Nominated By: Vickie Williams
Keith Ballard, Jana Burk and Talia Shaull have led important reform initiatives for Tulsa Public Schools, including an innovative, comprehensive method to systematically evaluate educator effectiveness and enhance important decision-making processes. The district’s research-based teacher evaluation system—developed collectively by Tulsa teachers, administrators and experts from inside and outside of the district—is now used in many state school systems, including over 90% of Oklahoma districts, having an estimated impact on over 36,000 teachers, 4,000 school leaders, and 500,000 students.
Dr. Keith Ballard has served as the superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools since 2008. During his tenure, he led the way for the district to work with the Gates Foundation on teacher and leader effectiveness–one of only 10 school districts selected in the U.S.–and has received numerous awards, including 2012 State Superintendent of the Year and 2012 Tulsa People Tulsan of the Year.
Jana Burk, the Executive Director of the TLE since 2012, has also served the District as a Senior Fellow for the TLE Office. Prior to joining the District in 2011, she worked with Tulsa Public Schools for several years as an outside legal counsel with the law firm of Rosenstein, Fist and Ringold. She is a former middle school teacher and has extensive experience in education planning and policy.
Talia Shaull joined TPS in 2010 and is currently TPS’ Chief Human Capital Officer after leading the District’s Teacher and Leader Effectiveness (TLE) Office. Shaull’s past experience includes extensive work with Tulsa’s Community Service Council as well as several years in profit-driven environments, both in small business and large corporate settings. Ms. Shaull is a member of Leadership Tulsa Class 40.
