Growing up, Jennifer Collier was surrounded by educators.
“My mother, and four of her five sisters are educators. I think I inherited her passion for children, and for education.”
Becoming a teacher was a natural career path for Collier. But it was only with the implementation of Achievement First in Northeast High School that she could add leadership development to her repertoire.
In addition to being the vocal music teacher at Northeast, Collier is also a Family Advocate, and the Coordinator of the Health and Medical Careers Small Learning Community. Although that sounds like a lot of responsibilities for one person, Collier says it’s manageable. “Because of our Achievement First structure, it all works together. Everything is based on caring for our students.”
In all of the Achievement First schools (Central High School, Northeast High School, Southeast High School, Van Horn High School, Paseo Academy and Kansas City Middle School of the Arts), teachers play many roles: educators, Advocates, Achievement First Coordinators, Small Learning Community Coordinators, and Small Learning Community College and Career Coordinators. These recognized leadership roles create a system where teachers can build their leadership skills, while offering better and more support to students, both educationally, and in the process of college and career planning.
As a Family Advocate, Collier has 15 students that she meets with weekly to help them stay on track for high school graduation and post-secondary planning. “As an advocate for my students, I’m not in a place of judgment or punishment. I’m trying to meet their needs.”
Collier also talks with the parents of her Student Advocates regularly.
“My job as an Advocate is to find a place of trust with parents. I talk to the families of my Advocates about what we can do together to help their children.”
Students in her advocacy group know Collier is more than just their teacher.
“I can tell she really cares about us, “ says Janea Evans, a 12th grader and member of Collier’s advocacy group. “I know she wants me to do my best. I gotta step up my game, because I know she’s keeping track of me.”
Each Achievement First High school is divided into Small Learning Communities where teachers and students stay together throughout high school, united around a career and college theme. As the Coordinator for the Health and Medical Careers SLC,
Collier creates opportunities for her follow teachers to work collectively helping students in their community achieve in three areas. “We focus our work as a community around attendance, citizenship and academic achievement. These three goal areas give us purpose and direction in our work to support students.”

Collier credits the AF structure with making a positive difference at Northeast. “Students feel more a part of this community.” That connection means students are more like to attend class, more likely to have higher academic achievement and more likely to graduate. She also knows it would be easy for things to be different. “If we didn’t have the Achievement First strategies in place in our school, we would miss students.”
Collier knows there is still a lot of work to be done to help all students at Northeast, but she is confident they are on the right track with Achievement First. “With Achievement First, our school is more organized, and kids and families know that.”