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About MTC

Overview

The Mississippi Teacher Corps (MTC) is an alternate-route graduate program at the University of Mississippi that prepares participants to be classroom teachers (grades 7-12). Participants are placed in Mississippi public schools that are experiencing a teacher shortage.

MTC provides training, support, Mississippi teacher certification, and a full scholarship for a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) from the University of Mississippi. During the school year, participants receive full pay and benefits from their school district and attend graduate classes at the University of Mississippi. Each year, MTC accepts between 25-35 candidates. All participants move as a cohort through each stage of the training and coursework.

Mission

The Mississippi Teacher Corps (MTC) is a University of Mississippi graduate teacher preparation program with a mission to: recruit, train, and support empathetic participants to become committed, talented, and passionate educators who have a desire to partner with and serve communities as teachers in critical-needs public schools.

Vision

The Mississippi Teacher Corps aspires to be a leading force in educational equity, excellence in teaching, and teacher leadership that focuses on the long-term best interest of the state of Mississippi. 

Program Goals

  1. To recruit participants who have a commitment to racial justice and desire to become effective, compassionate educators for all students.

  2. To provide training that promotes and emphasizes teamwork, relationship-building, diversity, equity, and anti-racist practices. 

  3. To have participants who engage with the communities they serve.

  4. To place participants in partnering critical-needs schools where there is a teacher shortage. 

  5. To provide academic, instructional, and emotional support to our participants throughout their two-year experience. 

  6. To promote a program culture that cultivates kindness, gratitude, excellence. 

 
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Our History

Founded in 1989, the Mississippi Teacher Corps sets out to be the nation's best alternate-route teaching program.

Dr. Andy Mullins and Ms. Amy Gutman helped establish the Mississippi Teacher Corps in 1989. At the time, Mullins worked for the State Department of Education and Gutman was studying journalism at Harvard University.

In brainstorming ideas of how to fill the impending teacher shortage in the Mississippi Delta, Ms. Gutman came up with the idea for the Mississippi Teacher Corps, a program founded on the ideals of the Peace Corps, in which recent college graduates from all over the United States would come and teach in Mississippi.

Initially, the Mississippi Teacher Corps was a one-year program funded by several foundations. Under Dr. Mullins' leadership, the structure of MTC was altered substantially in 1993. The program required a two-year commitment and relocated to the University of Mississippi. Additionally, a Master of Arts Degree in Curriculum & Instruction was added to the program’s requirements. In 1994, the program became fully funded by the Mississippi Legislature.

Under Dr. Mullins' stewardship, MTC has accepted more than 460 graduates who have taught in critical-needs school districts as part of the Mississippi Teacher Corps.

 
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