Enspire Advantage Adds Head of Educational Strategy
Rebecca Parkerson, CPTD, M.Ed. Joins Enspire Advantage Team
We are proud to announce a new addition to our team! Ms. Rebecca G. Parkerson, CPTD, M.Ed., joins us as Head of Educational Strategy. Her corporate and consulting career spans decades, including executive leadership roles in Fortune 500 companies and management consulting firms.
Rebecca is an alumna of local corporations Alltel and Systematics and has consulted for many Fortune 50 companies. Her corporate career includes extensive experience in talent development, human resource management, recruiting, mergers and acquisitions, and project management. Her global management consulting experience with Red Nucleus, Talogy, Caliper, PTi, and Advantis has focused on talent and workforce development solutions across multiple industries, with an emphasis on the nonprofit, education, information technology, telecommunications, financial services, and healthcare sectors.
She holds an M.Ed. in Human Resource and Workforce Development from the University of Arkansas and a Bachelor’s degree from Hendrix College, which included a course of study at Oxford University. She is recognized by the Association for Talent Development (ATD) as a Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD), becoming the second person in Arkansas to earn the certification in 2011. Additionally, she completed the Chief Learning Officer Accelerator program in 2021 and the Startup Accelerator program, hosted by the Venture Center, in 2020.
Rebecca presents at global, regional, and local conferences and events for organizations like the Association for Talent Development (ATD), Human Resources Management Association (HRMA), EAST Initiative, and Workforce Development Boards. She has served as President of the Board of Directors for local ATD and HR chapters, as well as nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity and Aspire to Inspire Malawi, an NGO focused on education in Africa.
We are grateful and ecstatic to have Rebecca join our team. We look forward to growing our curriculum offerings with her at the helm.
Outside of work, Rebecca writes short stories and composes songs on her Martin 6-string guitar. She loves to travel, especially when it involves international adventures.
To learn more about our team and mentors, please visit our team page.
A Journey of Passion, Innovation, and Empowerment in Arkansas
Our North Little Rock High School Students Inaugural Class
Introduction
As I reflect on the journey of Enspire Advantage, one cannot help but be awed by the sheer passion, commitment, and innovation that has been the hallmark of this initiative. From its inception in the vibrant streets of Little Rock to its current transformative impact on the youth of North Little Rock High School, the story of Enspire Advantage is one of vision, resilience, and community.
The Genesis of Enspire Advantage
The inception of Enspire Advantage emerged not merely as an idea but as a movement that took shape amid the intellectual fervor of my college years, laying the groundwork for a transformative educational ethos. My tenure as a tutor for Kaplan and Princeton Review unveiled a stark outlook of educational disparity, where the scales of opportunity were imbalanced by the weights of socioeconomic status. The standardized tests, which stood as monolithic gatekeepers to prestigious academic and professional futures, often cast a shadow over the aspirations of those who lacked the means to prepare adequately.
In this crucible of realization, I contended with a system's inequities that appeared to gauge merit solely through the narrow lens of test scores, overlooking the rich mosaic of student effort and intellect. My personal odyssey with the ACT, which demanded four determined attempts, stood as a testament to the tenacity and financial strain necessary to surmount these obstacles. This personal triumph shed light on a broader mission: to redefine the criteria for academic success and to advocate for the untapped potential within every student.
As the tides of educational preference began to turn away from standardized testing in the late 2010’s, Enspire Advantage emerged as a vessel for this new era, steering away from the shoals of test-centric learning towards the open waters of practical, experiential education. Our ethos evolved, focusing on empowering students within the high school ecosystem to unlock a universe of opportunities that extended beyond the confines of examinations and traditional coursework.
Enspire Advantage was conceived as a beacon of hope, a means to illuminate the path for young, ambitious minds navigating the high school experience. It was an endeavor to cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit, to arm students with the tools of innovation, and to mentor them in the art of transforming dreams into tangible outcomes. This initiative was not just about leveling the playing field—it was about reshaping the field itself, ensuring that every stride taken by these young visionaries was supported, encouraged, and celebrated.
