Pine Bluff School District teacher DaLecia Jones has been selected as an IMPACT Arkansas Principal Fellow.
IMPACT is a University of Arkansas-based program that has been building leadership capacity in high needs, rural schools across the state for nearly a decade, according to a news release from the U of A College of Education & Health Professions. Jones serves as the building test coordinator and multi-classroom lead of the English language arts department at Robert F. Morehead Middle School.
"By the time I graduate from the IMPACT Fellowship, I hope to have gained skills that will allow me to be an effective leader that has a great impact on the lives of not only the students, but also the teachers that I will lead," Jones said. "I want to be a part of a coalition of leaders who are determined to change the negative image of my city and the youth that reside here."
Jones looks forward to growing as a mentor.
"I want to see more youth survive to graduate and become successful individuals," she said. "I want to mentor those I lead to become the best versions of themselves, and one day become profound leaders."
The 19 new members met for the first time this summer to begin an intensive leadership institute. They spent time bonding as a cohort and taking the first steps of the 18-month program. IMPACT fellows, who earn a master's degree in educational leadership from the U of A, have become instructional facilitators, assistant principals or principals. The program has proven successful as a teacher-leader pipeline for the highest-needs schools in the state.
IMPACT graduates commit to staying in their current school for two years. Nearly 100% remain in Arkansas schools, and 81% remain in high-poverty schools.
"Hiring and supporting a highly qualified school leader is the single most important thing a school district can do to move the needle forward for school culture, student achievement, the desirability of the workplace and building more positive relationships with the community," said John Pijanowski, the original creator of the program and principal investigator at the U of A.
First-grade teacher attends Florida event
Melanie Madkin, a first-grade teacher from Pine Bluff, was the only Arkansas teacher to attend the Summer Poetry Teachers Institute earlier this month at the University of Miami.
Madkin was among more than 160 educators to attend the Institute, which strives to bring poetry back into classrooms, according to an article from Little Rock TV station KTHV.
The event included seminars and workshops with poets considered as some of the most compelling of today, according to O, Miami, a literary group that co-hosted the Institute along with the Poetry Foundation. Participants studied and discussed poetry with renowned poetry practitioners and expert teachers to develop lesson plans.
"It was an extreme honor to represent Arkansas, and to have published poets encourage me to write my own book," Madkin told KTHV.