LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Shareefah Mason was nominated by her principal, Jameile Choice.

Mrs. Mason grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is a Hurricane Katrina transplant. She became a teacher through a six-week Alternative Certification program Dallas ISD created specifically for Katrina evacuees interested in education. A year after completing the program, she accepted her first position as a teacher in 2006 at Boude Storey Middle School, one of the most impoverished and lowest performing schools in Dallas ISD.

She took on the challenge immediately and became one of the highest performing teachers on her campus, with student achievement scores that supported her dedication and drive. What was so unbelievable was that she was challenged with teaching Texas History the first two years of her career, and she had never even heard of the subject! However, she was committed to the pursuit of excellence and ensuring that students of color received a quality education.

Her motto is "your address doesn’t dictate your success." She has always ensured her students knew they could truly overcome any obstacle if they used education as a pathway to success. She taught at Storey for seven years before transitioning to the role of Instructional Coach for one year at South Oak Cliff High School. Later, she decided that her desire was to shape students, not adults, so she headed back to the classroom.

She went back to Storey, reclaiming her title as Department Chair during an experimental initiative known as Imagine 2020, a pledge to remove low-performing schools from the State of Texas’ Improvement Required List. In this role, she championed a major turnaround by increasing Storey’s declining Social Studies scores that occurred in her year absence. She increased the scores by more than 20 percentage points in one year and was invited to a new challenge at the end of that school year.

Dallas ISD had created two unprecedented programs. First, the Teacher Excellence Initiative (TEI) ranked teachers as distinguished and paying teachers based on their performance on standardized tests, student surveys and administrative observations. The other program, Accelerating Campus Excellence (ACE), brought the district’s most distinguished teachers to its most struggling schools to participate in an intense three-year turnaround, and she accepted the challenge of both! She became a Distinguished Teacher while navigating the ACE program at Zumwalt Middle School, a school that was struggling. She rolled up her sleeves and got busy.

Mrs. Mason realized that all students needed was an engaged teacher, and that would change their mindset. With the guidance of her then-principal, Troy Tyson, and an ensemble cast of dedicated teachers, they ensured that Zumwalt was removed from the Improvement Required list within her first year on campus. The number of fights went down drastically because she and her peers used daily structure and tough love.

In the second year of ACE, it was discovered that Zumwalt had a mold problem that was so detrimental, the school needed to be shut down to allow environmentalists to fix it. Zumwalt Middle School was forced to relocate to New Tech High School at A. Maceo Smith, a high school down the street that would share its facilities. Parents, staff and students from both schools were afraid of the move because of the challenge to keep students separate, as well as the different climates and cultures of both schools. Zumwalt was a neighborhood school in one of the poorest, most crime-ridden communities in Dallas. New Tech High School at A. Maceo Smith students, on the other hand, were bussed from across the city, had to apply to attend the school, and were academically sound.

"I opened my doors to Zumwalt in January 2015, and my life changed forever," said Choice. "Although we had many challenges, we did an extremely great job of working together to create an inviting atmosphere for both schools. I watched Mrs. Mason building relationships with students that were incomparable. She was kind to them, but also gave them tough love. She held them accountable, but celebrated every victory with them, as well. Mrs. Mason was the loudest and liveliest teacher in the building, and her passion oozed with every word she said. I had never seen anything like it in my entire career. She was always where she was supposed to be and willing to do the work she knew was needed, whether she was asked or not. The kids loved her, her peers adored her, and I knew I had to get her on my team. I asked Mr. Tyson if I could recruit her in her last year of ACE, and he gave me his blessing."

"I offered Mrs. Mason an Instructional Coach position, and she politely declined saying that she needed to be in the classroom with the students, not the teachers. I offered her the Social Studies Department Chair position teaching Government, and she came aboard," said Choice. "She was excited because she got the job, but even more excited that she would be staying at New Tech at A. Maceo Smith, even when her peers from Zumwalt were beginning to transition back to their own campus! Then I got a call that New Tech would be leaving the A. Maceo Smith building, and we needed to be packed up and ready to move, just like Zumwalt."

"Shareefah immediately jumped into action, assisting with the move and giving me ideas to maintain the climate of the school for students and staff," said Choice. "Throughout the summer, she called, texted and came to the new campus with amazing ideas to make the new school great. I knew I had made a great choice!"

When the doors of New Tech at B.F. Darrell opened, Mrs. Mason was there, front and center, with her same passion and zest. From that day on, she built indescribable relationships with her students, who were seniors. She captivated them with her engaging lessons, motivational talks, and tough love when needed.

"To hear my SENIORS talk about how special she was after weeks of learning made me realize just how special she was," said Choice.

At the end of the first semester, the students took the Assessment of Course Performance, a district-wide test that measures what the students have learned. Mrs. Mason was worried because it was her first time teaching high school and government, and she did not want to fail the students. Not only did she increase the percentage passing from 50 percent the previous year to 70 percent, but she also had almost half of her students pass the test without the district added curve.

"I am in awe of her spirit and love for her students each and every day. She advocates for them, she protects them and she loves them beyond words," said Choice. "Although she spends a lot of time with her students, she is also an amazing mother to her two daughters, aged 14 and 10. She is also an awesome wife to her husband, Dwayne."

Mrs. Mason has written four books on education. She travels across the country to deliver unrivaled presentations at renowned educational conferences such as: Council of Great City Schools, The National Black Male Educators Convening, Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color, Advancing the Improvement of Education and many others. She has won local, state and national awards such as: Campus Teacher of the Year, The Dallas Rotary Club’s Middle School Teacher of the Year, The State of Texas Outstanding American History Teacher and the Dr. William Cotton Scholarship to name a few.

"Shareefah works harder than any teacher I know, with a fidelity and integrity that you just don’t come by anymore. She does so simply because education was the only escape route for her growing up in New Orleans. Students of color need to understand that the route is still there, but they have to be taught exactly how to locate it," said Choice. "Her bonds are truly lifelong. Just the other day, I walked into her classroom to meet a student she taught 11 years ago. She is in constant communication with many of her former students, and they still seek her advice because of the great love and respect they have for her! I could go on and on about the wonderful Shareefah Mason. I just want her to be recognized on a global stage because she has given the forgotten children a global mindset. She is a part of the national legislative policy fellowship, Teach Plus, and she travels across the country sharing her work on Recruiting and Retaining Teachers of Color. She has accomplished in 12 short years what many educators have not done in double the time. Nobody knows her name, and I want people around the world to know how much passion this little lady from NOLA exudes and how the saying 'one woman can change the world,' is true."

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