Karlin Larkin

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

Karlin Larkin is Chief Academic Officer of Village Education Tutors Foundation. She is an exemplary educator with a background in business development and educational leadership. After attaining a dual Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Education, Karlin took a position with a textbook publisher. Karlin created a method of sales which aligned the needs of the districts with curriculum goals while developing strategic community partnerships among 200 schools and districts in the tristate area. Though this role was lucrative, she quickly realized she missed community advocacy and decided to pursue a Master’s in Educational Leadership in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.

Being on the island allowed her to be immersed in her Caribbean culture while gaining much needed skills that have catapulted her to the effective administrator she is today. Her administrative beginnings were as an Assistant Director of Early Head Start with The Lutheran Social Services. She passionately co-led the expansion of Early Head Start with the goal of providing quality educational opportunities, early intervention, continuity of care, and equitable facilities for low-income families. She strategically identified top performing leaders to spearhead the expansion while sustaining the culture, quality of service, and education provided by each team. Continuing her work on St. Croix, Karlin founded Speaking for Success, a non-profit organization for young ladies ages 10 to 17 years old.  Speaking for Success addressed two of Karlin’s greatest passions, youth literacy and mentoring young women. This non-profit organization was geared towards increasing self-affirmation, gaining career skills, training in public speaking, and fostering social and emotional skills. The 6-to-12-week program Karlin developed for Speaking for Success continues to be utilized by multiple youth-based organizations throughout the island. Seeing the youth that completed the program obtain high levels of confidence and language acquisition provides Karlin with a joy that she can barely put to words to this day.

Karlin wanted to transfer the results to classrooms taking the lens as an organizational leader along with her to track and drive teaching outcomes in the Baltimore City School District and Mastery Charter Schools. During her time in the classroom, her scholars saw a tenfold increase in their proficiency in literacy and math. Her scholars’ performance in the classroom was recognized by The New Teacher Project which led to her recruitment as an instructional coach. Her work as a coach was grounded in assisting educators in using a humanistic approach to move data in the right direction. Her interest in teacher effectiveness drove her to successfully apply to Lead for Delaware in which she researched the notion of this construct. Karlin believes that continuity of instruction and community engagement assists with decreasing teacher attrition. It is her strong volition to support school-based staff by equipping teachers to be critically conscious and committed to equity in education. As the Director of Literacy, she provides strategic leadership based on a targeted vision for student achievement. She has created standard operating processes for lesson planning, Response to Intervention (RTI), and data collection with the focus of equity monitoring. Most recently, she has been named a member of the Pulitzer Center's 1619 Project Education Network, through which she will facilitate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion curriculum development and student voice.

Karlin’s hope is to create an educational platform that is built on a foundation of equal opportunity. Her goal is to empower students to self-advocate and to be the leaders in their own learning experience. She believes that each student is a teacher in their own home and community. Karlin hopes to foster each student’s role in their own education and the education of future generations.

Village is important to Karlin. She enjoys spending time with her husband and her two beautiful young children while holding her friends and family close. She takes every opportunity to pay homage to her St. Lucian culture by baking treats, celebrating Jounen Kweyol (Creole Day), and dancing to Soca music!

Headshot of Karlin Larkin.