“I was at the table, screaming, ‘We need equity!’” said Christopher Blair, superintendent of Bullock County Schools. “Then this idea generated, and I said, ‘I want it.’”
Blair’s referring to a new, $3 million effort backed by state legislators to boost math and science instruction in rural districts. This year, Bullock County will pilot a Rural Schools Accelerator, which aims to give math and science teachers in rural schools, who may not have been trained to teach those subjects, additional support so their students can succeed.
“What makes this monumental is that this is about Black Belt, rural school systems that, yes, have always demonstrated the problem, but didn’t just get thrown in to say, ‘Oh, well get your fair share of the pot,’” Blair said. “No, we’re going to give you more for the children that are hungry over here. They need more over here.”
In its pilot year, the project will partner virtual teachers with local instructors to provide additional, remote math and science instruction to seventh and eighth graders at South Highlands Middle School in Union Springs.
Officials say the effort — which is one of few across the country to use a remote, hybrid teaching model to fill teaching voids — is huge for Alabama.
“Nothing is more important to the future of our state than making sure our children receive a first-class education, particularly in the subjects of math and science,” Gov. Kay Ivey said in a press release announcing the project. “...This is an exciting pilot that again demonstrates Alabama’s commitment to innovation across all facets of education and economic development.”
'I CAN'T AFFORD TO COMPETE'
Alabama faced shortages in math, science, special education and secondary education instructors long before the pandemic, but a record-breaking wave of retirements last year has heightened labor concerns across the state.
In rural districts like Bullock County, where seventh- and eighth-graders at one middle school are currently learning math from one long-term substitute teacher, leaders are scrambling to find a solution.
“I can’t afford to compete with Auburn, who already gets a minimum salary schedule that can take local tax dollars from a different economy,” Blair said. “They are already getting the teachers that everybody else is looking for anyway… Any system that pays above the salary matrix does [with local funding]. I can’t afford that.”
A key part of Ivey’s goal to add 500,000 workers to Alabama’s workforce by 2025 is strengthening the STEM pipeline. That means recruiting and retaining more math and science teachers who can teach those students.
Recently, officials at the Alabama State Department of Education launched the TEAMS incentive, which offers up to $15,000 in additional pay each year for certified math and science teachers. But while three Bullock County teachers took up the offer, it hasn’t fixed all of Blair’s needs in STEM classes.
In recent years, state officials have increased some funding for alternative and grow-your-own programs, which tend to place teachers in more rural schools. They’ve also offered $5,000 bonuses for teachers in high-poverty districts, but Blair said Bullock County didn’t qualify.
But by directly providing low-cost instructional supports to rural schools, Blair said the Rural Schools Accelerator is a solution that might truly help.
HOW IT WILL WORK
South Highlands instructors will work with interns and “hub teachers” from UAB Teach, a program based out of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, to lead the seventh and eighth grade classes. The preparation program was tapped by the National Mathematics and Science Institute to provide high-quality instruction to partner schools.
Lee Meadows, who directs the Alabama STEM Council, started UAB Teach five years ago with the goal to lead more math and science majors into the teaching field. He said the program, which uses NMSI-approved math pedagogy, produces top-notch candidates who have a strong background in the subject matter.
“They’re like rock stars,” he said. “We’re going to be able to see some really good things come and project just because of who these young men and women are.”
Michelle Stie, vice president of teaching and learning at NMSI, said the initiative will use legislative funds for hardware and technology at the teaching hub and in local classrooms “to bring more personalized, adaptive instruction and additional instructional time for students.”
The pilot will launch later this month. Partnering organizations will add new schools in phases, with a few launching in January 2022 and a “much larger footprint” for the 2022-23 school year, Stie said.
Initially, according to UAB Teach director Paulette Evans, interns will work to change students’ perceptions of math by drilling down on foundational skills. Interns will also work twice a month with a Perry County-based instructor to learn about the Black Belt’s history, local schools’ present state of underfunding and to make sure lessons have appropriate cultural and social-emotional elements.
During the second phase, “hub teachers” hired out of Birmingham will teach virtually alongside on-the-ground instructors to provide math interventions.
'THE BEST SCENARIO'
While leaders hope the accelerator will be scalable, the project isn’t meant to directly place teachers in rural schools.
The state doesn’t have good information on where preparation program graduates end up teaching, but Evans said most recent graduates prefer more highly populated areas, and moving somewhere with one traffic light can be a dealbreaker.
“It’s not because of the communities,” Evans said. “They’re beautiful communities, beautiful people, but they’re so rural that they’re not really connected to a metro area.”
She added, “We should always try to get people on the ground to move to these communities and teach and learn, especially students that come from the communities. But in the meantime, how do we provide access for the students in these rural areas to highly qualified math and science teachers?”
Meadows said the effort is just one approach to solving “one of the biggest challenges in STEM education.”
For Blair, the initiative is a necessary fix, as local and state officials continue to work on differential pay and retention efforts.
“Yes, I want a fully certified math teacher in every one of my classrooms that’s ours and only works for us,” Blair said. “But I do know that while we deal with all of these issues that we’ve dealt with for the last 15, 20 years as rural schools, they’re not going away any time in the near future. We have to try to do the best scenario for these children.”
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