Margaret Byrd, an enthusiastic high school educator, possesses extensive teaching and leadership expertise spanning more than 25 years. Her professional journey is dedicated to enhancing opportunities and bettering outcomes for young adults in urban settings. Margaret’s commitment to lifelong learning is evident through her acquisition of numerous education degrees and licensures in various content areas, as well as in school and district administration.
Margaret has achieved notable milestones throughout her career. As an academy principal at Horlick High School in Racine, Wisconsin, she implemented personalized learning strategies and fostered student engagement through small group interactions with teachers. Margaret possesses extensive expertise in effectively engaging young people at risk for not graduating and is recognized as a state leader for successfully blending GED credentialing with both traditional and innovative course credit options. She also played a pivotal role in developing high-quality out-of-school time programming, securing funding, and providing supervision and management as a site director for a 21st Century Community Learning Community Center in an urban high school setting. Under her guidance, after-school tutoring, mentoring, and recreational activities were integrated to holistically support the overall well-being of students.
As an educational consultant with FourPoint over the past 4 years, Margaret has worked with school personnel on reimagining the use of time by creating flexible and innovative schedules and calendars so that students can engage in enrichment and STEAM experiences while staff engage in professional learning communities. She has worked with districts on evaluating CTE programs with a focus on equity and access; led strategic planning on designing innovative school experiences, evaluated districts’ use of out-of-school time and ways to expand after school and summer school opportunities. Currently she co-develops and facilitates P-TECH virtual learning sessions, a platform that gives participants the opportunity to connect with counterparts in neighboring districts. These sessions are designed to solicit robust conversations that highlight achievements, whereby participants freely ask questions and provide timely feedback, and work through complex issues involving recruitment, retention and sustainability. Margaret and the FourPoint team work on the back end to provide interactive tools and resources around developing and expanding highly impactful and successful P-TECH programs.
Expertise
- Alternative education programming serving struggling learners
- College and career readiness
- CTE school administration
Education
- MA in Education (Professional Development) – Cardinal Stritch University (WI)
- MA in American History – American Public University System (WV)
- MA in Educational Administration – University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
- BA in International Relations – University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
- WI Dept. of Ed. Licensure: Administration (Principal) and Teaching – Social Studies, Economics, History, Political Science, Sociology, and Alternative Education