Opportunities for teaching in Mississippi are best for well-educated teachers with advanced degrees. Teachers who hold advanced degrees are better compensated and have the opportunity to partake in mentorship and leadership roles. While teachers without advanced degrees make significantly less than average when compared to teachers across the nation, Mississippi does make available a number of programs to assist teachers in advancing their education.
According to the Mississippi Department of Education, the average salary for a teacher holding a bachelors degree was $30,000 for the 2006-2007 school year. While this is considerably less than the nationwide average, prospective teachers should balance this with the lower cost of living in most areas of Mississippi, as well as benefits and incentives offered to teachers in Mississippi, such as opportunities to advance their education through certifications and advanced degrees at extremely low costs.
Mississippi Teacher Requirements
When the ‘No Child Left Behind’ era hit the Mississippi schools, many who were teaching in Mississippi found the mandates almost impossible to follow because of the very low test scores that had to be brought up quickly to meet Federal guidelines. This program eventually helped many students in Mississippi as instructor’s raced off for help and further training in search of ways to bring scores up fast.
Today in Mississippi, teachers are taking pride in their personal and classroom accomplishments that were brought about by the ‘No Child Left Behind’ mandates. As this program is due to be phased out of existence and replaced with unknown program that will be designed to improve the quality of all levels of public education in America, those teaching in Mississippi today are excited about this potential new challenge.
The educational job market in Mississippi will hold strong for many years to come because Mississippi is not producing enough qualified college graduates to fill all classroom needs. However, those joining the Mississippi teaching team in the future can look forward to benefits created by the prior programs that now allow educators to have many levels of help or mentoring in the classroom when needed.
Some poverty-level schools in Mississippi are desperately seeking energetic teachers who are willing to deal with the challenges that lacking local support coupled with funding problems can bring into a classroom. These positions are not for everybody, but for the special people who know that this area of need is within their true calling, these highly rewarding jobs will still have a few vacancies waiting for you in the future.