ACT prep, instructor retention, and third grade studying assessments had been among the many issues mentioned.

Throughout final week’s month-to-month assembly, members of the Mississippi State Board of Training reviewed the outcomes of a instructor retention survey and third grade literacy assessments. The Board additionally heard considerations that prime faculty college students should not ready for the ACT. 

Excessive Faculty Senior Scholar Consultant Charlie Frugé mentioned he’s been tutoring fellow Oxford Excessive Faculty college students since he was a freshman. Over these 4 years he’s seen an ongoing development of scholars who’re unprepared for the take a look at, particularly the English portion. 

“Final month I tutored an expensive good friend; he’s a senior at Oxford Excessive Faculty. He’s a median pupil, he makes As and Bs,” Frugé mentioned. “He had no clue what a topic and object was. He didn’t know what a noun was, or a verb.”

He added that this was not the primary time. 

“Dozens of my friends don’t know when to make use of a semicolon or a comma. They don’t even know what an em sprint is. However that’s not their fault. After 4 years of the identical dialog, wherein I clarify the essential properties of nouns and verbs to 18-year-olds, I discover myself with one query. ‘How did this occur?’ They’ve been by means of 12 grades, they’ve had 12 English academics. They’ve had 12 alternatives to be taught fundamental grammar,” Frugé mentioned. “However right here we’re and one way or the other it’s the job of a ninth-grade pupil at Oxford to clarify to 18-year-olds what a noun was.”

Whereas his prime instance handled a pupil’s grasp of English, Frugé mentioned there are gaps of information in science, corresponding to not figuring out what an X axis and Y axis are. 

Since Mississippi is one in all 13 states within the nation that mandate taking the ACT with a purpose to graduate from highschool, Frugé mentioned there’s a want for extra companies to arrange college students for the take a look at. 

“Now my friends lack the abilities vital to attain nicely on the ACT. The Mississippi Division of Training finds it vital that they take the ACT, due to this fact I discover it vital that they be ready for the ACT,” Frugé mentioned.

Training Board Chair Glen East tasked Frugé with asking his fellow college students how they put together and to seek out free strategies to satisfy that want. 

The Board additionally mentioned the outcomes of a latest instructor retention survey accomplished by educators within the state. The report discovered that academics usually tend to proceed instructing if they’ve entry to robust mentorship, are supplied with goal efficiency assessments, and may meet their financial wants. 

Dr. Paula Vanderford, Chief Accountability Officer, mentioned the goal of the survey is to have efficient academics and leaders within the colleges. 

Of the greater than 31,000 academics within the state, 9,488 indicated they’d fill it out, however solely 6,267 accomplished the 70-question survey, mentioned Dr. Courtney Van Cleave, State Director of Educator Expertise Acquisition and Effectiveness. Efforts are underway to make modifications to the survey, corresponding to making it shorter within the hopes of boosting completion charges. 

One set of questions centered on what makes the mentor/mentee relationship extra profitable.

“So, we dug a bit deeper into that this 12 months and surveyed academics on a number of the various factors of a mentor mentee partnership. Total academics highlighted the significance of instructing the identical topic because the mentee as being an important issue,” Van Cleave mentioned.

Academics additionally discovered mentors had been best once they had 5 years extra expertise than the mentee, however there was a drop off when the mentor had over 15 years extra expertise. 

Outcomes of the survey additionally centered on working circumstances. Van Cleave mentioned positive aspects had been seen in relation to instructor performances being assessed objectively and the way suggestions helped them enhance. However there was a grievance. 

“When it comes to the working circumstances part of this survey, we noticed an uptick within the variety of interruptions that academics are experiencing all through the educational day,” Van Cleave mentioned. 

She steered discovering one other system of communication to scale back utilizing the intercom or class runners. 

Exterior financial pressures had been additionally cited within the survey, corresponding to rising gas prices and insurance coverage. The variety of respondents to the survey who felt further pay raises would assist with instructor recruitment and retention rose from 54 p.c within the 2021-2022 faculty 12 months to 65 p.c in 2022-2023. 

Nonetheless, respondents within the survey famous pay was not the one purpose they continued to show. 

“And it didn’t come as essentially a shock, however academics definitely reiterated that they primarily proceed within the classroom due to their college students,” Van Cleave mentioned. 

Board members additionally heard in regards to the outcomes of the third grade studying evaluation. Kristen Wynn, State Literacy Director for Ok-12, mentioned the ultimate cross charge at the moment sits at 84.9 p.c. In 2019, that charge was 74.5 p.c. The preliminary charge was 76.3 p.c, however after the ultimate retests had been administered it reached 84.9 p.c, practically the identical because the 2019’s 85.6 p.c and 2022’s 85 p.c. In accordance with a press launch from MDE in regards to the outcomes, college students are given three probabilities to cross the take a look at. 

“Nonetheless, in the event you think about our good trigger exemptions, we’re sitting at round 92.8 p.c of our third graders promoted to fourth grade,” Wynn mentioned.

Wynn mentioned there are native necessities inside every faculty district that might lead to a pupil being retained to the third grade, even when they handed the studying a part of the evaluation. 

“We need to enhance literacy outcomes for all of our college students. Our aim is to have 100% of our college students passing third grade studying evaluation,” Wynn instructed the Board.