Jackson, Mississippi—Mississippi First, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving education in the state, has released a new report titled Falling Behind: Teacher Compensation and the Race Against Inflation. The report provides a comprehensive look at the complex factors contributing to Mississippi’s teacher shortage with emphasis on how inflation has directly affected the impact of the recent…
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Editor’s Note: This blog post is in response to a column appearing in the LA Times titled “How Mississippi gamed its national reading test scores to produce ‘miracle gains.‘” We’re not going to link to it because we don’t believe it is worth your clicks; however, feel free to google. *** By Rachel Canter I Executive…
Read MoreJackson, Mississippi—On April 17, 2023, Mississippi celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Early Learning Collaborative Act. From a fractured early education landscape before the passage of the historic bill to a strong and thriving pre-K program 10 years later, we celebrate the success of the Early Learning Collaborative Act, which has now served nearly 26,000…
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Jackson, MS—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…
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Jackson, MS— 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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We are celebrating #GivingTuesday and the end of the year by raising $10,000 for Mississippi kids. Money raised supports our dedicated staff in achieving high-quality pre-K-12 public education in Mississippi. These dollars directly enable us to produce research, resources, and policy recommendations for children, families, teachers, and schools. In the last decade, Mississippi has improved…
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Today, we are excited to release our policy vision, “The Future of Schools: Supporting Families, Teachers, and Students.” This publication details three ways that Mississippi First believes we can change with the times in order to better serve all of our students. Families: Align and Extend the School Day and School Year Juggling school and…
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