By Jon Schmidt-Davis

Curtis Martin’s motivation for teaching can be seen in a quotation by author Victor Hugo that he’s added to his email signature line, “He who opens a school door, closes a prison.”

You see, before Curtis became a Georgia math teacher, he was a correctional officer for the state of Georgia and the Houston County Sheriff’s Department. Having seen too many children end up behind bars, Martin decided to work with middle grades students to give them opportunities that can improve their chances for success in life. 

Beginning in the summer of 2020, the Southern Regional Education Board partnered with Georgia College and State University and 19 Georgia school districts to start a teacher residency training program, called the Georgia Residency for Educating Amazing Teachers program, that trained Martin and 41 other middle school STEM educators across four cohorts. Given wrap-around coaching, mentoring supports and trained in cohorts in year-long placements in low-income, high-need schools, they earned a Master of Arts in Teaching, their Georgia teaching licensure, and became teachers in the districts that hosted their residencies. Research by Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond and the Learning Policy Institute has shown that year-long, full-time residencies offer long-term benefits in terms of teacher performance, teacher confidence and teacher retention.  

These residents have lived up to the expectations contained in their program’s name. GREAT resident Maria Haven (Cohort 1) was named her district’s Teacher of the Year in only her second year of teaching. Curtis Martin (Cohort 1) has been selected to present at state and national conferences for math teachers because of his measurable success in raising student achievement. Christopher Pearson (Cohort 2) taught for several years in a private Christian school but used the GREAT residency as an opportunity to get his teaching license and become a public-school teacher. Kevius Shaw (Cohort 3) came back to Georgia to teach after having moved to North Carolina for a first job after college.  

The GREAT residents all have their own stories. They bring different life experiences to the classroom, different motivations, different strengths and weaknesses, but they are all teaching at a time when it is hard to find teachers. 

A Desperate Need for Teachers 

According to the most recent SREB data (2022-23), teacher turnover has reached 18.2% across the region, up from 12% in 2019-20. Across the entire country in 2023 there were 55,289 teacher vacancies; 32,196 of them (58.2%) were in the South. Across the country in the 2022-23 school year there were also 270,513 underqualified teachers (teachers either uncertified for their position or teaching outside the field of their certification); 150,595 of them (55.7%) were located in the South. 

Focusing in on Georgia teacher turnover in 2021-22 (the most recent year for which data are available) was 13.7%, up from 9.2% before the pandemic.

In 2022-23, 24% of Georgia’s teachers were inexperienced, 11% were teaching out-of-field, and 8% were uncertified.

In 2019-20 only 5.1% of Georgia teachers were inexperienced, 11% were teaching out-of-field, and no classrooms were staffed by uncertified teachers.  

How the GREAT Program Prepares and Supports Teachers 

So how is the GREAT program structured, and what are the advantages it conveys? 

All of the GREAT residents complete a 36-credit online MAT program offered by GCSU, consisting of 12 classes over four semesters and 15 months, beginning the summer before the year-long residency placement, and concluding the summer after the residency. GREAT residents take all of their classes together as a cohort.  

Five of the 12 GCSU classes are taught by the same professor, who also oversees the residents’ student teaching practicum experiences. This ensures that this GCSU professor has a very good understanding of the residents and their strengths, weaknesses, challenges and progress. At least every other week the GCSU professors, SREB program manager and coaches get together to discuss the progress of residents, and extra support is quickly provided to residents when challenges arise. 

The centerpiece of the program is a year-long residency, where the resident is paired with an experienced and successful partner teacher to learn at their side, elbow-to-elbow, throughout an entire school year, beginning with the teachers and students coming back to school in the fall. The residents gradually take on more responsibility, beginning by leading small groups and bell-ringers, progressing to teach individual lessons that they have designed, and culminating by taking over their partner teacher’s classes for five to six weeks. 

A unique aspect of the GREAT program is that while most student teachers are supported by their professors and their partner teachers, GREAT residents also had highly experienced SREB coaches assigned to them. SREB coaches served in a non-evaluative role, not assigning any college grades to the residents, and not working for the districts where the residents were placed and expected to be hired. This meant that residents often felt free to bring problems to the attention of their SREB coaches that they would not voice elsewhere.  

SREB coaches also provided continuity to the residents as they graduated, received their teaching licenses, and became teachers-of-record themselves. While the GCSU professors turned most of their attention to the next cohort and the next cohort’s classes, the SREB coaches continued to meet with and support the graduates of previous cohorts. 

