Seattle Schools' Anitra Pinchback-Jones Wins Milken Educator Award

In a great piece of news, today Rainier View Elementary principal Anitra Pinchback-Jones won the Milken Educator Award. Congratulations!

From the Miklen Family Foundation:

Pinchback-Jones was named a 2018-19 recipient of the national recognition, which comes with an unrestricted $25,000 cash prize. She is the only Milken Educator Award winner from the state of Washington this year, and is among the up to 40 honorees for 2018-19.

The Milken Educator Awards, hailed by Teacher magazine as the "Oscars of Teaching" has been opening minds and shaping futures for over 30 years. Research shows teacher quality is the driving in-school factor behind student growth and achievement. The initiative not only aims to reward great teachers, but to celebrate, elevate and activate those innovators in the classroom who are guiding America's next generation of leaders. Milken Educators believe, "The future belongs to the educated."

A Seattle native, Pinchback-Jones is committed to public education, serving students of diverse backgrounds, mentoring other principals and ensuring that the culture of excellence she has driven at Rainier View is permanently embedded in the school ethos. Pinchback-Jones leads the charge for continuous improvement together with her faculty, and Rainier View students deliver some of the highest achievement and growth scores in the state.

Every morning, Principal Anitra Pinchback-Jones gathers students and staff at Rainier View Elementary School in Seattle, Washington, for an all-school meeting. She welcomes students, letting them know that their teachers are excited to see them and have prepared outstanding lessons for the day ahead. Pinchback-Jones reminds young people to work hard and try their best. The principal intentionally reinforces a culture of excellence and high standards. When new students arrive at the school, they spend several days visiting classrooms from kindergarten through fifth grade to illustrate the high expectations consistent among grade levels and teachers. Rainier View students deliver some of the highest achievement and growth scores in the state, and the Council of Great City Schools places Rainier View in the country's top 1 percent for students of color.

Pinchback-Jones holds the same high expectations of teachers. She pores over assessment data and creates tight systems to ensure that students have access to rigorous content and ever-improving instructional practices. The principal creates a master schedule including daily literacy and math blocks. Teachers submit weekly lesson plans that align instruction with district and state standards. Pinchback-Jones encourages faculty to give new reforms a chance and, in turn, they often serve as a model for other schools to emulate. When Rainier View was inundated with observation requests for one such reform, the principal required visitors to provide both positive feedback and suggestions for improvement.

A strong leader in Seattle Public Schools, Pinchback-Jones serves on the Principal Professional Development Team, planning and delivering ongoing education to help all the district's principals improve their practices. As a literacy lead principal, she showcases excellence in literacy instruction, rolls out new literacy curriculum, and has designed professional development with teachers to support innovative literacy practices.

Pinchback-Jones earned her Bachelor's Degree in Sociology from University of Washington in 2000 and a Master's in Teaching in 2001.