New efforts aim to help rural Louisiana schools, teachers

Two new efforts are underway to help rural Louisiana schools attract and retain more teachers.

The Louisiana Department of Education has received nearly $67 million in federal grant funds to improve teacher preparation in 16 rural districts.

According to the department, the grant will provide money for yearlong teacher residencies, stipends for undergraduate residents and mentor teachers, more leadership-building resources and ways for rural districts to raise teacher salaries.

“In particular, this grant will help us expand collaborative partnerships between our universities and rural districts, as effective teachers are trained to be mentors and work with our university faculty to support candidates as they teach in full-year residencies,” said Louisiana Higher Education Commissioner Joseph Rallo in a news release.

Meanwhile, the Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana will dedicate $50,000 for pre-service teachers in rural areas, creating more training and preparation opportunities for young teachers and recent graduates.

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Louisiana superintendents still are working out the details of how their districts will use the grant dollars. But many agreed that something needs to be done to help rural districts keep and retain more teachers for longer periods of time.

Tensas Parish in northeast Louisiana, along the Mississippi border, is the smallest district in the state with about 600 students at three schools, according to Superintendent Paul Nelson.

“We have around 50 teachers, and about half of those are not certified,” Nelson said.

Nelson said the parish traditionally has some of the state’s lowest teacher salaries, mostly because of its tiny tax base.

“A teacher in Lafayette probably makes $15,000 more than my teachers start at,” Nelson said. “In a parish that does not have a McDonald’s, a Sonic, an IHOP, a Target, a Walmart, anything like that, it’s difficult to come up with the money.”

Nelson estimated that about half of the district’s teachers live in Tensas Parish, but others commute from outside the system. Some even live in Mississippi towns such as Natchez and Vicksburg, he said.

Nelson said he’s open to any suggestions on keeping more certified teachers in his parish. But he’s a little cautious about how the grant will help his schools.

“The devil is always in the details,” he said. “It’s just really early on in the process to know whether it’s going to have any impact.”

Located in southwest Louisiana, north of Jennings, the Allen Parish school system struggles with hiring certified teachers, said Linda McCullough, the district’s supervisor of curriculum and instructional support.

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McCullough hopes the grant will help Allen Parish create stronger partnerships with universities.

“We see it as an opportunity to train our teachers in our schools, and retain those new teachers, so they are ready to hit the ground running,” McCullough said.

Allen Parish has about 4,000 students in 11 schools. McCullough said teachers do everything they can to provide the best education for children, despite some lack of resources.

Many teachers and administrators participate in leadership training, she said. A teaming structure allows for extensive collaboration. Instructional coaches and teacher leaders work as mentors and liaisons between the state and teachers.

Still, McCullough said the challenges are evident.

“We don’t have a lot of industry, and so, honestly, the teachers who do their student teaching here and stay with us are homegrown,” she said. “We do have some help from LSU in attracting some certified math teachers, but we are really struggling in math. In the middle and high schools, it’s getting harder and harder to attract teachers certified in those content areas.”

In Grant Parish in central Louisiana, Superintendent Sheila Jackson said the district loses many teachers because of a lack of housing close to the schools.

“The No. 1 reason that we’re given, and it could possibly have to do with salary, but most of the time, it’s ‘I’ve gotten a job closer to where I live,’” Jackson said. “We’ve had teachers driving as much as 50 or 55 miles to their job.”

Each year, Grant Parish has a 15 percent to 25 percent teacher turnover rate, Jackson said, mostly among new teachers.

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In many cases, Grant Parish teachers come from a non-education background and aren’t as prepared for the classroom, Jackson said. The district offers professional development, but Jackson said many young teachers end up trying to play catch-up.

As for the recent grant, Jackson said she is most excited about the mentoring opportunities it can provide.

“For Grant Parish, we see this as an opportunity to attract people to the profession and give them that training that they’re going to need … prior to them going into a classroom by themselves,” she said.

These rural parishes and schools will receive grants for teacher preparation:

• Allen Parish
• Assumption Parish
• Caldwell Parish
• Catahoula Parish
• Concordia Parish
• Grant Parish
• J.S. Clark Leadership Academy
• Lincoln Parish
• Morehouse Parish
• Red River Parish
• Richland Parish
• St. Helena Parish
• St. Landry Parish
• Tallulah Charter School
• Tensas Parish
• West Carroll Parish

Average 2013-14 teacher salaries in rural districts receiving the grants. The Louisiana statewide average that year was $48,179.

Allen Parish: $46,872

Assumption Parish: $48,964

Caldwell Parish: $43,788

Catahoula Parish: $41,427

Concordia Parish: $44,023

Grant Parish: $41,211

Lincoln Parish: $47,949

Morehouse Parish: $52,485

Red River Parish: $57,003

Richland Parish: $47,443

St. Helena Parish: $38,591

St. Landry Parish: $45,592

Tensas Parish: $39,086

West Carroll Parish: $46,495

Source: Louisiana Department of Education

Here are the 2015 district performance scores for the Louisiana rural districts receiving grant money: 

Assumption Parish: B, 91.6

Caldwell Parish: B, 90.8

Catahoula Parish: C, 80.8

Concordia Parish: C, 77

Grant Parish: B, 91.1

Lincoln Parish: B, 95.5

Morehouse Parish: D, 60.4

Red River Parish: C, 77.7

Richland Parish: D, 64.9

St. Helena Parish: D, 54.9

St. Landry Parish: C, 71.1

Tensas Parish: D, 62

West Carroll Parish: B, 93.4

Source: Louisiana Department of Education