No educational system is perfect. Despite great strides by the state of Mississippi to improve, the state still has a tall mountain to climb.  After browsing news headlines, here are the five biggest issues facing the state in no particular order:

Absenteeism

Student absenteeism is growing across the nation. However, Mississippi ranks in the top 20 of states with “chronically absent students.”

Unfortunately, this seems to be a problem with very few solutions thus far.

Toni Kersh of the Mississippi Department of Education’s Bureau Director of Compulsory School Attendance Enforcement said, “It’s going to have to be a team approach and so you want to have your classroom teachers, your counselor, your curriculum specialist, your interventionist, depending on what you have in your school.”

References: Mississippi Today

Juuling

E-cigs, vaping, Juuling, whatever the name, the issue is growing to an epidemic among schools and teenagers. For whatever reason, this has grown out of a culture that “at least it’s not drugs,” or “at least it’s not tobacco,” or even worse “it’s not harmful.”

The article “US Surgeon General Warns of Teen Risks from E-cigarettes” explains how a Juul pod contains as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes, how it promotes dependence much quicker, as well as how the company Juul share the concerns of the surgeon general.

Even more dangerous is the substances that are laced in the Juul pods that many teenagers may not even know they are buying/consuming.

Schools and local law enforcement have a serious problem in front of them with no clear solutions as of yet.

Unfair/Flawed Accountability Ratings

In case you didn’t know, schools and school districts are assigned A-F grades based on their performance. You would like to believe these grades are fair and easily determined. However, these grades are not as easy to determine as the grading scales you may remember from high schools.

Elementary and middle schools are on 700-point grade scales. High schools are on 1,000-point grade scales. Sound easy enough? It gets more complicated.

Schools across the state or designed in many configurations. K-12, K-2, K-3, K-6… This could become maddening if I were to list each, but hopefully you are seeing the complications.

With that being said, there are no easy comparisons. In the current format many would argue that school X with a B rating is actually performing better than school Y with an A rating.

Most would agree the current grading system is unfair to non-traditional school configurations; however, many have been reluctant to take steps to even the playing field.

References: Mississippi Today.

Standardized Testing: Stay or Change?

The closer we get to “state testing” time of the year, the more people seem to voice their displeasure with the current standardized testing.

A door has been opened for areas to pilot alternatives to their current standardized tests.

Current Mississippi Superintendent of Education Carey Wright voiced her position wanting to stay with the current system of standardized tests and accountability citing that the state has been acknowledged for its educational pursuit and growth.

Other politicians want to go in the direction of the ACT saying that good ACT scores but failing state test scores will still earn scholarships while a poor ACT score but great state test scores will not earn those scholarships.

References: News Mississippi, Education Week

Teacher Pay Raises

Is this a political ploy during election season or something that can actually happen?

Yet again, teacher pay raises have been mentioned as a possibility. It needs to be pointed out, Mississippi has only received two pay raises in the last twenty years; however, the idea of a raise has been brought up countless times over those years.

Many from both sides of the political aisle are bringing up the idea; unfortunately, not many answers have been given as to how it will be funded. As Mississippi Today mentioned in their article, “Analysis: A Teacher Pay Hike With No Pension Boost Would Be The Equivalent of Schools, Agency Cuts,” the funds may not be there or the funds may only be there for part of the raises.

Conclusion

Most of the issues mentioned did not have a solution, but if we knew the solution, hopefully, they would no longer be a problem.

Nonetheless, these are issues on many educators’ minds and hopefully solutions can be found soon.

If this blog has been a bit of a Debbie Downer for you and you want to read something positive, try my previous blog, Funny Teacher Story: ‘Not Enough Toilet Paper’.