In essence, the genesis of Enspire Advantage was a clarion call to action—a call to dismantle the barriers of inequality, to enrich the educational landscape, and to foster a generation of learners who could dream with their eyes open and build the future with their hands.
The Journey
Our journey in Arkansas has begun with a clear vision - to revolutionize youth entrepreneurship in the region. As weeks turned into months, this vision began taking a tangible shape. Our curriculum was meticulously crafted to be both comprehensive and actionable. From debunking myths surrounding entrepreneurship to diving deep into the Lean Canvas model, from understanding the psychology in business to mastering the art of the pitch, every aspect was covered. The approach was not just academic. It was interactive, engaging, and rooted in real-world challenges. Whether it was using hip-hop as a teaching aid or conducting problem-solving icebreakers, the aim was clear: to make learning relatable, fun, and impactful.
As we navigate forward, our trajectory is set on expanding the reach of this program, igniting a passion for entrepreneurship in every student, and fostering growth within our community. We are committed to broadening the horizons of Enspire Advantage, ensuring that the tools and lessons of entrepreneurship are accessible to all, and that every young mind is equipped to turn their visions into ventures that contribute to the vitality of our society.
The Impact
The transformative power of Enspire Advantage has been nothing short of remarkable, as evidenced by the profound shift in our students' outlooks. They mastered the complex facets of entrepreneurship and, more importantly, began to interpret the world through an innovative lens. This shift in perspective has empowered them to pinpoint societal issues and devise creative solutions. Their projects, ranging from affordable housing initiatives to the creation of sustainable jewelry, stand as a testament to their dedication to innovation, inclusivity, and social betterment.
What truly sets this program apart is the unique opportunity it provides—often for the first time—for students to fully develop an idea within the supportive framework of their educational environment. With the encouragement of teachers, the backing of the administration, and the camaraderie of their peers, these young entrepreneurs are not just learning about business; they are building one. This hands-on experience has not only equipped them with entrepreneurial acumen but has also imbued them with a sense of civic duty to wield their newfound skills for societal enhancement.
The Community
The Enspire Advantage story is deeply intertwined with the community it serves. The invaluable support from the North Little Rock School District, Innovation Hub, educators, administrators, and business leaders of Central Arkansas has been instrumental in its success. This collaboration signifies more than just support; it represents a shared vision for the future of the youth in the region. The unity, collaboration, and mutual respect that bind everyone together has created a nurturing environment where students thrive. Moments of celebration, whether it's a pizza party or a Halloween feast, serve as reminders of the joy of togetherness and the strength of a community united in purpose.
Spotlight on Enspire Advantage's Student Entrepreneurial Ventures
The student ventures at Enspire Advantage are a testament to this transformation. Ventures range from offering diverse hair extensions tailored for black women, eco-conscious jewelry, a teen mental health platform, a specialized bakery, athletic hair care, and many more. These ventures prioritize inclusivity, environmental consciousness, mental health, and societal welfare. Here is a breakdown of the ideas students are working on:
Hair Extensions & Styling: This venture offers a diverse range of ethically-sourced hair extensions and wigs, tailored specifically for black women, promoting diversity in beauty standards.
Eco-Conscious Jewelry: A sustainable initiative that turns recycled waste into fashionable bracelets, proving that style and environmental consciousness can coexist.
Teen Mental Health Platform: A digital haven designed for teens to openly discuss their mental health challenges, facilitated by professional guidance, ensuring that no teen feels alone in their struggles.
Specialized Bakery: This venture delivers a spectrum of baked delights, catering to various dietary needs, from traditional treats to gluten-free wonders, ensuring everyone can indulge without compromise.
Athletic Hair Care: A dedicated hair care line crafted especially for women athletes, focusing on black women with tight curls. This line ensures that style and performance go hand in hand.
