Alabama

to start with. Complicated indeed!


.................Selma City Schools Superintendent Dr. Avis Williams said those aren’t the only areas with shortages. “We have a difficult time attracting and retaining elementary teachers now,” she said. And with fewer people going into the profession of teaching, she added, there’s a “much thinner pool from which to choose.”

Tanesha Childs is in her second year of teaching art in a Birmingham City school. From her viewpoint, the problem is teacher retention. During her first year of teaching, Childs’ students repeatedly asked if she would be back this year. “They’re used to teachers not coming back,” Childs said.

Childs said the two fifth-grade classrooms at her school don’t have full-time teachers ⁠— only long-term substitutes.

Williams said when she started in Selma two years ago, none of their seventh-grade teachers were certified.