By Marsha Francis PhD, Executive Director, STE(A)M Truck
Something encouraging is happening in metro Atlanta’s classrooms. After years of pandemic-related setbacks, our students are bouncing back—especially in mathematics. The 2024–25 Georgia Milestones showed math proficiency improved across most grade levels statewide, with students in grades four and eight exceeding pre-pandemic levels. Atlanta Public Schools saw math scores climb 3.4 percentage points year over year, outpacing state gains in nearly every category, with Black students and students with disabilities making particularly notable strides.
These numbers represent thousands of young people beginning to see themselves as mathematical thinkers. And while there is no single silver bullet, the evidence—and our own experience—points to a powerful combination: hands-on, project-based learning paired with real investment in teachers.
Making Math Tangible
At STE(A)M Truck, we have spent over a decade bringing mobile makerspaces into schools across metro Atlanta and rural Georgia. Over the last three years, we have engaged more than 10,000 students, empowered nearly 1,000 educators, and partnered with 57 schools and organizations. Our trucks bring hammers, power drills, 3D printers, laser cutters, and other fabrication tools—but what powers the learning isn’t the tools and technology. It’s the invitation for students to build, test, fail, and try again. When middle schoolers build geodesic domes taller than themselves, they are applying geometry, calculating load-bearing capacity, and learning that math is a tool for making their ideas real.
Students tell us it works. In youth surveys, participants rate their STE(A)M Truck experience 4.53 out of 5 stars, with many naming coding, engineering, and design as new interests. As one student put it, “Hands-on learning helps me focus while having fun.” They stop asking, “When will I ever use this?” and start asking, “What else can I build?”
Retention Starts with Joy
But none of these gains are sustainable without the teachers who make them possible. Georgia’s public schools were short 5,300 teachers as of late 2024, and a 2025 workforce survey found two-thirds of educators reporting burnout. Pay matters enormously, but we have learned that retention is also deeply connected to joy. When teachers feel equipped, creative, and effective, they stay. When they feel like they are delivering scripted curriculum under impossible conditions, they leave.
That is why we created Full STE(A)M Ahead, our school-year capacity-building model funded by The Goizueta Foundation. The program combines educator coaching, classroom implementation, and access to tools into a cohesive strategy for schoolwide transformation. We co-plan, teach, reflect, and refine alongside teachers throughout the year. In our first cohort across four middle schools, more than 95 percent of educators rated the experience excellent or very good, and 96 percent said they are likely to implement the strategies in their classrooms.
As a leader at a metro Atlanta middle school described: “Our learners are building their brains and their capacity to mitigate food scarcity in communities where food resources are limited. With creative, critical thinking and the right support, problem-solving is actual and alive.” That is teacher joy—when educators see students tackle real problems with confidence—and it is one of the most powerful retention tools we have.
A Call to Invest in What Works
The math gains in metro Atlanta give us reason for optimism and a mandate. We know hands-on, project-based learning works. We know that building teacher capacity creates a ripple effect—better instruction leads to better engagement, better outcomes, and teachers who choose to stay. What we need now is the collective will to invest at scale: funding for STEM programs that reach underserved communities, professional development that transforms practice, and a commitment to treating teacher joy as a leading indicator of student success.
At STE(A)M Truck, we believe every child deserves to see math not as a barrier but as a bridge—to creativity, career pathways, and the future they want to build. And every teacher deserves the joy of watching that transformation happen. That is the work. And it is working.
Marsha Francis, PhD is the Executive Director of Community Guilds Inc. d/b/a STE(A)M Truck, a nonprofit providing mobile STEM education across Metro Atlanta and rural Georgia. STE(A)M
Truck is a Learn4Life Bright Spot partner. Learn more at steamtruck.org.
This is sponsored content.
