About the MNTC Designation

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Teachers Project (MARTP) established the designation of

Meritorious New Teacher Candidate
(MNTC)

as a symbol of excellence to acknowledge highly qualified teachers when they graduate from their teacher preparation institutions.

This designation is not a new certificate, but rather an optional designation, similar to the Merit Scholar designation or Distinguished Diploma for high school students. It is not to be used as a requirement for employment or license, as doing so would defeat its unique and important purpose of creating a new high bar for teacher preparation. We anticipate that only 10% - 15% of teacher candidates will meet the requirements initially, but we hope that the designation will serve as an incentive for more students to strive for this level of excellence in the future.

Purposes of This Designation

The Meritorious New Teacher Candidate designation is designed to:

Attract high-performing students into the field of teaching.
Encourage teacher preparation programs to strive for excellence.
Increase teacher supply in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Enhance educational equity by providing a mechanism to draw these teachers to low-performing and/or high poverty schools.
Reduce the attrition rate of exceptional teachers by creating full reciprocity throughout the region for the duration of their license.
Allow states in the region to hire new teachers meeting these criteria from any other state in the nation without imposing additional criteria, thereby increasing teacher supply and quality in the Mid-Atlantic region.

This designation and the qualifying criteria were developed by a committee with broad representation from schools of education, state departments of education, local districts, research organizations, and a national teacher association.

Note: MNTC is the product of MARTP and may not be used without MARTP's permission.