LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Twenty-seven teachers had their first day of teaching in their own JCPS classroom last week, after completing their Louisville Teacher Residency (LTR) training.
The one-year master's program gives students both teaching experience and classroom instruction with the goal of creating a more diverse teacher workforce. LTR is a partnership between the University of Louisville (UofL) and Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), where students teach in a JCPS classroom four days a week and then have Fridays to complete their UofL work.
Jamaia Daugherty is one of the graduates. She had a unique path to her 7th-grade classroom at Grace James Academy of Excellence. Daugherty started at UofL as a computer engineering major.
“I got into the program and was in the engineering field and just accepted my co-op and was like, this is not what I want to do,” Daugherty said.
Instead, she studied math, and started thinking about paths she could take with that degree.
“My childhood dream was to be a teacher,” Daugherty said.
After she got her bachelor's degree, she applied for the Louisville Teacher Residency program. It was developed in 2019 and launched in 2020.
“Essentially, through our racial equity policy, we recognize that we needed to better prepare our teachers and also recruit more teachers of color within our district so we could match and reflect our student demographics,” program director Sylena Fishback said.
Once students graduate from the program, they go straight into the classroom at accelerated improvement schools, or AIS schools. Fishback said the teachers are placed in schools "that just need a little extra support and loving on their students."
Grace James Academy isn’t an AIS school, but it is a specialty school, focusing on STEAM using an Afrocentric framework. It’s a school Daugherty knew she wanted to be at, teaching and mentoring girls whose shoes she was once in.
“Seeing someone that looks like them, ready to listen to them and have those deep conversations with them,” Daugherty said. “I feel like they open up more to someone who looks like them.”
Along with a degree, participants in the Louisville Teaching Residency program receive their Kentucky professional education certificate, a teaching mentor and on-the-job coaching. JCPS is hosting several LTR open houses this fall. You can find more information on the program here.
Contact reporter Rose McBride at rmcbride@whas11.com. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
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