FOR RELEASE: Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Van Buren School Administrator to Lead Principal Institute
Diana Peer
Diana Peer, principal of Parkview Elementary School in Van Buren, has been appointed to lead the Master Principal Institute of the Arkansas Leadership Academy, the University of Arkansas has announced.
It’s fitting that Peer should lead the principal institute, considering her determined pursuit of professional development in her own career. Professional development is the mission of the Arkansas Leadership Academy, which is a nationally recognized partnership based in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas. Through the use of research and best practices, the leadership academy designs creative and innovative approaches to establish learning communities in public schools by developing human resources and by modeling and advocating collaboration, support, shared decision making, team learning, risk taking and problem solving.
Peer achieved Master Principal status herself in 2007. To earn the designation from the Leadership Academy, principals must complete three years of rigorous professional development plus additional performance evaluations.
Debbie Davis, director of the academy, welcomed the addition of Peer.
“The Arkansas Leadership Academy is fortunate to have Diana Peer join us in our work as we continue to build the leadership capacity of teachers, principals and superintendents across the state,” Davis said. “Diana is an accomplished educational leader and facilitator of learning who will have a positive impact as she works with principals in the Master Principal Program. She is a model of lifelong learning who brings innovative concepts and a quest for improved student and adult learning to our team.”
Davis served as leader of the principal institute before being named director of the leadership academy in September 2008.
An educator for 30 years and a principal for 11 years, Peer entered the first phase of the principal institute in 2000 after becoming principal at Parkview two years before.
“It was a great opportunity to continue my own professional development, specific to the principalship,” Peer said. “I had already been to graduate school, but that first phase created such a need in me that I looked for another graduate program in which to enroll.”
At that time, the principal institute consisted only of one phase so Peer went back to school. She earned her educational specialist degree in educational leadership from Arkansas Tech University. She already had a master of education in instructional resources from the University of Arkansas and a bachelor of arts in music education from Hendrix College.
“Phase II of the principal institute came along, and I found it was a wonderful way for me to keep growing professionally,” Peer said.
The institute now consists of three phases, and participants who complete it earn an annual bonus for five years. They are eligible for an additional bonus for five years if they work as a principal of a low-performing school. Additional information may be found online at http://www.arkansasleadershipacademy.org/ under Institutes.
“The institute differs from graduate school because of the support you receive both from the leaders and other principals,” Peer explained. “The learning opportunities are totally relevant to the day-to-day work of school leadership, and the networks you build with other professionals provide an ongoing learning experience. You don’t go away and never see these people again.”
Principals at all sizes and types of schools across the state take the information and techniques they learn, apply them in their schools and then share the results with others, she said.
Peer described her decision to leave Parkview and take the institute position as an opportunity for her to make a difference for more children.
“I hope to have an influence on more than the 450 students in my school,” she said. “Van Buren provides a wonderful culture of learning for kids and for teachers and administrators. All kids in the state deserve to go to a school as wonderful as Parkview.”
Parkview was recognized last year by University of Arkansas researchers in the Arkansas Best Practices Study. Peer has won numerous school and professional awards, received several school grants, and made many national and state presentations.
Peer starts her new job July 1. She has been giving volunteer service to the academy, too.
“I’ve been a volunteer, as the academy teaches us to do, facilitating sessions, scoring portfolios, and coaching for the past several years,” she said. “That work was another factor that made me believe this will be an awesome job for me. It gave me a taste of what the job will be like.”
She will commute from her home in Rudy (Crawford County). Her husband, Steven Peer, is a district judge there. They have three grown children and five grandchildren. Peer, her husband, and two of her children are University of Arkansas graduates.