Michigan Teacher of the Year helps alternative students find success

• Corey Rosser is Michigan’s 2025 Teacher of the Year
• He’s taught at an alternative high school in Lapeer County for 21 years, his entire teaching caree
• Rosser advocate for the benefits of alternative teaching

NORTH BRANCH — Corey Rosser, Michigan’s 2025 Teacher of the Year, watched Quest High School’s 13 graduating seniors walk across the stage Thursday. The next day, he took his remaining students on a field trip to show them where the school started 21 years ago: in a storage closet. 

The small room with no windows served as the only classroom for the small alternative high school in Lapeer County. 

Quest students had to enter through the back of North Branch Area Schools’ traditional high school and couldn’t even walk to the bathroom or cafeteria without teacher supervision. Today, Question’s graduation rate is 80%, nearly double the 43% graduation rate of alternative school programs statewide.

“Everything we have has been built on the work that Quest students have done,“ he told students. 

Rosser not only serves as one of Quest High School’s two teachers, but is also the school’s program director. He’s built the program from the ground up in the past two decades, says principal Doug Lindsay. 

“Day to day, he's the person there, running and doing everything,” Lindsay said. “I provide support to him, but really, he's leading that program, and that program reflects who he is.”

As Michigan’s Teacher of the Year, Rosser will hold a non-voting seat at the State Board of Education each month. He wants to work together with the state’s other nine regional Teachers of the Year, in addition to advocating for a new evaluation method for alternative schools.

“I'm hoping to advocate for alternative education in general,” Rosser said. “I think there's a real need to find a way to evaluate alternative schools, and it can't be by traditional measures.” 

After showing his students Quest’s humble beginnings, Rosser led them to the  auditorium stage and directed them to sit in the chairs Quest’s graduating seniors sat in the day prior. 

For Quest students, graduation is an even bigger deal than usual. They were all referred to the alternative school from North Branch High School because they weren’t going to have enough credits to graduate. 

“They may have attendance problems, they may have discipline problems, but the No. 1 filter is, can we get you to graduate on time in the traditional setting?” Lindsay told Bridge Michigan. “And if the answer to that's ‘no,’ then we refer them over to Quest.” 

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Many of these students are economically disadvantaged, and struggle with attendance, grades and mental health. Some of the students lost parents recently.

Unlike a traditional high school, students at Quest attend either a morning or afternoon session. For the other half of the day, students attend vocational training at the Lapeer County Education & Technology Center or take virtual classes. 

“When it was first created, there was a little bit of pushback on it,” Rosser said. “Some of the attitude was that students weren’t able to be successful in a traditional environment, that they really didn't deserve an additional opportunity.” 

Rather than moving through seven different teachers in a day like their peers, Quest students can develop more personal relationships with teachers. There are typically only 20-25 students in the morning cohort and 30 in the afternoon group, compared to about 700 in the traditional high school.

“We’re able to view them more as peers than students,” Rosser said. “We try to build an environment where our students feel like we're building this together.” 

In the village of North Branch, with a population of just over 1,000, Rosser said he sees his former students everywhere. The Central Michigan University graduate grew up in nearby Marlette just 15 minutes away. Aside from teaching social studies and history, he coaches basketball.

“If a kid broke his leg three or four years ago playing basketball, when we went to the ER, the nurse was one of my former students,” Rosser said. “When I need to get my car fixed, I take it into the shop, the person working on it is sometimes one of my former students. I think as people have seen our graduates be successful in the community, they're seeing the value of the program.” 

About a month ago, Rosser’s class took an hour out of their school day to help a disabled older resident move apartments. The class also goes on field trips to shovel driveways and cut lawns of community members with illnesses. 

“We had a terminally ill cancer patient that lived around the corner,” Rosser said. “In the winter, we would send kids over there to shovel her driveway so she can get to her appointments.” 

Rosser says taking the time to engage Quest students in community service is vital to their educational involvement and future careers.  

“The more community service we've done, the more we've had local businesses call us and say, ‘We need an employee, do you have a kid looking for a job?’” Rosser said. “We have a local business that has told us that anytime they see Quest on their application, they're going to hire them immediately.” 

Lindsay said Rosser’s work connecting kids to the local community helps go against the stereotype that alternative students are social outcasts. 

“Corey’s strength is that care, compassion,” Lindsay said. “The kids that go through the program, they do community service projects, they learn to be a part of the community instead of an outcast from the community.” 

The teacher’s room is filled with handwritten letters from former students thanking him. One reads, “Without you and Quest, I wouldn’t be attending college.” 

Another letter is from former state Rep. Gary Howell, R-North Branch, congratulating him on Quest’s success.

“It’s an immense feeling of pride, to take students and help connect them to their future, and then be able to see that future, it’s amazing,” Rosser said. “Once you’re part of the Quest family, you’re part of the Quest family.”