Editor’s Note: This blog post is a part of a new ongoing series of posts dedicated to K-12 education policy in Mississippi. *** By Grace Breazeale I K-12 Policy Associate Teacher compensation has rightfully taken center stage in the effort to address the teacher shortage crisis in Mississippi. Still, there remains a host of additional challenges…
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Today, Mississippi First released our newest report, Eyeing the Exit: Teacher Turnover and What We Can Do About It. This report takes a deeper dive into data first reported in our February 2022 report Voices of the Shortage: 2022 Mississippi Teacher Survey, which revealed that over half of teachers surveyed reported being “somewhat” or “very…
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By Toren Ballard I Director of K-12 Policy This fall, Mississippians received two widely divergent narratives about the state of public education post-COVID: On September 29, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) released school and district accountability grades for the 2021-2022 school year, showing unprecedented improvement: 87% of districts were rated “C” or higher, up…
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JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI: The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Mississippi First a $19.3 million, five-year Charter Schools Program grant to grow high-quality public charter schools in Mississippi. Charter schools are free, public, and open to all students in an eligible grade who reside in an eligible geography. The Charter Schools Program (CSP) is a competitive,…
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Editor’s Note: During the summer of 2022, Mississippi First hosted two communications interns. Each intern wrote a reflection about their experience. *** By Meredith Kent I Mississippi First Summer Intern 2022 Growing up in Jackson, Mississippi, I saw first-hand how the structure of a curriculum can help or harm the educational foundation that someone must have…
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Editor’s Note: During the summer of 2022, Mississippi First hosted two communications interns. Each intern wrote a reflection about their experience. *** By Mari Lampkin I Mississippi First Summer Intern 2022 The summer I turned twelve, I went on a field trip with the Sunflower County Freedom Project. We were at a civil rights museum somewhere…
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Public charter schools empower communities to design high-quality, public educational experiences to meet their students’ needs. Charter schools are free, public, and open to all children in relevant grades. In the 2022-2023 school year, Mississippi will have eight public charter schools operating in Jackson, Clarksdale, and Leflore County. Because Mississippi is a new charter school…
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