The first semester of teaching for the Mississippi Teacher Corps Class of 2005 is complete.  “I think they had a great first semester,” said Ben Guest, the Program Manager of the Teacher Corps. 

“One of the things I’m most proud of,” said Mr. Guest, “is that, since I’ve been here, our attrition rate during the school year is zero.  In the last two years not one participant has quit during the school year.  In fact, only one person has left at all, and that was after the first year teaching.  That is a testament partly to our training and support, but mostly it is a testament to our teachers.”

Teacher attrition rates in critical-needs schools are generally much higher.  Greg Kelly, Director of Recruitment for the Jackson Public Schools, says the general attrition rate of first-year teachers in his district is around 40% during the school year.  “The difference between MTC and other programs is night and day,” said Mr. Kelly.  “The training MTC teachers receive is second-to-none.”

Reggie Barnes, a retired school superintendent, recently evaluated all second-year teachers and was equally impressed.  “MTC is doing something with the training that is allowing these teachers to be successful,” said Mr. Barnes.  “Every teacher I saw started the lesson in the same way: the students came in quietly, sat down, and began working on the ‘do now’ problem that was posted on the board or overhead.  This routine then sets the tone for the entire lesson.”

The recruitment of the next class of MTC teachers is also going well.  “We received 160 applications for our November deadline,” said Mr. Guest.  “This was above and beyond anything we expected and we still have three spring deadlines to go (2/20, 3/20, and 4/20).”

(First-Year Ruth Kuhnau's Science Class)

The Mississippi Teacher Corps is the most competitive alternate-route teaching program in the country. It is a two-year program that recruits recent college graduates to teach in critical-shortage areas in the Mississippi Delta, in exchange for a full scholarship for a master's degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Mississippi. The program was founded in 1989 by Amy Gutman, a Harvard University graduate student, and Dr. Andy Mullins, then Special Assistant to the State Superintendent of Education. Since 1989 more than 300 participants, reaching an estimated 60,000 students, have taught in critical-needs school districts as part of the Mississippi Teacher Corps.

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