Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 16

1 6A The Clarion-Ledger Saturday, November 22, 1997 Teacher Shortage PI Bridging the Gap Proposal gives free degrees as carrot By Cathy Hayden Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer 1 iT in i in "-U'MiMP Scv-v Hf; a more home-grown teachers trained and into classrooms. Mississippi Teacher Center director Daphne Buckley said her office hasn't gone to out-of-state recruiting fairs, but is considering it. The center, an arm of the state Department of Education, was created by the 1994 Legislature to re cruit and train teachers. "Michigan. and Ohio have surpluses, Buckley said.

"We've considered going to those states and looking for special education teachers. A handful of states have created their own programs, including: The 1986 South Carolina Teacher Cadet Program that seeks to get high school juniors and seniors involved in teaching. Finding ways to beef up Mississippi's teaching force takes creative "out-of-the-box" thinking, Therrell Myers believes. That's why the associate state superintendent for vocational programs, who also oversees the Office of Educator Licensure, is thrilled that a brain-storming session with his staff netted a germ of an idea that he's trying to develop. The concept is to use state-funded graduate work on a master's or higher degree as a carrot to entice out-of-state certified teachers into Mississippi.

Similar to the formats for two other state teacher recruitment efforts, this program would allow out-of-state teachers to teach in needy school districts in exchange for tuition-free courses to advance their degrees and careers. That may bring in qualified teachers from states with more teachers than they need. Many of those states, including New York, Kentucky and Tennessee, require master's degrees at some point for teachers a requirement Mississippi doesn't have. Myers sees importing teachers through such a program as a short-term, temporary fix while the state explores lasting avenues to get The Golden Apple Scholars of rfO ft Illinois that recruits 60 young people every year into the profession by selecting them during their junior or senior year of high school, then mentoring them through the rest of high school, college and five years of actual teaching. The North Carolina Teaching 1.

1 Fellows Program that has recruited1 Brian Albert BroomThe Clarion-Ledger Recruited from Pennsylvania by West Tallahatchie schools Hardy, Princess Love, Stephenita Kindle and Shannon Ellis, all 1 1. Superintendent Reggie Barnes, sixth-grade science teacher Jeff Kotchick's wife, Lorie Kolbicka, also is a teacher in the West Kotchick works on a science experiment with (from left) Latasha Tallahatchie district. 3,600 high-ability high school graduates to teaching, including men and people of color. North Carolina's Teachers on Assignment Teams also work to recruit into the profession and Project TEACH in North Carolina concentrates on recruiting minority students. Recruit: Barnes gives prospects the hard sell 1998 Legislature will tackle shortage issue From 1A 1 I v.

i mam i rs By Cathy Hayden Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer "The community; leadership needs to see (the teacher short age) as a major, major stumbling block to' community advance ment." State Rep. Billy; McCoy, D-Rienzi. He tells them about the poverty of the families, the lack of education of the adults and often their lack of understanding of how important it is for children to be educated. He tells them about squalid living conditions, isolation from shopping and cultural activities and the lack of restaurants, even a McDonald's. "I always make them aware of where we are.

Ill wait on the phone while they find a map. I get them aware of the Mississippi Delta," he says. "But at the same time, I make them aware I'm not looking for pity. I don't want them to think they can save people's souls." Barnes says he isn't look for the "Good Samaritans of the North." "I always ask, Why do you want to come here to the Mississippi I know the majority of these people can't find jobs local- ly." He doesn't want them to come, stay a few weeks and then desert. He had one 22-year-old Harvard graduate who did that two years ago, working until October before fleeing back north.

"Culture shock," says Barnes. "Imagine being raised in a northeast environment. Imagine going to Harvard. It's a totally different world and different experiences. She couldn't handle it." The ones who visit, "I take them around and show them where the kids live, trailers and shotgun houses," he says.

"I make it as terrible as I can make it, and if you still want to Two years ago I wouldn't have been so avid about going outside," he says. Some of his efforts have paid off; some haven't. He thought he had all his slots filled until some commuting teachers got jobs closer to home, right before school started. Then he was back to square one. Barnes now has six or seven long-term substitutes adults without teaching licenses filling slots in his four West Tallahatchie schools.

