The Key to Student Results and Teacher Retention? Great Coaching.

By Erica Faust, Master Teacher, Ouachita Parish Schools, Louisiana

Erica Faust received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Southern Mississippi and her Master of Arts in Teaching from Louisiana Tech University, where she is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Educational Leadership. She began her career in education at her high school alma mater as a pre-Algebra and Transition to Algebra teacher in 2006 and has taken on leadership opportunities throughout her tenure. Currently, she serves as a master teacher at Richwood Middle School, a role she has held since 2018. Read more about her selection as an NIET Fellow here.

While attending Boot Camp last summer as one of twelve NIET Fellows in their first annual program, I was preparing for my interview on Media Day when I received a message that our math scores were available. Excited and nervous at the same time, I called to find out the results. Having worked at Richwood Middle School for the past six years as a Master Teacher who supported math, my love and dedication to improving math scores, increasing students’ love for math, and increasing math teachers’ capacity with instruction have always been at the forefront of my career goals. 

I received a text message from our curriculum coordinator that test scores were in, and that math scores grew more than the other subjects. I was anxious and excited to know all the details, and I could not wait until our break time to call her. The conversation was brief, but left me overly excited: Our sixth-grade students had grown 14.7 points in their Math Assessment index, and the Math Assessment index at Richwood Middle School increased by 29.5 points overall from the previous year.  

Positive results are thrilling for any teacher, but my group of math teachers faced a dual-layer of challenges, which made our latest scores that much more exciting. Like other districts nationwide, our struggle to retain teachers and stagnation of subject scores seemed to go hand-in-hand, and my support as a teacher leader helped stabilize our opportunities for progress.

Over the last six years at Richwood Middle School, we have experienced some growth in our Math Assessment Index, but not significant growth. Showing little to no growth can be discouraging in my role as the main person who supports math teachers. Each year, math teacher retention always presents a scary situation because we lose at least two or three math teachers, which causes me, as the Math Master Teacher, to start over with support and strategies from the previous year. During the last two years, we experienced an increase in the number of new and non-certified math teachers. Last school year, six of our seven math teachers and two math resource teachers were either new or non-certified math teachers. Therefore, the support of all these early career teachers was important and a top priority for me.

Learning to tailor my coaching support for my teachers through NIET structures and practices, combined with my deep investment in my teachers and school, helped us begin to turn around our retention challenges this year - and led to that triumphant phone call that we could all share together.  

Driving Growth Through Coaching 

During the 2023-2024 school year, a majority of my coaching support for math teachers was centered around teaching math content to early career teachers and providing strategies for teachers to transfer their learning to teach that content to their students. Each Friday, I held coaching sessions in my office/cluster room where we would collaboratively plan lessons using Tier I curriculum, analyze data to determine students’ needs, and reflect on teaching and learning.  

A majority of my time was spent with our 6th-grade math and math enrichment teachers, who were new to the education field. They both were in alternative certification programs and were working towards becoming fully certified. Both teachers were very eager to learn and took any coaching, suggestions, and strategies we discussed back to their classrooms. In my experience, early career teachers who are fresh out of college or have chosen education as their second career are more open to coaching and support than the majority of veteran teachers, and they benefit significantly from having a teacher leader to build strong institutional foundations from day one. 

These two teachers’ passion for education and love for their students were very evident in their classes and outside of the class. When I wasn’t physically in their class, they would send me videos of students engaged in math discussions, and they would often reflect on what did and didn’t work to make adjustments to their instruction. Honing in on NIET’s cycle of observation, reflection, planning, and action truly helped me help my teachers shine. It makes my heart smile to walk into one of their classes and see them implementing a strategy or teaching content that we worked on during our one-on-one sessions.

The yearlong work in supporting their growth in the classroom sank in after I received our test scores during the NIET Fellows Boot Camp that summer: I felt like a proud parent in that moment - especially because the 6th grade students showed the most growth in their math scores - and not just growth, but the most I have experienced since I started working at our school. The prior discouragement that naturally comes with not seeing growth, and watching teachers leave the field after a year of stagnation, gave way to the confidence that great coaching can lead to greater retention. I watched each of them grow as reflective teachers during the school year, and I am thrilled to continue to witness that growth this year because both teachers returned this school year.

Results Lead to Retention and Future Leaders

Aside from the growth in our scores, Richwood Middle School celebrated a second victory: This school year is the first year since I became a Master Teacher here that we have had a majority of our math teachers return. Although we replaced one math enrichment teacher, we made some other shifts in our math department to create a dynamic math team committed to growing our students. Our math/science Mentor Teacher, whom I have been working with for the past six years, moved to 7th grade math, and our only fully certified math teacher from last year moved to 8th grade math enrichment. Both of these teachers have been instrumental in supporting early career teachers this year, as I support them in becoming teacher leaders as well.  

Although Richwood Middle School showed growth in math on the LEAP state assessment last year, I know that we still have more work to do. Our new goal is to grow our SPS score by at least 5 points to move us to the next letter grade. With the support of our math/science mentor, we are continuing to support early career teachers. Currently, we engage each grade level team, which consists of the math and math enrichment teacher, in weekly collaborations where we plan using the Tier 1 curriculum, analyze student data, and make adjustments to instruction. I model content and strategies for them as needed, as well as how to incorporate manipulatives in their classes. I have reserved a period on Fridays for math resource teachers to receive the same support. The math mentor or I will visit math classes weekly to support cluster implementation, assist students, determine teacher and students’ needs, show support, model or co-teach lessons, and engage in other coaching/support strategies. I am excited and anticipating growth at Richwood Middle School this year, not only in math but in all subjects. 

NIET's mission is "Building educator excellence to give all students the opportunity for success."  My work as a teacher leader at Richwood Middle School and within my district is helping me fulfill NIET’s mission and my purpose of contributing to the growth and development of other teacher leaders, which in turn will help our students experience success. Having worked with early career teachers more in the last few years - and helping support them in ways that drive results and retention, I can already see them having a major impact on their students and transitioning into teacher leaders themselves. Teacher leaders build future teacher leaders, and all teacher leaders focus on having the greatest impact on student success.