This week, we are excited to profile Salwa Kinsey, an extraordinary leader and the principal of Pembroke Academy in Detroit.
With a joy for reading and a passion for service, Salwa Kinsey always wanted to be a teacher. As a child, she would play school in her clubhouse with organized student profiles of the neighborhood children. She even included notations about their favorite colors and birthdays.
“I just always loved school myself as a student. And so, it was always happy times, a happy place for me growing up,” said Salwa. “Education just was a natural fit.”
Salwa began teaching in 2006 after being hired by Dr. Vondra Glass of Detroit Premier Academy, a K-8 charter school. Dr. Glass became a mentor to Salwa. “Everything I learned, I always say I learned from him,” said Salwa. “I feel strongly that— what is the phrase?— iron sharpens iron or steel sharpens steel,” she added.
From her very first post-grad interview, Salwa was enveloped by the warmth and welcome of the charter community. The sense of belonging was immediate, a feeling she still cherishes.
During her time at university, Salwa’s peers discouraged her from applying for jobs at charter schools. There was a lot of naysaying at the time, but she did not let that influence her choice or the opportunity. Her interview with the Detroit Premier Academy drew her in, especially their sharp focus on students. This philosophy had drawn her to education.
Salwa has taken the lessons learned from her mentor and Detroit Premier Academy to Pembroke Academy, where she has been a part of the administrative team since the beginning.
Under the leadership of a second mentor Mr. Irwin Kurz, the former Director of School Quality for Pembroke Academy, Salwa was inspired to craft strong systems and focus Pembroke Academy’s priorities on true grade level proficiency.
Excellence in Education
Established in 2018, Pembroke Academy stands out as a leader in educational excellence. Located in the heart of Detroit, it has been recognized as a Michigan Reward School, placing in the top 5% of institutions statewide. This accolade is awarded based on standardized test performance and the ability to “beat the odds.” Moreover, it received the 2023 Innovation and Vision Award from the Central Michigan University Center for Charter Schools, highlighting its commitment to pioneering educational practices.
Students at Pembroke Academy have consistently excelled academically, achieving gains that surpass any other Michigan school in the past four years. In addition to earning “A” grades for student growth and performance, 92% of eighth graders were proficient in English Language Arts on the state test in 2022-23. In 2021-22, 100% of eighth graders achieved proficiency in ELA. Notably, Pembroke Academy outperformed 94% of schools in Michigan on the 2022-23 state assessment and was recognized as the top school in Detroit for 2021-22 according to the Michigan School Index.
It should come as no surprise that Pembroke Academy was named a 2024 National Blue Ribbon School—only the fourth Detroit elementary school to receive this honor and the first since 2001.
A True Team
Salwa’s proudest achievement is the team she has built at Pembroke Academy. Salwa attributes their success to the collective community. When she describes her team, she includes the leaders in the building, the teachers, the students, and the parents.
“We hold high standards and high expectations for all of our team members, including all leadership, nobody is above what we need to do for the sake of students,” said Salwa.
Like her detailed “student profiles” of kids in her neighborhood growing up, Salwa believes her success comes from knowing her team well and making personal connections.
“I always talk about the joy factor ” said Salwa. “It feels like you know you’re with family and having a good time. Of course, there are challenges and hurdles along the way, but as long as we have each other, know each other well, and treat each other with kindness, everything is better,” she added.
Committed to Pembroke
Parents were welcomed to the celebration when they received national recognition. “We did this together. It’s never, oh, your child just goes to this, you know, National Blue Ribbon School. This is something that we did,” said Salwa. “So, every time we have a success, we celebrate it with the parents, so they feel part connected to the success.”
Pembroke’s approach is made clear to parents from day one; Pembroke Academy embraces a grade-level placement model where students are tested to identify the grade level where they are performing best. This allows the school to quickly close the achievement gap when students arrive. The school’s focus is on ensuring true grade level proficiency – not just passing students along.
And, yes, when the school first opened, having these conversations with parents was difficult. Some families couldn’t understand how their children had been on the honor roll at their last school and were now below grade level.
But Salwa maintains parent involvement is essential to the success of Pembroke and their students. “Because if we believe the students can do it, and we keep messaging that to the students they can, they will believe that they are doing it,” said Salwa. “As you can see, like at Pembroke, students can accomplish high levels of success, but they need to feel that belief from everybody around them; it’s a cliche statement, but it does take a village to raise a child, and so it takes all of us working together.”
Married to the Cause
Salwa and her team ask parents to commit to their community and their children’s success… through a formal wedding ceremony, including rings, which she wears around her neck.
“We all kind of stood in front of each other, parents facing the staff, the staff facing the parents, and we exchanged vows and we made a commitment to each other, to trust each other and to keep lines of communication open, and to make sure that we are always focused on learning first, in the success and safety of our students,” said Salwa.
In the following years, the school and parents did a recommitment of those vows.
Salwa attributes part of their success to that partnership with parents and families. They attend all conferences, are included in the goal review and reviewing student data portfolios.
Network of Charter Support
In addition to the support of parents, Salwa looks to the network within the city of Detroit and the National Heritage Academies. This is an essential part of the leadership process for Salwa. “Being part of this charter school family is the networking and the collaboration that we have amongst the school leaders, especially within the city of Detroit,” she said.
Blue Ribbon Impact
“What we did with this National Blue Ribbon here in Detroit, what really brought a tear to my eye is that it’s gone beyond our school. We have positively impacted the local community and the surrounding neighborhood,” said Salwa.
“What am I most proud of? I think it’s just the cohesiveness of our team, the positivity, the uplifting that we do for one another, the hard work that we never waver from, and the positive impact that we make as a team, and now it’s spread into the local community as well. That’s awesome.”