Dr. Robert Taylor discusses goals, priorities as new Mississippi State Superintendent

Taylor will lead the Mississippi Division of Schooling (MDE) beginning in late January 2023.

Final week, Dr. Robert Taylor, a 30-year veteran educator and deputy state superintendent for the North Carolina Division of Public Instruction, was named Mississippi’s new state superintendent of schooling by the State Board of Schooling.

Taylor is a local Mississippian and a graduate of the College of Southern Mississippi.

READ MORE: TAYLOR NAMED NEW MISSISSIPPI STATE SUPERINTENDENT. 

On Monday, Dr. Taylor addressed his objectives, priorities, and extra with members of the state’s media. He stated his preliminary precedence is to get to know the workers on the Mississippi Division of Schooling (MDE).

“They’ve been doing this for a very long time so that they’re going to be very conversant in all of the issues which might be going down on the Division,” Dr. Taylor stated. “I actually wish to make a acutely aware effort to get out and meet superintendents of districts, go to colleges, simply to get the texture for what we all know is sweet in Mississippi and areas the place districts know they need assistance. So simply getting out and assembly folks and attending to know the state higher.”

Dr. Taylor stated he has not had an opportunity to satisfy former state superintendent of schooling Dr. Carey Wright, who retired efficient June 30, 2022, as of but however is anxious to satisfy her and have a dialog about her work.

READ MORE: MISSISSIPPI STATE SUPT. OF EDUCATION CAREY WRIGHT ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT.

“I do know that she and my boss in North Carolina, Catherine Truitt, have a extremely good relationship, so I’m anxious to satisfy her and have a dialog together with her in regards to the work that she’s achieved in Mississippi… why she selected that individual path,” Dr. Taylor stated. “We’ve had a possibility to comply with that work because it pertains to literacy and so I do know that that was crucial to her and definitely produced fantastic outcomes for the state and so I do sit up for having a dialog together with her about these challenges and the way she was truly capable of obtain that work.”

Dr. Taylor stated the challenges Mississippi faces are a few of the similar challenges districts throughout the nation have, corresponding to coping with funding and trainer shortages and the way to verify college students are correctly ready to exit into the workforce.

Taylor stated his objective is to go in and look at what issues have been been working properly for the state and decide how one can construct upon that.

“We actually need each group, everyone within the state, to spend money on public schooling. I believe everyone knows that in some unspecified time in the future we have been impacted by a trainer,” Dr. Taylor stated. “We wish it to be one thing that’s productive for the state of Mississippi.”

In an announcement final week, Taylor stated the work of manufacturing laws to help colleges resides with the Mississippi Legislature and Governor.

“I together with the State Board of Schooling, sit up for collaborating on legislative points that may profit our complete state,” Taylor stated. “My objective will probably be to supply efficient legislative concepts that all of us acknowledge will profit scholar progress.”

When requested on Monday how he anticipates working with the Legislature, Dr. Taylor stated their duty on the MDE is to speak with the Legislature about what they know goes to maneuver the mark in Mississippi and the kind of laws that may help that.

“They most actually have their concepts about what they wish to do as a Legislature. We wish to be part of that dialog to assist information what it’s that they will develop from a legislative perspective,” Taylor stated. “We are able to’t do that work with out them; we wish to be companions with them. We wish to proceed to have these sorts of conversations with them to say, ‘That is what our knowledge exhibits us, that is what we all know is profitable, and that is what we all know can transfer college students within the state ahead.’”

“So, it’s about having that dialog, having that working relationship with the management within the Legislature,” Dr. Taylor stated.

On the 2022 Neshoba County Truthful, Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann stated that considered one of his high priorities for the 2023 Legislative session included modified calendars for college districts. When requested what his ideas are on the adjusted calendar versus the normal calendar, Dr. Taylor stated that it’s completely helpful.

Taylor stated when districts go to a year-round calendar, it reduces the period of time between classes. He stated that it has a big quantity to do with studying loss, which they discovered about through the COVID-19 pandemic. The brand new Superintendent of Schooling defined that when children are out of faculty, there’s a super quantity of studying loss.

The Nationwide Bureau of Financial Analysis (NBER) launched a remaining report card on states’ responses to COVID-19 in April 2022. Within the schooling class, Mississippi ranked 14^th general with 76.2% of youngsters in class or digital for almost all of the 2020-2021 faculty 12 months.

READ MORE: Mississippi ranks center of the street in COVID-19 response, report says.

“One research discovered that faculty closures on the finish of the earlier 2019-2020 faculty 12 months are related to 13.8 million years of life misplaced,” the report stated. “An NIH evaluation discovered that life expectancy for highschool graduates is 4 to 6 years longer than highschool dropouts. The OECD estimates that studying losses from pandemic period faculty closures may trigger a 3% decline in lifetime earnings, and that lack of only one third of a 12 months of studying has long-term financial affect of $14 trillion.”

Dr. Taylor stated schooling professionals have recognized for years that there’s a summer time studying loss that lecturers need to make up for when children return to highschool.

“By going to a year-round calendar, I believe each district or faculty that participates in that may see a profit,” Taylor stated. “Something that we are able to do to shorten the period of time that college students are out, I believe, that’s nice. If the Lieutenant Governor believes this can be a program that we are able to do to incentivize districts to take part, I believe that’s completely fantastic.”

Taylor added that analysis exhibits the year-round calendar is optimistic and he likes the concept of giving children extra constant entry to schooling.

One of many issues Dr. Taylor famous within the name with the media that he has seen within the state that he’s happy with is the Group Eligibility Provision (CEP) the place college students are allowed to take part within the faculty lunch program for free of charge. Taylor stated that 99% of faculties in Mississippi are part of this program.

Dr. Taylor concluded within the dialogue by saying that Mississippi has all the time been a house for him and that considered one of his goals has all the time been to return to Mississippi because the State Superintendent to steer the efforts from that perspective.

“For me, that is the head of my profession,” Dr. Taylor stated. “I see us as a state that continues to steer… We might not be on the high of the record, however we merely wish to be the nationwide instance of the way you present a high quality schooling in a state that has the demographics and economics that Mississippi has. And so, I actually wish to be part of that dialog.”

“I sit up for working with the MDE workers, the superintendent, the Legislature, the Governor, and the Lieutenant Governor, as a result of that is our state and that is our house, and we wish to see it frequently enhance,” Taylor added.