Andrew P. Mullins Jr, who has dedicated nearly 50 years of educational service to Mississippi, received his doctorate in college administration from Ole Miss in 1992. He began his career as a high school teacher, coach and administrator at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Jackson. In 1980, he joined Gov. William Winter’s staff as a special assistant and assisted in creating the state’s Education Reform Act of 1982. Mullins later worked as a special assistant to three state superintendents of education and three different UM chancellors in various leadership roles. Mullins helped draft and pass the legislation establishing the Mississippi Teacher Corps and has continuously stayed involved with the program for its inaugural 30 years as co-director, assistant director, and associate professor.
“Dr. Andrew P. Mullins is arguably one of the most influential educators in Mississippi’s history. His leadership and stewardship of the Mississippi Teacher Corps throughout its history has been invaluable.” – Dr. Hunter Taylor
At a Glance:
- Nearly 50 years of educational service in Mississippi
- Assisted in creating the Education Reform Act of 1982
- Assisted three state superintendents of education
- Worked for three different UM chancellors in various leadership roles
- 30 years of involvement with the Mississippi Teacher Corps
Can you tell me more about your work with the Education Reform Act of 1982?
I was at Ole Miss earning my doctorate when Gov. Winter was elected, so I interrupted my doctoral work after one year to move back to Jackson and be a special assistant to Gov. William Winter. In Mississippi, there had been no alternate route for those who wanted to be licensed teachers but wanted a way to get licensed other than the traditional major in education. In 1970, when I graduated from Millsaps College with a major in history, there was no alternate route to teaching. I got a job teaching at St. Andrew’s Episcopal High School although I had no courses in education while an undergraduate. St. Andrew’s required its teachers to be licensed by the state of Mississippi. The only way I could start teaching immediately was to apply for a teacher permit from the State Department of Education. This permit required the license applicant to take six hours of pedagogy a year while teaching. This requirement was the minimum to get the permit renewed. A total of thirty-six hours was mandated along with the successful passage of the National Teacher Exam in order to get my license issued by the state. For several of these courses, I questioned the value added to my ability to teach history.
When I started working as a special assistant for Gov. Winter in 1980, the opportunity came to make changes in the entire education system of public education. As one of the 17 programs in the Education Reform Act of 1982, the redesign of the Certification Commission gave those of us working on the Act just what was needed. Because of my personal experience in getting certified, I was determined to get those changes written into the new law governing teacher licensure. This alternate route was not viewed as needed by many of the deans of schools of education in the universities and private colleges in the state. In fact, it received outright hostile disapproval with many of them openly opposing it. The only dean who supported it as a way to get more teachers in many of the school districts having problems finding teachers was the UM dean of education Jim Payne.
So how did the MTC begin?
In 1988, Harvard journalism major, Amy Gutman, was interning at a newspaper in the Delta. She was in my office in the state superintendent’s suite interviewing me about the imminent teacher shortage in the Delta. We were interrupted several times by my phone ringing due to calls from desperate district superintendents looking for teachers. Gutman said now that you have the alternate route, the recruiting of “idealistic” liberal arts majors from the Ivy League universities—much like the Peace Corps had done in the 1960s—should be tried. Her idea immediately struck me as a potential project to meet the legislative mandate for the two boards to work together on a project. The State Board of Education licensed teachers by the alternate route which required twelve hours of education courses which were taken at the universities governed by the College Board. I felt she had a great idea. From there, she visited with IHL Commissioner Cleere who endorsed her idea, and we discussed how it should be implemented. Richard Boyd endorsed it as well. Cleere received a grant from the Phil Hardin Foundation to support it for the first three years. It was initially housed administratively at the IHL Board Office. Because Dean Payne was the only dean in support of an alternative route, the training program was located at UM. Because I had been involved with the law establishing the alternate route and knew the local superintendents, I was asked to place the new Mississippi Teacher Corps applicants in the districts. Amy Gutman worked with the Commissioner’s Office for one year in the initial design of the program which included recruiting from the various universities. Then, she returned to Harvard. The first class of the MTC entered UM and began their teaching assignments as licensed alternate-route teachers in 1990. Two important things happened in the early years which kept the program alive. When the initial grant from the Hardin Foundation was ending, the IHL Commissioner made it clear that the program would not survive without a funding source and a change in the training emphasis. Since I was working directly with the state legislature for the State Board of Education and Dr. Dick Boyd, the State Superintendent of Education at that time, I began to advocate with the education committee chairs and the appropriation committee chairs the establishment of a line item appropriation in the IHL budget specifically to support MTC. This attempt which provided a steady source of revenue was successful. The second occurrence which was equally essential to the continuation of the program was the decision to make the MTC a two year program with a free master’s degree awarded to those teachers who completed two years of teaching and the necessary coursework. The Associate Dean of Education, Jim Chambless, was successful in restructuring the training program to make it stronger in the basic teaching skills which were lacking in the original one year program. These two changes literally kept the MTC alive after the first three years.
What does the MTC look like today?
There have been 30 classes that have included the 750 applicants who have been accepted into the program. I have placed all 750 in the school districts where they were assigned to teach. Of the 750 who started the program, 618 have completed the program. This number does not include the 25 who entered the program as the 30th class. They have a year to go. These 750 teachers have come to the University of Mississippi for their training and coursework from 246 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.
What have you found most meaningful in your work with the MTC?
Helping high poverty school districts find well-trained teachers has brought me much satisfaction and so has being able to see the MTC continue into its 31st year. Gov. Winter gave me the greatest gift you can give someone – the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others. I have satisfaction knowing that I have given this same opportunity to hundreds of teachers through the Mississippi Teacher Corps.
What advice do you have for graduating students?
Follow your passions. Too often, at 22 years old, students think they have to major in something they can make a lot of money in. And if that’s your passion, that’s fine. But if you know what your passion is and it’s in a profession that affects other people’s lives positively, I think you need to follow that passion regardless of money. If you don’t know what that passion is, search for it. It will come to you eventually. The saddest thing is when somebody is locked in a profession they don’t like. Even though they make good money they don’t feel like they’re making a difference in anybody’s life and they’re miserable. So find your passion.