Photo caption: (left to right) Rebecca McMullin, Beth Day-Hairston, David Biek, Gwen Benson, Keysha Robinson and Susan Ogletree pose for a photo at the American Educational Research Association's 2024 conference.
story by Claire Miller
The College of Education & Human Development’s Project Network for Urban and Rural Teachers United for Residency Engagement (NURTURE) received the American Educational Research Association's Claudia A. Balach School University Partnership Research SIG 2024 Award.
This award recognizes the successful collaboration among Project NURTURE’s three university partners – Georgia State University, Fort Valley State University and Middle Georgia State University – and nine school districts to increase the number of teachers committed to high-need schools in urban and rural settings.
Project NURTURE, supported by a $7 million U.S. Department of Education Teacher Quality Partnership grant, is the third in a series of federally funded teacher residency programs that the college has led in the last two decades. It places students in classrooms for a full academic year, connects them with mentor teachers while in school and offers professional development and networking opportunities for the first 2-3 years after they graduate.
The project has 148 total residents, past and current – 95 percent of whom will have graduated by December 2024 and be certified teachers in Douglas, Gwinnett, DeKalb, Bibb and other Georgia counties.
In addition to its goals to prepare and retain high-quality educators, Project NURTURE has also allowed the college to build relationships with school districts and other universities in Georgia, according to Gwen Benson, retired College of Education & Human Development associate dean and the project’s principal investigator.
“Our residency programs have been effective in numerous ways, especially related to teacher retention. We have also set the stage for other universities across the state to begin residency programs through federal grants,” Benson explained. “Our work has also led to formalizing a collaborative partnership across federally funded programs in Georgia, including Teacher Quality Partnership grants and Supporting Effective Educator Development grants, called Georgia Partnerships for Innovation in Education.”
The award also highlights the work Benson has done leading multiple funded teacher residency projects during her tenure at the university.
"This award is the culmination of 20 years of Dr. Benson and her amazing team's work to provide support for the most under-resourced schools in Georgia," said Susan Ogletree, director of the college's Center for Evaluation and Research Services and a frequent collaborator on the teacher residency programs.
Benson credits the faculty and staff she’s worked with at Georgia State and with the partner districts and institutions for their hard work and commitment to preparing high-quality educators for local schools.
“Receiving this award is such a great honor for the NURTURE team, considering our last five years of collaboration with each of our K-12 school districts and university partners. We struggled through the COVID years with everyone else and continued to recruit and prepare teacher residents, along with other services included in our teacher quality partnership grant,” Benson said. “This award is also a testament to the success of our partnership mission and leaves us in a position to sustain our work through continued collaboration beyond the life of the grant.”