JONESBORO - Winning the 2013 Milken Educator Award, its subsequent accolades and $25,000 was just a diversion in a busy Thursday for Douglas MacArthur Junior High teacher Erin Hodges.
After an award assembly attended by about 400 students, faculty members, city and county officials and Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell, Hodges, a seventh-grade English teacher, said she had to return to class.
“We’ve got to finish our Anne Frank lesson,” she said, referring to the Jewish Holocaust victim who wrote The Diary of a Young Girl. “I’m not going home.”
It was her dedication to her school that led to Hodges winning the Milken Educator Award, Gary Stark, the president of the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, said when presenting it to her.
“Educators should be recognized,” Stark said. “Greatness should be recognized.This award says you are outstanding in your work.”
The Milken Family Foundation has rewarded educators across the country since 1987, and Hodges is the third teacher in Jonesboro to win the award. Jonesboro School District Superintendent Kim Wilbanks won it in 1991 as a kindergarten teacher at Nettleton Elementary School, and University Heights Elementary School teacher Candy Tennison received it in 1998.
Hodges didn’t know she had won the award Thursday morning as students filled the MacArthur gymnasium under the guise of an assembly to honor the school for educational excellence.
Hodges sat on bleachers on one side of the gym and her husband, Jim Hodges, a health instructor at the school, sat on the other side. Oblivious to the news, the two smiled and waved at each other from across the gym floor.
“We had heard some hint of it last spring,” Jim Hodges said of a rumor that his wife was in the running for the award. “But then that went away, and we forgot all about it.”
Tennison attended Thursday’s event and looked around the crowded gym with excitement.
“I know the winner is sitting in here somewhere,” she said. “They have no idea what’s about to happen. I was shocked when I won. It changed everything.”
When Stark called Hodges’ name, the 33-year-old teacher was stunned, she said.
“I don’t even know what to say,” she said. “I don’t feel like this is a job. I love what I do. I want to help all our kids, not just mine. I just want the best for all of them.”
MacArthur Principal Brad Faught hired Hodges in 2003 from the Trumann School District.
“She was a cheerleading sponsor and an English teacher,” Faught said. “I could tell how well she would do. I’ve watched her grow professionally. She is always open to any change, and she implements any new strategy in her classroom.”
Literacy proficiency scores on Benchmark tests for Hodges’ students increased by more than 10 percent in four years, according to the Arkansas Department of Education. In 2008, her students scored at 58 percent proficiency. In 2012, they increased to 69 percent.
“She knows what to do to help our kids,” Faught said.
Hodges also writes a daily newsletter about the junior high school and emails it to about 500 parents. The newsletter contains information about test days, achievements, scores of ballgames and other school-related tidbits.
Wilbanks said she was pleased a teacher in her district won the award.
“This is a life-changing event. It opens doors, and it gives you confidence in what you do. I couldn’t be happier,” Wilbanks said.
Hodges said when she heard that she had won, “My heart just fell,” adding: “It makes me feel good. The best thing is that I know that I’ve been there for my kids.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/21/2014