Holistic Beauty Brand: A brand that prioritizes natural ingredients to craft beauty products for both men and women, emphasizing the importance of health in beauty.
Fidelia Alterations & Dressmaking: A venture that offers bespoke clothing solutions, emphasizing artful craftsmanship and personalized style.
Platform Celebrating Minorities: A digital platform that spotlights the achievements and stories of minorities, challenging stereotypes, and creating bridges of understanding and opportunities.
SparkSketch Studios: A creative venture that merges captivating narratives with striking art to produce graphic novels and comics that resonate with diverse audiences.
High-speed Internet Services: A non-profit addressing the digital divide by pioneering affordable internet solutions, tailored for an age where work, study, and leisure often happen remotely.
Organic Herbal Teas E-commerce: A digital marketplace that offers globally-sourced, health-beneficial herbal teas, promoting wellness through nature.
Accessible Prescription Medication: A venture that champions healthcare accessibility, ensuring all individuals, regardless of economic or documentation status, have access to essential medications.
Entertainment & Talent Platform: A platform designed to discover and nurture talent, especially for those who might be sidelined due to economic or other constraints.
Global Culinary Outreach: A culinary venture with a heart, addressing food insecurity while celebrating the diverse art of cooking from around the world.
Affordable Housing Solutions: A venture that focuses on crafting sustainable and affordable housing solutions, emphasizing the importance of economic inclusivity and the right to shelter.
The Future
As we look to the future, the trajectory of Enspire Advantage is one of expansive ambition and promise. The inaugural High School Pitch Competition is merely the first milestone in what we envision as a transformative journey. This event is not just a competition; it's a celebration of potential, a forum for young innovators to step into the spotlight and showcase their entrepreneurial spirit. It's a nurturing ground where ideas are not only presented but also honed, critiqued, and elevated within a community that is deeply invested in the growth and success of its youth.
The vision for Enspire Advantage transcends the mere teaching of entrepreneurial skills. It's about instigating a domino effect of positive change that ripples through Arkansas and beyond. We see a future where these young entrepreneurs don't just succeed in their business ventures but also emerge as mentors and leaders for those who follow. By instilling values of community, innovation, and responsibility, we aim to shape a future where every young person, regardless of their socioeconomic background, has access to the tools, mentorship, and opportunities needed to make their entrepreneurial dreams a tangible reality.
Central to this vision is the creation of a robust Learning Management System (LMS), which will serve as the backbone of our educational approach. This digital platform is designed to be the bedrock upon which our entrepreneurship curriculum stands, providing a scalable and accessible pathway for students to engage with and absorb the curriculum. The LMS will offer a structured yet adaptable learning environment, replete with comprehensive modules, interactive content, and a suite of assessment tools that are responsive to the varied learning styles and paces of individual students.
This system will not only streamline the dissemination of knowledge but will also foster an interactive learning community, offering real-time feedback, facilitating peer-to-peer collaboration, and maintaining a rich repository of resources that students can draw upon at their convenience. The LMS is envisioned not merely as a tool for convenience but as a means to democratize education, ensuring that every student, regardless of location or circumstance, has the opportunity to engage in this innovative learning experience. By breaking down the walls of traditional classrooms, Enspire Advantage will champion an inclusive, ongoing educational journey, empowering all students who have the courage to dream and the determination to realize those dreams.
Conclusion
As we draw the curtains on this chapter of Enspire Advantage, we stand at the cusp of a new educational paradigm in Arkansas. Our journey thus far has been a tapestry woven with threads of innovation, determination, and a collective spirit. We have witnessed the birth of ideas that challenge the status quo, the nurturing of young minds that dare to reimagine the future, and the forging of a community united in its quest for growth and empowerment.
