teachers

A new report shows Missouri's teacher retention slightly improved after the pandemic drove more educators out of the field, but is still at record highs.

Overwork, underpay, student behaviors and a lack of administrative support were the top reasons for leaving the field, according to a recent survey of mostly Missouri teachers.

As the ongoing teacher shortage persists, school districts like Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools are using virtual teachers to get by. The number of students learning from remote, on-screen instructors has more than doubled, despite the move being intended as a stopgap.

Students in the Kansas City area are grappling with keeping their grades up and losing friends after the COVID-19 pandemic upended their lives. A group of students at Guadalupe Centers High School spoke with their peers about how that impacts their mental health.

Voters in the Park Hill School District will see two tax measures on their April 8 ballot. Proposition G would raise the operating tax rate to support teacher salary increases. Proposition O would allow the district to borrow money for building renovations and replacements.

Kansas City Public Schools has goals to increase its numbers of Black and Latino teachers. A parents’ group says that’s race-based hiring and it’s discriminatory.

Some Derby High School teachers urged school board members to reconsider their vote against a proposed social studies curriculum. The board's conservative majority rejected the curriculum over concerns it was biased against Republican President-elect Donald Trump.

Missouri Department of Secondary and Elementary Education officials said the data signals a turning point in a teacher shortage the state has struggled to address in recent years.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education believes that lowering a GPA requirement for teachers will improve teacher recruitment and retention without reducing educator quality.

Karla Eslinger, an Ozark Republican who served the past four years as a Missouri state senator, passed on a second term. Instead, she began her tenure as commissioner of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in June.

Students at Guadalupe Centers High School have spent weeks learning about specific races, ballot measures and candidates — even though many of them can't vote yet.

Claudene Wilson drove and cleaned up after multiple generations of students in the Swedeborg School District. As she enters a partial retirement, the district voted to honor her commitment by naming a K-8 elementary building in her honor.