Mississippi’s teacher shortage continues to rise even as the Mississippi Department of Education intensifies efforts to increase the state’s educator workforce.
Executive Director of Educator Talent Acquisition Courtney Van Cleve presented the findings of the 2023-2024 Educator Shortage Survey to the Mississippi Board of Education during its Feb. 15 meeting. Results show that schools have 5,012 vacancies among teachers, administrators and school support staff, an increase of 24 compared to the 2022-2023 school year.
“We do believe (the presentation) reflects part of our broader efforts to ensure we have a comprehensive picture of Mississippi’s educator-career continuum to ensure that we are indeed aligning strategies that do strengthen our educator workforce as a whole,” Van Cleve told the board during the meeting.
MDE’s Office of Teaching and Leading conducted the survey of the state’s nearly 150 school districts from Aug. 4 to Nov. 15, 2023. Although the overall uptick seems minimal, the data showed an increase of 182 unfilled positions among teachers, nine among other K-12 licensed educators and 25 among administrators. The state has seen a decrease in support staff vacancies, which are also counted in the overall total.
“These areas have actually seen some of the steepest rates of decrease in terms of the number of vacancies,” Van Cleve said. “With food service staff, vacancies are down by over 100 in the last three years and bus driver vacancies are also down by over 100 In just the last year alone. So we have seen some reductions there that have been pretty large in terms of scale.”
Van Cleve highlighted elementary education, high-school STEM and exceptional education as high areas of need for the state.
“Special education remains another one of our big areas of need as a whole,” Van Cleve told the board. “This is also one of those areas where we’re still on the decline since when we started the survey administration. However, there has been a recent uptick since last year’s survey results, so there is indeed some variability there.”
Van Cleve also told the board that elementary vacancies continue to be a priority but are trending in the right direction.
“Those continue to be some of our highest areas of need as a state,” Van Cleve told the board. “With upper elementary, four through six, what we do want to see is that those vacancies are continuing to decline over time.”
Van Cleve listed steps the agency has already taken to mitigate the state’s teacher shortage including the introduction of the Mississippi Teacher Residency program and expanded access to alternate-route programs, specifically elementary educator preparation programs. She echoed State Superintendent Raymond Morgino’s call for legislative support of the Mississippi Teacher Residency program in geographical critical-shortage areas.
The agency has also created the Educator Workforce Advisory group. School districts, university educator preparation programs and MDE staff met recently to discuss current and projected educator-workforce needs, potential policies and statewide initiatives.
Van Cleve said the department is also prioritizing teacher retention. MDE will host a two-day professional-development workshop for district teams in May. Presenters will work with districts on strategies and skills for developing district-wide professional learning plans intended to boost both teacher capacity and student outcomes. The agency has also created new mechanisms of teacher retention including the Elevate Teachers Conference, a symposium designed to uplift, empower and reinvigorate educators.
“The tricky thing here, though, is you always want to balance efforts to increase teacher recruitment with efforts to increase teacher retention,” Van Cleve said. “Even as we look to the future, one of the things that we also hold ourselves to is constantly revisiting past policies to ensure they are indeed meeting their desired outcomes.”