About 13 miles south of Barnes' Sumner office, the situation is critical. Black Bayou Elementary in Glendora is just off U.S. 49, in the middle of a field next to an eyecatching red radio antenna. Neither highway nor school signs alert the passer-by that the small brick building is a school. "Teachers are hard to come by," says Harvey Smith, assistant principal and teacher of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade math.

"We don't have a lot to offer except some kids who need some teachers. That's it." It's small, dark and depressing. Behind it, a ramshackle playground with a slide, swing and two basketball goals inspires local schoolchildren to walk two miles from town to play after school and on weekends. They have no town park. "That school in particular is really suffering the brunt of the problem," Barnes says.

They (parents) are raising hell because I want to incentive programs to attract teachers. Nor is there much information on what local schools are doing, other than some scattered monetary bonuses. "Generally, well find that districts will use various kinds of incentives. That's usually how it works instead of a statewide policy," Cornett said. A just-released report by the Na tics, "America's Teachers: Profile of a Profession," said few districts use general pay incentives.

About 5 percent offer an increase to lure teachers to less desirable cities; 2 percent offer a cash bonus. Brian Albert Broom The Clarion-Ledger Through the efforts of West Tallahatchie schools Superintendent Reggie Barnes, Lorie Kolbicka found her way from Pennsylvania to the Delta. She teaches second-graders including 9-year-old Tiyanna Ellis. However, 10 percent did offer pay; different from Oklahoma." The students, she adores. They are very good.

They are really coming along. I feel like we've come 360 It's been a years-long struggle for Mississippi legislators: What more can the state do to recruit and retain teachers? Lawmakers have boosted pay, revamped and strengthened the William Winter Teacher Scholar Loan Program and relaxed requirements for teachers coming from other states. "The Legislature, in my opinion, has made a pretty good effort to try to help," said Andy Mullins, special assistant to University of Mississippi Chancellor Robert Khayat. Legislators say they will tackle the issue again in January. "Our efforts, so far, evidently have not worked.

All the Legislature, the House and Senate, has a responsibility. We hope well be able to make some recommendations," said state Rep. Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi, chairman of the House Education Committee. He has appointed two House Education Committee members to propose solutions to be drafted into legislation by mid-December. The two, Rep.

V.C. Manning, D-Philadelphia, and Rep. Leonard Morris, D-Batesville, met with state officials Tuesday. Manning said he has in mind short-term solutions that would get already licensed teachers in state and out of state into classrooms as soon as as next fall and long-term solutions that would entice students into teaching. Department of Education ideas the committee discussed Tuesday include: Revamping aspects of the state retirement system for educators to remove disincentives to returning to classrooms; pay incentives at crucial times when teachers leave the profession, perhaps at five years; and more scholarships for assistants who want to complete college and become licensed.

The Delta Area Association for School Improvement, a group of 33 superintendents, on Tuesday pitched a $15.6 million incentive package for their districts to the Legislative Budget Committee. Although state officials are still looking for what else they can do, both Mullins and McCoy believe legislators can only do so much. They envision local communities that need teachers crafting their own unique incentives. Mullins suggests several: offering 20 percent off apartment rent for a year, or free checking accounts to teachers. "Communities really have to get involved," McCoy said.

The community leadership needs to see this as a major, major stumbling block to community advancement. Somehow or another, we're going to have to convince community leaders that they have to really, really get in there and try. Government can do just so much." Lynn Cornett, senior vice president for the Atlanta-based South-era Regional Education Board, said there aren't many statewide Superintendent: Reggie Barnes Number of students School close that school." Barnes said he wishes they'd raise hell over the lack of teachers instead. The 200-student school has eight teachers, including special degrees since the first day of school," she says. "These children don't receive a lot of praise.

