Left to right: Miskia Davis, Sunflower County Consolidated School District superintendent; Dr. Robin Acord, master of arts in teaching coordinator at Delta State University; and Dr. Merideth Van Namen, teacher education, leadership, and research chair at Delta State, attend a Delta Sunflower Project informational session on Oct. 22, 2019, at the. Sunflower County Consolidated School District in Indianola. The session was hosted by Dr. Kaysie Burton, Delta State coordinator of the Delta Sunflower Project, and William Murphy, Sunflower County Consolidated School District director of personnel.Teacher candidates can soon apply for Delta State University’s second cohort of the Delta Sunflower Project Mississippi Teacher Residency Program.
The 2020 Mississippi Teacher Residency Program Selection Process for Cohort 2:
Application opens: Jan. 3, 2020
Application closes: Feb. 3, 2020
Invitation to teacher institute and interview sent to candidates: Feb. 21, 2020
Interview day: March 7, 2020
Selected candidates notified: April 1, 2020
Coursework begins: Summer II session (July 2020)
As announced last July, Delta State received a three-year $600,000 grant from the Mississippi Department of Education to partner with the Sunflower County Consolidated School District on a Mississippi Teacher Residency program that will prepare the next generation of primary schoolteachers for jobs in their community. Each year for the next three years, 12 teacher candidates enrolled at Delta State and living in Sunflower County will complete the practicum—thus providing the region with 36 new educators. Through intensive on-site experience, the program offers deeper preparation for teacher candidates to be day-one ready upon graduation. It also provides incentive for them to work in their own community.
The W. K. Kellogg Foundation funds the program for the Mississippi Department of Education. DSU’s Division of Teacher Education, Leadership, and Research within the College of Education and Human Sciences administers the Delta State portion through Dr. Merideth Van Namen, chair and associate professor of teacher education, who wrote the grant, and Dr. Kaysie Burton, assistant professor of teacher education, and the coordinator of the program.
For additional information, contact Dr. Kaysie Burton, assistant professor of elementary education, at (662) 846-4370.
Dorothy Sykes (center), director of Delta State’s World Teaching Class Program for national board candidates, and Beth Loflin (right), assistant director of educator effectiveness at the Mississippi Department of Education, discuss opportunities at the Delta Sunflower Project informational session on Oct. 22, 2019, at the Sunflower County Consolidated School District in Indianola.
