Three Dougherty County teachers earn Game Ball Awards

ALBANY — Dougherty County School Superintendent Butch Mosely presented three teachers with “Winner In The Classroom Game Ball Awards” on Tuesday. The award was created last school year to honor teachers with the highest levels of student performance as measured on standardized test and other quantifiable evidence that demonstrates their ability to help students grow, academically, for the year.

The name for the award came from Mosely’s coaching days when a basketball player would sometimes “leave it all on the court” to help lead the team to an important win, the coach would award that standout player a game ball for exceeding expectations.

The game balls were handed out to Katesa Walker, Sequoias Walker and Rita Correia.

Katesa Walker has taught at International Studies Elementary Charter School for more than six years and has served as grade chair for five. Last year, with results similar to previous years, Walker’s student performance on Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) resulted in 100 percent pass rates in English/language arts, reading, math, science and social studies. Seventy-two percent of her students scored in the “exceeds” range for math.

She has worked in the summer with system curriculum specialists to improve Dougherty County’s math and reading curriculum. She was invited to Atlanta this fall to review third grade math items for the new state assessment, “Georgia Milestones.” She has represented her school as Teacher of the Year and as a district finalist for that honor. She possesses an Education Specialist degree and is gifted endorsed.

Sequoias Walker, an eighth-grade mathematics teacher and department chair from Robert Cross Middle Magnet School, is the first middle school Winner In The Classroom for 2014-15. Ninety-eight percent of her math students exceeded the standard on the math CRCT last year and the remaining two percent met the standard.

Mosely said Walker does more than teach, she inspires students to want to learn. For the last two years’ test cycles, student performance improved from 98 percent to 100 percent passing the standards.

Correia, a science teacher at Dougherty High School, saw her physical science students excel in the classroom and on state tests. Last year, 92 percent of her students passed the end-of-course test for science with 68 percent exceeding standards.