HB 1246 Summary

• Establishes the Mississippi Teacher Leadership Program as a four-year pilot program within the State Department of Education to support and retain effective classroom teachers through teacher leadership opportunities.

• Changes terminology from "mentor teacher" to "teacher leader" throughout the Beginning Teacher Support Program statutes (Sections 37-9-201 through 37-9-213).

• Increases annual compensation for teacher leaders who mentor beginning teachers from $1,000 to $2,000 per beginning teacher mentored, effective for the 2019-2020 through 2022-2023 school years.

• Limits each full-time academic teacher leader to mentoring no more than two beginning teachers and requires participating schools to have a classroom management program approved by the local school board.

• Requires teacher leaders to complete training workshops and prohibits them from evaluating the beginning teachers they mentor.