Expertise:
Student Success, Education Leadership, School Leadership (in high needs schools), College Readiness Programs, School Accountability, Education & Social Justice, Culturally Proficient Leadership, Schools and Ethnic Diversity, Student Achievement, Schools & Community ImpactBetty Alford has a wide breadth of experience in K-12 education, teacher preparation and educational leadership programs. She taught for six years in Texas before serving as a high school counselor, elementary school principal and junior high school principal. She then taught for 27 years in the Secondary Teacher Preparation and Educational Leadership programs at Stephen F. Austin State University and has served as a professor of educational leadership at Cal Poly Pomona for five years.
Recent Grants and Fellowships:
- Principal Investigator and Co-writer with B. Davis; U.S. Department of Education; East Texas Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) for Success; $2,800,000 in 1999; $6,100,000 in 2005; and $7,445,050 in 2011-2013
- CONFIANZA Co-Principal Investigator, US Department of Education grant, $1,988,947, 2011-2013
- Lead writer, Systemic Texas Educator Preparation Sites (STEPS) for College and Career Readiness, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 2009, $500,000 for one academic year and two summers. Extended for $150,000 in 2011.
- STEPS for College and Career Readiness Co-Principal Investigator, a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board grant, 2010-2013
- Co-Principal Investigator, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Texas LIMIT, a Math-Science Collaborative, grant, 2009-2013
- Lead writer, U.S. Department of Education, Project Developing an Entrepreneurial Vision for Exemplary Leadership and Ongoing Professionalism (DEVELOP) Evaluation, $722,000 in 2005 and $103,000 in 2007, $103,000
Selected Publications:
- With M.C. Nino, Leading academic achievement for English language learners: A guide for principals (Corwin Press, 2011)
- Editor, Blazing new trails: Preparing leaders to improve access and equity in today’s schools: National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA) 2011 Yearbook (Proactive Books, 2011)
- Associate Editor with B. Irby (Ed.), Critical issues in educational leadership: The 2010 Yearbook of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (DEStech Publications, Inc. Pro Active Publications, 2010)
- “Leadership practices for equity and excellence: An exploratory narrative of two principals of high-need elementary schools in California” in IAP international research on school leadership series: Leadership, culture, and school success in high-need schools (E. Murakami, D. Gurr, & R. Notman, eds., Information Age Publishing, 2018)
- With C. Gautam, “Beliefs and actions influencing student achievement in secondary high-need schools: Voices of head teachers in Nepal” in Building Cultural Community through Global Educational Leadership (S. Harris & J. Mixon, eds., NCPEA Press, 2014)
- With J. Ballenger, “Superintendents’ perspectives of factors impacting personnel, professional development and teacher professionalism for school improvement,” in Snapshots of school leadership in the 21st century: Perils and promises of leading for social justice, school improvement, and democratic community: UCEA voices from the field project, pp. 75-89 (M. A. Acker-Hocevar, J. Ballenger, A. W. Place, & G. Ivory, eds., UCEA Series, Information Age Press, 2012)
- With J. Ballenger, “Preparing educational leaders in the pursuit of social justice: Practices and processes for culturally proficient leadership development” in The 2012 National Council of Professors of Educational Administration Yearbook, (G. Perreault, L. Zellner, J. W. Ballenger, B. Thornton & S. Harris, eds., NCPEA Press, 2012)
Education:
B.S., Education, University of Texas at Austin
M.S., Educational Supervision, and M.S., Educational Counseling; Stephen F. Austin State University
Ph.D., Education Administration, University of Texas at Austin