by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors
Could 12, 2026
This award acknowledges academics who present robust educational outcomes, management, and dedication to scholar success
Ten educators from the KIPP Public Constitution Colleges community are being honored for his or her excellent classroom efficiency and scholar success through the 2026 Trainer Appreciation Week. The KIPP Basis lately introduced the winners of the 2026 Harriett Ball Excellence in Instructing Award. Every educator will obtain a $10,000 prize for his or her impression on college students and college communities.
This award acknowledges academics who present robust educational outcomes, management, and dedication to scholar success inside KIPP’s community of over 8,000 educators serving college students throughout the nation. In accordance with KIPP CEO Shavar Jeffries, the chosen academics meet “the very best requirements of tutorial excellence” and have achieved outcomes that considerably profit college students’ futures.
“There isn’t any larger pressure in a baby’s training than a superb instructor who believes in them utterly,” Jeffries acknowledged in a press launch supplied to BLACK ENTERPRISE. “This 12 months’s Harriett Ball winners are producing the sort of outcomes that change the course of scholars’ lives, and people outcomes are not any accident — they’re a direct reflection of the talent, dedication, and coronary heart these educators convey to their school rooms.”
Amongst this 12 months’s winners is Hannah Deremo from KIPP Chicago. Her kindergarten literacy instruction has significantly lowered the variety of college students studying under grade degree. In Baltimore, Darricka Jackson helped third-grade English language arts college students rating greater than 11 share factors above town common on Maryland’s state ELA exams.
Different recipients embody Priscilla Taoufik and Ijnanya Minor, each kindergarten academics whose school rooms have maintained 100% grade-level literacy outcomes for consecutive years, even with many college students beginning under benchmark requirements. Seventh-grade math instructor Kathleen Vallejo additionally gained recognition after 93% of her college students handed New York’s state math examination, which greater than doubled the citywide cross charge.
The award pays tribute to Harriett Ball, the skilled Texas educator whose instructing strategies impressed the founding of KIPP in 1994. Ball was identified for utilizing motion, chants, and interesting studying methods in her school rooms. KIPP now operates 279 colleges throughout 21 states and Washington, D.C., serving almost 125,000 college students from prekindergarten via highschool.
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