From Business Manager to Teacher of the Year 

In 2001, Maria Haven began a 16-year career in business management with companies like Blockbuster Video, SunTrust Bank and T-Mobile. At one point she was managing a portfolio of more than 20 T-Mobile retail stores. When T-Mobile downsized in 2017 and eliminated her job, rather than immediately pursuing another position in business management, Haven used the break to think about what she really wanted to do in life. 

“In my younger years, I equated success solely with monetary gain,” Haven said. “I believed that unless I attained a six-figure salary, I couldn’t consider myself successful. Eventually, I achieved that coveted milestone in my career, commanding a lucrative salary. Yet, despite the financial rewards, I found myself lacking job satisfaction. Every day felt like a struggle.”  

And yet when she was let go from her job, she found she could breathe again. 

“The moment I was laid off, a wave of relief washed over me,” she said. “It became abundantly clear — it was time to pursue my lifelong passion for teaching.” 

Not having a degree in education, Haven initially volunteered at her daughter’s middle school and then took a position in her district’s central office as a residency and enrollment officer. When Haven saw SREB and GCSU recruiting for the inaugural cohort of the GREAT program, she jumped at the opportunity to become a teacher. 

Being a successful and accomplished person in the business world did not initially make things easier in teaching, as teaching requires different knowledge, skills and aptitudes. The residency year was one of the most challenging things Haven had ever done.  

“Balancing work, school and life was a real challenge,” she said. “Schoolwork seemed to take up most of my time, leaving little room for anything else.”  

But the wrap-around supports built into the GREAT model made it possible, even in the middle of a residency year complicated by COVID. Whenever Haven needed guidance, SREB coach Amanda Merritt was there, equipped with expertise and advice. Merritt’s support went beyond professional, even stepping up to help when Haven was severely sick with COVID-19. 

“When I contracted COVID during my first year of teaching and ended up hospitalized for over a week, Amanda and several members of my cohort stepped up in a remarkable way,” Haven said. “They delivered food to my family and Amanda even cooked us a home-cooked meal.” 

“The bonds formed within a cohort can extend beyond the program itself, serving as a valuable network of professional contacts and sources of ongoing support throughout one’s teaching career,” Haven said. “In the process, I have built friendships that I will sustain for the rest of my life.” 

After her residency year Haven quickly became recognized as an excellent teacher and a strong teacher leader. In only her second year of teaching (2023-24), Haven was selected as the district-wide Teacher of the Year for Griffin-Spalding Schools. Haven has recently moved with her family, and she is now teaching sixth grade math at Hull Middle School in Gwinnett County. 

While Haven’s success was exceptional and largely depended on the excellent dispositions and attitudes she brought to the profession, she acknowledges the role GREAT played in helping her to be successful.  

“Through [GREAT] I gained invaluable experience that allowed me to perform at the level of an experienced teacher from the very beginning of my teaching career,” Haven said. “In fact, my experience in the GREAT program played a significant role in my recognition as the GSCS District Teacher of the Year after only three years of teaching.” 

Corrections Officer to Outstanding Math Teacher 

Curtis Martin’s first career was far removed from education and yet had an important influence on his ultimate direction. In 2007, Martin became a corrections officer at Macon State Prison in Georgia. Then in 2013, he started working as a corrections deputy for the Houston County Sheriff’s Department. While working in corrections he completed a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Middle Georgia State University in 2019, just in time to apply for the inaugural cohort of the GREAT program. 

“Having worked in corrections I witnessed firsthand the unfortunate consequences of poor choices, especially among young males,” Martin said. “Becoming a teacher seemed like the most meaningful way to channel my passion for helping others and utilize my expertise in mathematics to effect positive change.” 

Martin was not an immediate natural in the classroom, struggling during the first semester of his residency, but he responded well to coaching and strove to continually improve.  

“My partner teacher, Debbie Thigpen, provided invaluable insights into creating a well-managed and student-friendly learning environment,” Martin said.  

Martin observed closely as Thigpen modeled effective classroom management before experimenting and honing his own teaching craft under her guidance and that of his SREB coaches. 

Since becoming a licensed teacher at Thomson Middle School in Houston County, Martin has continued to improve and excel, something that is clear from his students’ results on End-of-Grade and End-of-Course math assessments. By the end of the 2022-23 school year 86% of Martin’s eighth-grade math students were scoring at the level of developing and above, compared to 59% in the previous year. Thirty-five percent of his students were at the level of proficient or above, an increase from 14%, the previous year.  

Teacher Curtis Martin’s EOG Grade 8 Math Results 

Teacher Curtis Martin’s Algebra I EOC Results 

Martin also saw an increase in students earning proficiency in his Algebra I classes from 81% in 2022 to 97% in 2023. These results show that Martin, a novice teacher in a Title I school, is achieving learning outcomes in math almost identical to those of Georgia as a whole – including veteran teachers and more affluent schools (statewide proficiency for all students was 36%, compared to Martin’s 35%). 

