Less than a year ago, the Mississippi Department of Education announced that Mississippi was experiencing more than 3,000 teacher vacancies across the state – which hits especially hard when considering there are approximately 32,000 teachers in the Magnolia State.
To help fight that figure, the William Carey University School of Education is again offering K-12 teachers an online, tuition-free class that can be used to help renew their Mississippi Educator License, with an emphasis on recruiting and retaining classroom teachers. The class begins on September 26, with an application deadline of September 1; enrollment for the course is limited.
“What we found is that teachers need support, and we are always focusing on the recruitment of teachers, and that’s something we do each day because that’s important to us,” said Teresa Poole, dean of the WCU School of Education. “But also, we felt like those resources should also be there for the retention of teachers, so this is our way to support teachers who are already currently teaching in the classroom.”
The class, which is titled “Teacher Performance and Professional Growth,” fosters that growth and development through performance and self-study. The class is focused on informed decision making and reflection, in relation to the five domains of the Mississippi Teacher Growth Rubric.
The purpose of that rubric is to provide the following measures:
- Enhancing the impact that teachers have on students and other school community stakeholders;
- Highlighting the teachers’ strengths and identifying areas of growth;
- Serving as a practice guide for teachers as they reflect on their own practices; and
- Providing shared understanding regarding priorities, goals and expectations of quality practice.
“Our university is very supportive of our department; we have a really good relationship with that,” Poole said. “They understand that recruitment is a ministry for us, so we’ve gotten great support from (university president Tommy) King and the administration in providing scholarships and helping with things like the 50-percent tuition waiver for assistant teachers, and the educational scholarships that we’ve received from donors.
“So we’re excited about that, but this part is actually something that our faculty does, and the reason we can actually offer this classroom tuition-free is that our faculty actually volunteer to teach this course. So this doesn’t go toward our contract; it doesn’t go toward our salaries because it’s a class that we actually volunteer to teach. When people lined up to teach this class, (it just showed) that we’re all out there trying to support teachers.”
Current K-12 teachers can earn three credit hours by completing the five-week master’s level class. Although tuition is waived, students will be responsible for an $85 application and technology fee.
Applications for the course can be submitted online at https://bit.ly/3dmv2l3. More information can be obtained by emailing Billie Fick at education@wmcarey.edu.
“The actual audience is for teachers with a standard five-year license, our Educator License,” Poole said. “So those teachers would use this support to help renew their license, which is renewed every five years.
“Also, this class can be used as an elective in our master’s of education in elementary and secondar education degrees. So we’ve had some teachers who have taken advantage of that, and that’s one less class that they have to actually to pay for.”
The course was first offered in the Spring of 2020, during which time 128 teachers used it to renew their license.
“This time, we’re offering it again, and we’re excited about that,” Poole said. “We’re just giving back – our faculty is giving back to teachers.”
