Press Release
AUSTIN -The Thompson Executive Leadership Institute in Austin, Texas has announced that Dr. Tonya Knowlton , Superintendent at Lexington ISD, is the recipient of a scholarship to attend the 27th annual Superintendent Academy, a nationally known advanced leadership development program for school superintendents. The twenty-five superintendents in the 2019- 2020 Academy were chosen from a list of nominees from Texas and surrounding states.
The Thompson Executive Leadership Institute is a nationally known learning center of academies and advanced leadership training systems. The goal of the institute is for school executives to come together to test ideas, discover new concepts and information, build networks, and engage in face to face interaction s with session leaders and each other.
Membership in the Academy is competitive and by invitation only. Many more superintendents were nominated than were accepted into the Academy. Dr. Knowlton was nominated by school leaders in Texas, met a set of rigorous screening criteria, and was judged by the screening
committee to have a leadership skill set that will add value to the discussions in a "think tank" of peers.
The scholarship pays all academic costs including a field trip to attend leadership development sessions at Columbia University and visits to several New York City schools. The purpose of the school visits is to study the strategies and methods those schools have found to be successful in educating students who have known nothing but poverty for their entire lives.
The Academy will host a three-day Visioning session in the spring for Academy superintendents and their boards. There they will be led through joint leadership training and planning activities applicable to their individual districts. These district leaders will also meet with other leaders from similar-sized districts to share ideas for increasing student achievement and developing a vision for the future of their schools.
The Academy takes on key issues that make a difference in the lives of students, in the success of campuses and districts, and in the practice of educational administration. The Academy provides administrators instant access to peer networks, experts in the field, research, seminal articles and an array of other resources for professional growth and/or problem solving.