The narrative of Enspire Advantage is more than a chronicle of an educational initiative; it is a mosaic of individual stories, each colored with the hues of aspiration and perseverance. It is a testament to the power of a community that believes in the potential of its youth and the transformative impact of nurturing that potential. Our students, equipped with the tools to carve their own paths, are not merely walking towards a brighter future; they are leading the way for others.
As we look to the horizon, our resolve is steadfast. The Learning Management System we envision is the next step in this odyssey, a digital compass that will guide our students through the ever-evolving landscape of education and entrepreneurship. It is a promise of inclusivity, a beacon of innovation, and a platform that will amplify the voices and ideas of the next generation of leaders and change-makers.
In closing, Enspire Advantage is not just an initiative; it is a movement. It is a commitment to the belief that every student holds within them the spark of greatness. As we continue to support, mentor, and believe in these young visionaries, we do so with the conviction that they will not only shape their destinies but also sculpt the future of Arkansas and the world beyond.
Join us as we continue this remarkable journey. Together, let's inspire and be inspired, enable and be enabled, and most importantly, let's continue to Enspire.
Navigating the Learning Loss Pandemic: A Reflection on Our Collective Responsibility and the Role of Enspire Advantage
The COVID-19 pandemic, undoubtedly, has proven to be a turning point in many aspects of our lives, and its effects on education are particularly poignant. Two recent articles by Dana Goldstein ("The Learning Scientists Trying to Disrupt Your Child’s Math Class") and Tom Kane and Sean Reardon ("Parents Don’t Understand How Far Behind Their Kids Are in School"), both featured in The New York Times, have thrown light upon the challenges we currently face in the realm of education. Not only is there an overarching shift in the approach to teaching complex subjects like math, but there's also an alarming chasm between parental perception and the reality of students' learning loss. Reflecting on these issues, I find myself acknowledging the complexity of the situation, the urgency for intervention, and our collective responsibility in mitigating this crisis.
Goldstein (2023) illustrates how the one-size-fits-all approach to education is increasingly being challenged, particularly in mathematics teaching. The story of the Universal Math curriculum and the initiative to personalize learning as per the student's pace and style of comprehension underscores the need for a revolutionary shift in the way we impart knowledge. It's an approach that values understanding over memorization and, in doing so, nurtures the critical thinking skills that are integral to genuine learning. Nevertheless, as the author rightly points out, resistance is inevitable when change is afoot.
In the same vein, a paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research affirms the value of personalized learning. It states that "when students are allowed to learn at their own pace, they tend to learn more, understand more, and retain more information" (Abdulkadiroğlu, Pathak, & Walters, 2023). This emphasizes the potential value of adaptive learning systems like Enspire Advantage.
Meanwhile, Kane and Reardon (2023) bring our attention to an unsettling discrepancy: While parents believe their children have caught up academically post-pandemic, evidence indicates otherwise. Their research, conducted in collaboration with the Education Recovery Scorecard project, found that the average student is still significantly behind in subjects like math and reading. More importantly, they found that the educational impacts of the pandemic were not limited to what was happening within the schools. The constriction of social lives, parental stress, and the pervasive fear and anxiety also played substantial roles in the learning loss.
A study conducted by McKinsey & Company corroborates this finding, suggesting that students are on average five months behind in mathematics as a result of the pandemic (Dorn et al., 2023). They further emphasize the disproportionate impact on students of color, making the recovery process even more complex.
These two articles, despite focusing on different aspects of education, converge on one point: the need for a more tailored, student-centric approach to learning. This isn't simply about addressing learning losses due to the pandemic, but about addressing a systemic issue in our education system that predates the pandemic.
It's in this context that we introduce Enspire Advantage. As an AI-driven educational platform, Enspire Advantage is designed to adapt to individual learning styles and paces, thereby providing a more personalized learning experience. This tool is not intended to replace traditional teaching methods but to enhance them, to fill in the gaps left by a generic teaching approach. It aims to mitigate the learning losses experienced during the pandemic and beyond, and to align with the new perspective on teaching complex subjects.
