51萝莉

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When Thomas Tucker was a senior in college, his grandfather handed him a vial filled with cotton and cotton seeds.

鈥淒on鈥檛 forget where you came from,鈥� the older man told him. 鈥淎nd don鈥檛 forget the struggle.鈥�

Tucker, now 50 and the recipient of 51萝莉鈥檚 2016 National Superintendent of the Year award, hasn鈥檛 forgotten. He remains rooted in Southern history and the lessons his maternal grandparents, Fred and Magnolia Campbell, instilled in him as he was growing up in Arkansas.

鈥淚t was a life about lessons and that through these life lessons and hard work and being educated, you could lead a better life,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut in that process, you don鈥檛 forget where you came from, don鈥檛 forget your origins and don鈥檛 forget to pay it forward.鈥�

Tucker last summer took on the superintendency in Princeton, 25 miles north of downtown Cincinnati.

He has a rich history from which to draw. His great-grandparents were born into slavery, and his grandparents were sharecroppers on a former slave plantation in Cotton Plant, Ark. Tucker鈥檚 parents grew cotton and raised livestock on their own 40 acres nearby, and as the youngest of 11 children, he pitched in.

鈥淚鈥檓 a true country boy,鈥� he says.

Tucker attended an all-black elementary school. He went on to Philander Smith College, a historically black college in Little Rock, where he finished first in his class. Then he moved on to teaching and administrative posts in Topeka, Kan., and Hilliard, Ohio, and to superintendencies in the Ohio districts of Licking Heights, Worthington and now Princeton.

In Worthington, a district of 9,600 outside of Columbus, he paid particular attention to the inequities he saw in science and math. Boys participated in the STEM fields far more than girls, and middle-class students participated more than low-income students. He narrowed those gaps each year, partly by expanding the national Project Lead the Way program in the district.

Tucker used his belief in the power of history to help pass a combined $40 million construction bond and $60 million operating levy in Worthington. He reminded the community of the value the town鈥檚 founders put on education. The first thing they did in 1803 was build a church, he told them. The second was to build a school.

鈥淲e were able to link the past with the present,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e talked about our responsibility to pay it forward, just like my teachers in Cotton Plant paid it forward to me.鈥�

But it is Tucker鈥檚 high-powered focus on student learning that impresses Bobby Moore, a senior director at Battelle for Kids, a nonprofit education support organization. Moore says Tucker has raised student achievement wherever he has gone 鈥� from building principal to superintendent. 鈥淗e creates an urgency that this is important,鈥� Moore says.

Tucker contends there鈥檚 no secret to raising achievement: Align clear standards with 鈥渢aught curriculum鈥� and assessment. 鈥淚 tell everyone, if your schools are failing, regardless of poverty, regardless of socioeconomic status, they鈥檙e failing because there鈥檚 a misalignment,鈥� he says.

Tucker, married with four children, says he moved from Worthington to the 5,400-student Princeton district to take on a new challenge. Nearly 70 percent of Princeton鈥檚 students are low-income, and about 45 languages are spoken.

Susan Wyder, Princeton鈥檚 school board president, says Tucker has quickly built support by reaching out to residents across the community.

鈥淗e knows the potential this district has,鈥� she says, 鈥渁nd he鈥檚 going to steer us toward that potential.鈥