Our corps members
Placement regions
Corps and Alumni
Mississippi Delta
Join an online event about the Mississippi Delta
November 23, 8 p.m. EST
Hear corps members, staff, and alumni discuss how we are making an impact on the Delta's communities.
Hosted by Ron Nurnberg, Executive Director.
RSVP now.
Read a Q&A
The Mississippi Delta was the site of many pivotal events during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, and continues to reflect educational inequity as a prime civil rights issue. The Delta is in dire need of quality teachers and education reformers who will help change the life prospects of the region’s students. Delta corps members are viewed as role models for the entire community, in terms of both teaching capability and the local leadership responsibilities they quickly assume.
| Quick Stats |
|---|
| Site Since: 1991 |
| Corps Size: 358 |
| Average summer temperature: 93 ° Average winter temperature: 51° |
| Car: Access to car is essential |
| Beginning teacher's salary : $28,000-36,000 |
In spite of the positive changes our country has experienced as a result of the civil rights movement, the Delta has remained behind in education.
- Almost 90 percent of the students in the Delta’s low-income schools are African-American.
- Eighth-graders in the region are reading three and a half grade levels behind their higher-income peers.
Life
Teach For America • Mississippi Delta’s reach includes two states, Arkansas and Mississippi, and stretches some 220 miles from Forrest City, Arkansas, in the north, to Jackson, Mississippi, in the south. While most towns where corps members teach are county-seat towns, a few communities are quite small with a population of 350 people or less. Corps members tend to live with one to three other corps members in low-rent, larger houses in the communities where they teach, or within a 20-35 minute commute to their schools. Despite the region’s vast geography, placement districts are clustered, giving corps members the chance to live near each other and embed themselves in their communities. Corps members can often be found exploring, hiking, camping, and canoeing in the local parks and preserves, attending a concert series or stage plays, eating weekly dinners at the local Mexican restaurant, or playing an informal sports game.
Corps Culture
Even though the Delta corps has grown from nine to nearly 360 corps members over the past 18 years, corps culture remains very tight. The Delta corps values not only professional collaboration, but also less formal interactions such as weekly potluck dinners, Tuesday night movies and book clubs, and Frisbee games every Sunday afternoon. The Delta corps and staff have worked diligently to build a comprehensive support network comprised of current corps members, alumni, and local teachers. Corps members and alumni alike are known and commended for adopting a “can-do” entrepreneurial spirit to tackle the region’s needs. Due to both the welcoming spirit of the region and ripe opportunities for change, Delta corps members and alumni have created holistic experiences for their students and are building institutions in the Delta that will change not only their students’ lives, but also the social fabric of the region.
