In a new report, The Weight They Carry: Life as a Teacher in Mississippi, education policy nonprofit Mississippi First recommends addressing the state’s ongoing teacher shortage in part by improving compensation through both an across-the-board pay increase and redesigned school staffing models that allow teachers to advance and receive substantial pay supplements without having to leave the classroom.
The report highlights Opportunity Culture® models, which are in their first year of use in the Jackson, Mississippi, school district. Opportunity Culture® design can help address the compensation pressures teachers face; Public Impact, which founded the Opportunity Culture® initiative, has also consistently called for higher pay overall for educators. Collaborative Multi-Classroom Leader® teams can also address some of the concerns teachers have about unmanageable workloads, and the distributed leadership inherent in schools using these teams both reduces the burden on principals and strengthens leadership pipelines.
The report makes policy recommendations around four goals:
Increase teacher compensation to make the profession financially sustainable, including through an across-the-board salary increase and by redesigning school staffing models to create pathways for teachers to be promoted without leaving the classroom.
To support district staffing redesign, it calls on the state legislature to create a pilot grant program, similar to the advanced teaching roles grants in North Carolina, and notes that Opportunity Culture® design is the model most North Carolina grantees choose to use. As the report notes, independent research has “demonstrated the positive impact of Opportunity Culture models on student achievement,” and North Carolina 2024–25 data showed that schools using these models “were two to three times more likely to exceed student growth targets than schools not using the model.”
The report recommends that school districts explore redesign now, so they can move quickly if a grant program is created or pursue other funding if not.
On Thursday, the Mississippi House Education Committee passed House Bill 1606 calling for a pilot program focused on improving teacher satisfaction and increasing student learning at five to 10 districts, sparked by the Mississippi First report.
Make teacher workloads more manageable by providing adequate time, staffing, and resources, implementing practices that cut unnecessary tasks and allow teachers to focus on teaching.
Build and retain strong, stable leadership in every district and school, strengthening pipelines to improve leadership quality, particularly in high-need schools.
Strengthen student behavior supports so teachers feel equipped and empowered to manage classrooms effectively, so teachers are not asked to manage complex challenges alone.
Mississippi First surveyed 988 Mississippi teachers from more than 120 districts and charter schools, finding that teachers pointed to low pay along with overwhelming workloads, student behavior concerns, and unstable or unsupportive school leadership as the major factors in creating an unsustainable profession.
The report noted that early-career teachers and teachers in high-poverty districts and/or districts with low salary supplements are most at risk of burning out and leaving the profession.