Superintendent Jennifer Wilson says the Greenwood School District has aggressively recruited teachers for the 2018-2019 school year.
The district has 17 teaching vacancies, and the first day back is Aug. 6. Districts statewide report more than 2,000 openings.
Across the state, school districts have had difficulty filling teaching positions before the beginning of the school year. Wilson said it is typical for the district to have job openings in the summer.
“The numbers that we had in the beginning of June, we cut those numbers more than half,” she said. “At this point, we have done an excellent job of going out there, recruiting and making sure we can get candidates who can get the skills that we need in those classrooms.”
Greenwood High School, Bankston Elementary and Threadgill Elementary have four vacancies each. Davis Elementary and Threadgill Primary have two each, and Greenwood Middle School has one.
Wilson said at some of the sites potential candidates were planning to take the Praxis assessment in mid-July to become licensed teachers. All teacher candidates must take Praxis to show they are proficient in the areas they plan to teach.
“When those candidates take those Praxis tests, that may help fill. We are providing training on the Praxis tests on elementary education to help these candidates prepare,” Wilson said.
The district particularly was seeking math teachers and elementary education teachers for kindergarten through third grade. Openings for science teachers are usually difficult to fill as well, Wilson said.
“Science, we have done really well (with) this year,” Wilson said. “Mathematics is always hard, but elementary education K-3 does not have an alternate route program. So it is hard to find teachers in those areas because there is no alternate route to get a K-3 certification.”
Wilson, a former math teacher, said a shortage of math teachers is a problem across Mississippi, and she believes it has to do with Praxis scores.
“The state recently lowered the Praxis 2 score for math,” Wilson said. “Mississippi had one of the higher scores for mathematics, and recently at one of the state board meetings, it lowered that score. That may help moving forward, but we still have that issue right now.”
The district’s principals and teachers have been actively recruiting new candidates, and the hope to have all the positions filled by mid-July.
This year, the district recruited five to seven Teach for America candidates and five or six Mississippi Teaching Corps candidates and has been working with Mississippi Valley State University for candidates.
“I think that one of the key factors in improving student achievement is to ensure that we have a highly qualified teaching staff, and that is one of the things that we are aggressively working on all throughout the year,” Wilson said.
“It is the goal in every classroom to have a highly qualified teacher who knows the content area and has the capacity to improve academically.”
•Contact Lauren Randall at 581-7239 or lrandall@gwcommonwealth.com.