All you have to do is tell them they are smart. Their little eyes light up. That has been very rewarding." Jeffrey Kotchik and Lorie Kolbicka, the married couple from Penn Location Glendora Sumner Sumner Webb percent graduation Black Bayou Elementary 210 Sumner Elementary 203 R.H. Bearden Elementary 576 West Tallahatchie High 513 Student population: 99 percent black, 1 white; 92 percent eligible for free lunch; rate, 86 percent. I Greenwood Wilfred McNeilThe Clarion-Ledger incentives to attract teachers to a particular field, including special education, mathematics and English as a second language.

Phyfa Eiland of Raymond, education program manager for Weyer-hauser is attuned to recruitment strategies as part of her job.She's notices incentives offered by districts outside Mississippi. Officials from some districts "show up on (college) campuses and they recruit these young people. They not only find them a place to live, but they help them with living expenses. They pay for them to come and see what they have to offer they make it very attractive," said Eiland, a former educator who's a member of the Public Education Forum's Educator Pipeline Committee. A recommendation in a November 1996 Mississippi Economic Council report looks at money incentives in a different way.

The report noted that Mississippi doesn't require teachers have a master's degree and that the state has a low number of teachers who earn advanced degrees. About 65 percent of Mississippi's teachers have bachelor's degrees, compared to about 31 percent who hold master's degrees. The MEC report, which has never been brought before the membership for a vote and was not presented to legislators, recommended that teacher pay be raised to attract beginning teachers, but added a stipulation that the scale be weighted toward recruiting and keeping teachers with advanced degrees. Teacher compensation should encourage a teacher to upgrade his degree plus provide incentive to remain on the job past the first five years," the report says. she says.

"I was very impressed with Mr. Barnes. He's the reason we're here On the phone, he was informative but he didn't give us the full background of the school until we came down. Once we got down here, he told us what to expect," Kolbicka says. "It was quite a shock.

I did think about going back." But, she adds: "I think it would be a great experience for any first-year teacher The children are so appreciative. They are starving for attention." Like her husband, she tries to do hands-on activities with her second-graders. On one recent day, she used brightly colored math cubes to drive home addition and subtraction lessons. But her students seemed to view the math cubes as toys instead of tools, playing with them and talking excitedly. Kolbicka took up the cubes after a few minutes.

She finds teaching them a challenge. "Being from this area, they're not exposed to a lot of things. They have never seen a city They think it's a big deal to go to Clarksdale," she says. "It makes reading deficient, social studies deficient. I try to integrate as many activities as I can.

They are behind, so you have to put a lot of emphasis on repetition." She doesn't plan to stay more than two years. "I don't think this is an area I want to raise children in," she says. education and half of them are not licensed, he said. Finding licensed teachers for that school isn't even foremost on Barnes' mind, at this point. He's just looking for adults who can fill the role of a teacher.

"I'm looking at character," he says. But on the bright side, Barnes found an Oklahoma teacher to teach second grade and a Pennsylvania husband and wife to teach sixth-grade science and second grade at Bearden Elementary in Sumner. How long they'll stay is another worry. To hear Barnes tell it, he gives out-of-state prospects the hard sell. He says he paints a gloomy picture of the hardships of the Delta and teaching in isolated West Tallahatchie schools.

sylvania, looked first, but signed a contract quickly also. Kotchik, 24, signed with few reservations. Pennsylvania has a teacher surplus, and he was working in a factory job he hated. He took a large cut in pay, but is thrilled to be doing science demonstrations with kids hungry to learn. There were no secrets with us.

He (Barnes) let it hang out. We felt like we could make a difference. That's why we're here," Kotchik says. "I've enjoyed it. I was ready." Kolbicka, 24, was more reluctant.

She was working as a preschool teacher, at least in her field. "Jeff was much more gung-ho. He didn't have to think about it," come, I say I want to see you," he says. Linda Cockrell, the Bearden Elementary second-grade teacher who came from Oklahoma, didn't interpret Barnes' spiel quite that way. "It didn't sound gloomy to me.

It just sounded real to me," she says. "I knew there were going to be poor people in Mississippi." Knowing that Oklahoma schools have plenty of teachers and being eager for her first job, Cockrell, 38, signed a contract and mailed it before she even visited the schools, based solely on her telephone conversation with Barnes. "He's quite the salesman," she says. But when she got her first peek, "it was very scary, very.