However, it's essential to remember that tools like Enspire Advantage are not standalone solutions to the crisis we face. The articles by Goldstein and Kane & Reardon, supplemented by the findings of the National Bureau of Economic Research and McKinsey & Company, all point to the fact that the education crisis is multifaceted and requires a holistic approach. Technological interventions can only be successful when supported by policy changes, teacher training, parental involvement, and social-emotional support for the students.
We're at a point where education and its challenges are at high stakes. It's our collective responsibility to ensure that every student gets a fair shot at quality education. The promise of a platform like Enspire Advantage is not to solve this crisis single-handedly, but to be a part of the solution, to be a tool that aids our journey towards a more inclusive and effective educational system.
Sources:
Goldstein, D. (2023, June). The Learning Scientists Trying to Disrupt Your Child’s Math Class. The New York Times.
Kane, T., & Reardon, S. (2023, June). Parents Don’t Understand How Far Behind Their Kids Are in School. The New York Times.
Abdulkadiroğlu, A., Pathak, P., & Walters, C. R. (2023). Free to choose: Can school choice reduce student achievement? National Bureau of Economic Research.
Dorn, E., Hancock, B., Sarakatsannis, J., & Viruleg, E. (2023). COVID-19 and student learning in the United States: The hurt could last a lifetime. McKinsey & Company.
Image from NY Times
Innovating Education: Addressing Socioeconomic Inequality
The Impacts of Socioeconomic Inequality on Education
In an ideal world, education should be the greatest equalizer, providing every child with the same opportunities to thrive and succeed. However, socioeconomic inequality often builds walls that limit the potential of students, teachers, and entire school districts. Let's explore this issue and some innovative strategies being employed to improve educational outcomes.
The Impacts of Socioeconomic Inequality on Education
Socioeconomic status directly impacts a child's educational experience. According to the National Education Association (NEA), students from families with low socioeconomic status are seven times more likely to drop out of school than those from families with high socioeconomic status. Lower-income families often reside in neighborhoods with underfunded schools, lacking resources like updated textbooks, technology, or facilities. Moreover, these students may face challenges such as food insecurity, affecting up to 13 million children according to the USDA.
Teachers in lower-income districts grapple with larger class sizes, outdated teaching materials, and insufficient professional development opportunities. The effects of these challenges are apparent in the academic achievement gap between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds, with only 14% of low-income students attaining a bachelor's degree by age 24 compared to 60% of high-income students, according to a Pell Institute report.
Bridging the Gap: Innovative Approaches in Education
Despite these challenges, innovative ideas and practices are being employed to mitigate the effects of socioeconomic inequality and improve educational outcomes.
Personalized Learning
This approach tailors instruction, content, and learning environment to meet the individual needs and aspirations of each student. A RAND Corporation study found that schools employing personalized learning strategies showed significant gains in mathematics and reading scores over three years.
Community Schools
Community schools are public schools that partner with local organizations to provide comprehensive academic, social, and health services. According to a Learning Policy Institute report, community schools can help reduce absenteeism and improve student achievement, especially in high-poverty areas.
Teacher Training and Support
Investing in teachers is crucial. Ongoing professional development enables teachers to adapt to the changing educational landscape. A study by the New Teacher Center found that students of mentored teachers outperformed their peers in both math and English language arts.
School Funding Reform
Many states are revising their school funding formulas to ensure resources are equitably distributed. A study by The Education Trust found that, on average, districts serving the most students of color receive $1,800 less per student than the whitest districts.
The Future of Education
Addressing socioeconomic inequality in education requires a multi-faceted approach. Alongside policy reforms, it is crucial to invest in innovative practices that meet the unique needs of all students and teachers.
The future of education will require collaborative efforts among educators, policymakers, parents, and communities. By fostering innovation and prioritizing equity, we can work towards a future where every child, regardless of their socioeconomic status, has an equal opportunity to succeed.