At Wynnebrook Elementary in West Palm Beach, Florida, 92% of the students are Black or Latino and 94% of the students meet free- or reduced-price lunch criteria. Twenty years ago, teachers at the school would say they were afraid to walk in the school’s hallways because of disruptive student behavior. Many teachers went through the motions of teaching reading from the basal reading textbooks adopted by the district; however, teachers knew students were not benefitting because they could not read the words or relate to the stories. Similarly, teachers followed the district’s pacing guide for mathematics instruction, however, few students learned the concepts and skills because teachers perceived they had to speedily “cover” the content whether students developed understanding of the concepts or not. Similar to the situation in many urban schools, the academic future seemed bleak for Wynnebrook’s students of color.

In 1999-2000, however, the district hired Jeff Pegg to serve as Wynnebrook’s principal. Shortly, thereafter, Principal Pegg hired Suzanne Berry to serve as a first-grade teacher. Later, in 2008, he promoted Ms. Berry to serve as Wynnebrook’s assistant principal. Then, in 2016, when Mr. Pegg was promoted a district-level leadership position, Ms. Berry became the school’s principal. While Mr. Pegg and a large team of teachers, counselors, other support staff, and administrators played major roles in the transformation of Wynnebrook, NCUST is acknowledging Principal Berry as a true equity champion for two decades of leadership that changed the trajectory of the lives of thousands of Wynnebrook students.

As a teacher, Suzanne Berry knew her students of color could develop strong literacy skills if she and her colleagues worked together to plan and deliver lessons that were designed to make literacy skills make sense to Wynnebrook students. Principal Pegg allowed Ms. Berry and other teacher leaders to receive professional learning community (PLC) training. They shared their learning in a way that resulted in teacher collaboration becoming a powerful engine of transformation at Wynnebrook. Wynnebrook teachers became dedicated to supporting each other in solving instructional challenges and elevating the academic success of Wynnebrook students. Ms. Berry and her colleagues challenged the use of the old ineffective basal readers and encouraged the purchase and use of leveled texts, including many stories that resonated with the lives and experiences of Wynnebrook’s students.