Good 4 You: Rookie Teacher Honored

MIAMI (CBS4) - This week's CBS4 "Good 4 You" report highlights the efforts of a South Florida teacher who is getting high marks. She is not only helping her students reach new heights, she is also breaking ground.

For Lauren Harshbarger, being a school teacher was not her plan. She had a good job in corporate America.

"I was sitting behind a desk all day, every day. I started to say, I need something more," said Harshbarger, now a fourth grade teacher.

"My students work harder than I think they have ever worked in their lives," said Harshbarger to CBS4's Jorge Estevez.

Harshbarger's work at Dr. Henry W. Mack West Little River Elementary School is also paying off; she has been named Miami Dade County's Rookie Teacher of the Year.

Among her accomplishments was improving her student's test scores by 80 percent.

"I took where they had to go and I went backwards and said what are the steps we need to do to hit that," said Harshbarger.

For Lauren, winning rookie of the year is huge. She is part of the Teach for America program, an organization that introduces qualified professionals to teaching. She is one of only two other Teach for America teachers to receive the honor.

"We are competing against thousands of teachers in Miami-Dade County. We are a small subset of those teachers. So for our teachers, who are not traditionally trained, it says the hard work that they are putting into the classrooms really matters," said Nicole Brisbane who works with Teach for America,  an organization that places professionals in an intense training course to allow them to provide an excellent education for students at low performing schools.

"When I started to learn more about the achievement gap and how high income kids are achieving on such different levels than low income kids, I said 'I need to see this. I need to see what I can do to change it,'" said Harshbarger.

Clearly, all of her efforts paid off for her and her students.

"We need more people doing great things in the classroom to show the value of teachers and the great things that happen here," said Harshbarger.