Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have served as pillars of educational opportunity in Mississippi since the Reconstruction era, providing access to higher education for generations of African Americans during and after segregation. Today, these institutions continue to play a vital role in Mississippi’s educational ecosystem, particularly in preparing a diverse teaching workforce. As discussions around Teacher Pay reform gain momentum in Mississippi, the potential implementation of Merit Pay systems raises important questions about educational equity and the unique position of HBCUs in addressing educational disparities.
HBCU Faculty Compensation Challenges
The compensation disparities facing HBCU faculty represent one of the most significant equity challenges in higher education. Nationwide, HBCU faculty earn approximately 75 cents for every dollar earned by their counterparts at non-HBCU institutions with similar qualifications and experience. This gap reflects both historical underfunding of HBCUs and persistent structural inequities in higher education funding.
In Mississippi, this disparity is particularly pronounced. Despite educating a significant percentage of the state’s African American professionals, including teachers, Mississippi’s HBCUs have historically received less state funding per student than predominantly white institutions. Jackson State University, Alcorn State University, and Mississippi Valley State University continue to navigate the legacy of decades of unequal funding, even as they produce graduates who make substantial contributions to the state’s workforce.
These compensation disparities create significant challenges for HBCU teacher education programs. Recruiting and retaining top faculty becomes increasingly difficult when competing institutions can offer substantially higher salaries and better resources. This perpetuates a cycle in which the institutions serving the students with the greatest needs often have the fewest resources to do so effectively.
Despite these challenges, Mississippi’s HBCUs have demonstrated remarkable resilience and effectiveness. Their teacher preparation programs consistently produce educators who serve in the state’s highest-need districts and demonstrate strong commitment to student success. These achievements highlight both the potential of HBCUs and the urgency of addressing funding and compensation disparities.
Merit Pay Design: Equity Considerations
The design of merit pay systems raises significant equity concerns, particularly for educators affiliated with HBCUs. Whether addressing K-12 teacher compensation or faculty salaries at higher education institutions, merit pay systems must carefully consider how “merit” is defined and measured.
Traditional metrics for evaluating educator effectiveness often fail to capture the full value of contributions made by HBCU-prepared teachers and HBCU faculty. For example, student standardized test scores—a common component of merit pay systems—may not adequately reflect teacher impact in high-poverty schools where students face multiple barriers to academic success. Similarly, traditional academic metrics like publication in prestigious journals may undervalue the community-engaged scholarship often prioritized by HBCU faculty.
Several states have implemented merit pay systems with mixed results regarding equity. In Florida, the Best and Brightest program initially tied teacher bonuses partly to SAT/ACT scores—a metric that disadvantaged teachers from backgrounds with less access to test preparation resources. After criticism, the program was revised and eventually replaced. In contrast, Denver’s ProComp system incorporated multiple pathways to earn additional compensation, including working in high-need schools and completing professional development.
For Mississippi, creating an equitable merit pay system would require careful attention to several principles. First, performance metrics must account for context, recognizing the additional challenges facing educators in under-resourced schools. Second, multiple measures of effectiveness should be incorporated, not just standardized test scores. Third, the system should reward growth and improvement, not just absolute achievement levels that might reflect pre-existing advantages.
Most importantly, educators—including those from HBCUs—must have meaningful input in system design. Those closest to the classroom understand the complexities of effective teaching and can identify potential unintended consequences of proposed evaluation metrics.
HBCUs as Educational Innovation Centers
Despite resource challenges, Mississippi’s HBCUs have long served as centers of educational innovation. Jackson State University’s College of Education and Human Development has developed nationally recognized programs in educational leadership and curriculum development. Alcorn State University has pioneered approaches to rural education that address the unique needs of Mississippi’s agricultural communities. Mississippi Valley State University has developed innovative strategies for preparing teachers to work in high-poverty Delta communities.
These institutions often emphasize culturally responsive teaching practices, community engagement, and addressing the needs of diverse learners—approaches increasingly recognized as essential for effective education. HBCU teacher preparation programs typically produce graduates with strong commitments to serving high-need communities and student populations that have been historically underserved.
Merit pay systems could potentially recognize and reward these innovative approaches if designed to value contributions beyond traditional metrics. For example, a merit pay system might reward teachers who implement culturally responsive teaching practices, engage effectively with diverse families and communities, or demonstrate success with historically marginalized student populations. Such measures would recognize the distinctive strengths often cultivated in HBCU teacher preparation programs.
Several HBCU-led initiatives demonstrate this innovative potential. Jackson State University’s CEEHI (Center for Excellence in Education and Human Innovation) has developed approaches to teacher preparation that integrate technology, cultural responsiveness, and community engagement. These programs produce graduates particularly well-prepared for Mississippi’s diverse classrooms and could serve as models for the types of practices that merit pay systems might recognize and reward.
A Path Forward for Equitable Merit Pay
Creating merit pay systems that advance educational equity while addressing historic disparities requires thoughtful policy development and inclusive stakeholder engagement. For Mississippi, several recommendations emerge from examining the intersection of merit pay, HBCUs, and educational equity.
First, the state should establish task forces that include substantial representation from HBCUs to develop recommendations for performance-based compensation systems. These task forces should include faculty from HBCU teacher preparation programs, K-12 educators prepared at HBCUs, and educational researchers familiar with the unique strengths and challenges of these institutions.
Second, any merit pay system should explicitly address historic funding disparities for HBCUs and the educators they prepare. This might include weighted formulas that provide additional resources to institutions and schools serving high-need populations, or dedicated funding streams to ensure that merit pay doesn’t exacerbate existing resource gaps.
Third, performance metrics should be developed collaboratively with educators from diverse backgrounds and institutional affiliations. These metrics should recognize multiple dimensions of effective teaching and educational leadership, not just standardized test scores or traditional academic outputs.
Fourth, pilot programs should be established to test different approaches to merit pay, with rigorous evaluation focused on equity impacts. These pilots should include schools with significant numbers of HBCU-prepared teachers and should track outcomes across various demographic groups.
Finally, merit pay should be viewed as one component of a comprehensive approach to educational equity that includes addressing base salary disparities, improving working conditions, and ensuring adequate resources for all schools and institutions.
The long-term vision for educational equity in Mississippi must recognize the vital role of HBCUs in preparing educators who serve the state’s diverse student population. By developing merit pay systems that value the distinctive contributions of these institutions and their graduates, Mississippi can advance both educational excellence and equity. Merit pay, if thoughtfully designed with equity at its center, could help recognize and reward the critical contributions of HBCU-prepared educators while addressing persistent disparities in Mississippi’s educational system.
