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MAKING THE GRADE
The state’s educators discovered this unexpected student interest in teaching after attending statewide Pathways to Success training sessions to help middle and high school students identify their interests and connect their career goals to academics. "As a result of our PTS individual career and academic plan trainings, teachers and administrators went back to their schools and surveyed the students to identify what professions they were interested in. Student responses heavily favored teaching,” explained Betsey Smith, curriculum manager at the Mississippi State University Research and Curriculum Unit. “In fact, the career and technical education Teacher Academy is the number one student-requested program revealed by the iCAP surveys.” Most administrators and teachers were shocked by the individual career and academic plan, or iCAP, survey response because it contradicts the presumed unpopularity of the teaching profession that has been extrapolated from the results of National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future studies, which report that 46 percent of all new teachers will leave the profession within five years. The Teacher Academy program is unique in that it offers a secondary curriculum that not only guides students interested in pursuing teaching careers but also provides real-world, practical experiences such that students discover what the profession demands. Typically, “beginning teachers have idealistic expectations because of little or no experience of managing a classroom and hands-on practical teacher training,” Smith said. "Teacher Academy gives middle and high school students, before they ever enter a college program, a realistic picture of what the profession is like and the expectations they will face if they become a teacher." By comparison, Teach for America places more teachers in the Mississippi River Delta than any region in the country, and experts say they are planning on doubling those numbers. In addition, the Mississippi Teacher Corp program places teachers
in Mississippi high-need districts. “Those programs are great and have made a difference, but they are not sustaining the positive outcomes because those teachers fulfill their contract and leave in two years,” explained Smith. “We’re hoping the Teacher Academy ‘grow your own’ approach will work to recruit new teachers” who either pursue their postsecondary education in the state or return to Mississippi after graduation, added Smith. Rather than accepting only short-term commitments and then moving on, these homegrown teachers are here or come back to stay, to make a difference in their communities. In other words, "[t]hey have ‘roots’ and will live in the community. They know the culture, the family histories, the advantages and disadvantages and most importantly the student needs,” said Smith. “So they are already way ahead of the teacher who may be relocating from another state and is thousands of miles away from home.” Four Teacher Academy programs were implemented in 2008. In response to the growing student interest, there has been a recent explosion of growth, with 25 schools implementing Teacher Academy programs in 2012 and 53 more requests on the waiting list. In return, Mississippi education experts hope the new teacher retention numbers will be higher. They plan to collect and analyze four-year data beginning in 2013, when the first group of Teacher Academy students will graduate from IHL teacher-education programs and enter the state’s classrooms. Henry Adams said, “A teacher affects eternity – he can never tell where his influence stops.” The current U.S. administration and Mississippi education experts have said that teaching has never been more important, and the need for more student success has never been so urgent. Mississippi is hoping its Teacher Academy program will help recruit, train and retain the best talent for the profession. If the efforts prove successful, it will undoubtedly affect the quality of the state’s education future.
DMT students produce news segment for local Fox affiliate Hattiesburg High School’s Digital Media Technology students, taught by Tanya Evans, are broadcasting on local channel Fox 23. Each week, the students produce a weekly sports wrap up called Tiger Nation Sports. In this segment, students recap the previous week’s sports news, interview athletes and coaches, look ahead to the upcoming games, as well as cover other HHS news. Tune in to Fox 23 each Friday at 6:30 a.m. for the segment.
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Connections Fall 2012
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