Jena Jackson Email and Phone Number

Led a middle school campus of 25+ teachers and staff and more than 300 scholars; coached teachers across departments to significant student gains and achievement that led to the campus no longer being labeled by the state as "Improvement Required" for the first time in its history; hired, selected, trained, and developed leaders including grade level chairs, department chairs, team leaders, and deans/assistant principals; managed campus budget; cultivated and managed community partnerships; designed and led targeted professional development based on campus trends and data analysis; built capacity in rising leaders to take on new leadership roles within the campus and school district; engaged stakeholders and parents in scholar success through campus and community events; worked in collaboration with Rosalind Wiseman's team (co-founder of Cultures of Dignity and acclaimed author) to be a pilot school for the Owning Up curriculum, which aims to empower young people to create spaces of dignity as well as confront social cruelty and injustice.

Worked in collaboration with other campus assistant principals and principal to re-design school culture and academics of a school that was given the state designation of "Improvement Required;" Collaboratively engineered the creation and implementation of school vision, priorities, and school-wide expectations; Built relationships with, observed, provided feedback to, coached, and mentored teachers across grades and departments to improve academic outcomes for students through cohesive campus culture and rigorous and aligned instruction; was responsible for and oversaw the application process for our school to become an accredited International Baccalaureate campus; analyzed and presented a wide variety of data from campus culture trends to scholar academic data to stake holders; designed and led targeted and engaging professional development sessions created in response to campus data and observation trends; cultivated significant campus-wide parent engagement through the creation of original events that were then replicated district-wide; organized, coordinated, and oversaw testing; worked in collaboration with the George W. Bush Middle School Matters Institute (MSMI) as a Showcase School to implement research-based practices.

Designed and disseminated curriculum on a weekly basis; facilitated quarterly data analysis meetings for 8th grade English teachers across the district; led my 8th grade English scholars to a 95% passing rate with more than 40% commended on the rigorous state standardized test, setting a record for the school and the district and beating the state average by more than 20%. Similarly, led the 8th grade English team of 10 teachers and their respective campuses to the highest passing and commended percent for that grade and test in district 20+ year history.

Selected as an exemplary educator (top 5%) based on classroom culture, joy factor, rigorous instruction, student engagement, and incorporation of technology in curricular instruction. Classroom was open-concept and considered a learning lab for any district teacher, administrator, director or coach to observe best practices in curricular and cultural design and execution.

Founding teacher at Uplift Infinity Preparatory, a charter school of Uplift Education that serves under-resourced middle school students and focuses on college preparation and acceptance for 100% of scholars. In collaboration with other campus teachers, deans and director, devised the vision for our school including the mission statement, strategic priorities, campus-wide expectations and behavior system, as well as campus artifacts and traditions.