Teach For America is a national corps of recent college graduates who commit to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in the effort to expand educational opportunity. The mission of Teach For America is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting our nation’s most promising future leaders in the effort.

Teach For America began serving children in public schools in the Delta region of Arkansas in 1991 with nine teachers.  In 1993 the program expanded into Mississippi. The corps currently serves 43,000 students in Mississippi and Arkansas public schools.

Teach For America strives to partner with state educational systems by creating a model that provides quality education to all.

Program activities include:

1. Recruitment at the nation’s top colleges to find talented and diverse graduating seniors with strong academic backgrounds and proven leadership abilities;
2. Selection of the top candidates through an intensive admissions process;
3. Teacher preparation through an intensive residential summer institute, housed at Delta State University, in which corps members teach summer school classes under the supervision of veteran teachers;
4. Placement of corps members in highest-need Title I public schools;
5. Ongoing professional development through content and grade-level specific sessions and assignment to a program director who observes, gives feedback, and looks at student achievement data with his/her corps members. The professional development is geared specifically toward what it takes to be a successful teacher in low-income communities; and
6. Alumni Support Network providing access and connections to a variety of career paths but focusing most heavily on pathways to school leadership and political leadership.