Becoming a More Professional and Well-Rounded Teacher 

When Christopher Pearson interviewed for the second cohort of the GREAT program, he had already been teaching science for four years as an unlicensed teacher at a small Christian school. He never had any formal education to be a teacher, and he felt like he had gotten as far as he could without formal training. Pearson said he felt like he hit a wall in his teaching skills.  

While he had fallen in love with teaching the first time he set foot in a classroom, he couldn’t afford to go to graduate school to get an MAT without having a well-paying job.  

“The stipend I received was a huge help because that allowed the student teaching to act like a paid internship,” Pearson said. “I would not have been able to go back and earn my master’s if I had to give up my job to do so.”  

The GREAT program let him stay in teaching, while also getting the formal training he had come to feel he was missing. 

Even though he had four previous years’ experience as a teacher in a private school, Pearson benefited from the opportunity the residency gave him to be thoughtful and reflective about his teaching practices.  

“It was great to see different classroom management styles as a student teacher,” he said. “I was also able to try different teaching strategies out.”  

Teachers who enter the profession on provisional licenses, as so many currently do, are so busy managing the immediate challenges of teaching that they do not have the ability to observe, reflect and experiment. The residency gives new teachers the opportunity to “go fast by going slow.”  

Pearson is now a second-year teacher, teaching science at Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School in Clarke County. 

Coming Home to Teach 

Kevius Shaw, a member of the third cohort of the program, grew up in Valdosta and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at Fort Valley State University in Georgia. He took a job in a research laboratory in North Carolina but soon wanted something different. Shaw tried out education, dipping his toe in the water as a substitute teacher. Always committed to ideals of service and giving back, Shaw realized that teaching provided him with a sense of fulfillment unmatched by any other pursuit.  

While Shaw’s academic preparation was in biology with the goal of being a science teacher, the GREAT program trained him as a true STEM teacher by intertwining math and science. What Shaw remembered of his own training in math was very procedural, so it required him to shift his thinking to teach math conceptually as well as procedurally.  

In addition to the STEM focus of the MAT program at GCSU, SREB’s coaches included content experts in math instruction who provided special workshops to residents on how to teach students so they can understand math concepts and procedures. 

Shaw came into the program confidently but soon realized he had underestimated the challenges involved in teaching. His highly experienced partner teacher was critical in carrying him through the residency.  

“Despite feeling discouraged at times, my partner teacher’s intuitive understanding of my struggles and her unwavering support proved instrumental in my growth,” Shaw said. “Through her guidance and mentorship, I gradually gained the confidence and competence needed to take full control of all [of her] classes by February.”  

Shaw is a second-year teacher teaching math and physical science at Thomson Middle School in Houston County.

Mending the Shortage, One Teacher at a Time 

Haven, Martin, Pearson and Shaw are just a few of the GREAT residents we have worked with over the last few years. Their stories are also very similar to those of their colleagues in the program. Like student teachers and first-year teachers everywhere, these GREAT residents have had to learn classroom management, time management, how to capture and hold the attention of adolescents, and how to take care of themselves while they are taking care of Georgia’s future.  

Not everyone who began the GREAT program was able to complete it. For most of the residents who were unable to complete the program, we found that emotional and mental health barriers were a greater challenge than academic ability. Teaching can be emotionally draining in the best of circumstances, and during and since COVID teachers have not been operating in the best circumstances.  

The teacher pipeline is drying up. We can no longer count on hiring our way out of our current problems, as the qualified applicants are no longer there. We have to do a better job with the quality of preparation and support of teachers who are in the pipeline rather than hope that the flow of new teachers will simply increase. We must also look for ways to increase the number of teachers in the pipeline through a variety of efforts, including state- and district-level Grow Your Own programs and improving school culture, so more K-12 students are inspired to become teachers. 

Against the enormity of more than 55,000 teacher vacancies across the country right now, 35 teacher residents may seem insignificant. But like a marathon that must be run one step at a time, America’s teaching shortage will have to be repaired one teacher at a time – and every new teacher will be different, and every new teacher will need quality preparation and support.

 

References 

Southern Regional Education Board. (n.d.). Teacher Compensation Dashboard. https://www.sreb.org/interactive/teacher-compensation-dashboard 

Guha, R., Hyler, M.E., and Darling-Hammond, L. (2016). The Teacher Residency: An Innovative Model for Preparing Teachers. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute.