Clinton educator, Oak Ridge native Kidwell wins $25K teaching award
CLINTON - Abbey Kidwell, an assistant principal at Clinton Elementary School, said she only found out the morning of March 28 that Tennessee Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds was visiting her school and they’d be having a school assembly in the gym at 10 a.m.
But the unexpected visit turned into a bigger surprise when Joshua Barnett, representing the private California-based Milken Family Foundation, announced that she was the sole Tennessee winner this year of a Milken Educator Award.
Her prize: an all-expenses-paid trip to Los Angeles and $25,000 to spend as she pleases.
And the tears began to flow - down the faces of Kidwell and some of her co-workers.
Given a few minutes to sit down and absorb the news, and wipe away the tears thanks to a tissue brought to her by a student, Kidwell went to the lectern and said it was hard to put into words what she was feeling.
“I love you all. You let me push and try . ... It’s an honor to work with with you,” she said, explaining that she was talking to not only her co-workers, but the K-6 students as well.
Principal Jenna Sharp said she’d kept the news secret since late December. Of Kidwell, she said, “We are beyond honored to have her here at Clinton Elementary School.”
Kidwell called her husband, Brad, after the ceremony to tell him the news. Brad, who works as asset protection supervisor at the Walmart in Oak Ridge, told her she deserved the award, and that he wasn’t saying that just because she’s his wife. The couple have two daughters, 4-year-old Penny and 3-year-old Claire.
A 2007 Oak Ridge High School graduate, Abbey Kidwell grew up in a family of teachers and nurses and always wanted to be a teacher, saying she’d get presents such as whiteboards and other items she could use in her bedroom when she played at being a teacher.
“I firmly believe I am doing what I was created to do,” Kidwell said, describing being a teacher as “my calling.
“It gives me life,” she said.
Asked minutes after the announcement about how she might spend the $25,000 check, Kidwell said, “There are some student loans that will go away.”
She added that she’d try to be wise, but have some fun, too.
“I’ve never seen that kind of money before,” Kidwell said.
She also has never been to California before, she said, referring to the free trip to Los Angeles for the Milken Educators Award Forum.
Kidwell grew up in Oak Ridge, the daughter of Lynn and Becky Cox. She attended Glenwood Elementary and Jefferson Junior High. She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Carson-Newman University in 2011 and a master’s degree in leadership and supervision from the University of Tennessee in 2019. Her first teaching job was at South Clinton Elementary School, one of the three elementary schools in the Clinton City Schools system, the other two being her current school and North Clinton Elementary. She previously taught fourth grade.
What Abbey Kidwell does each workday
“I primarily get to love on kids,” she said in describing what she does.
The more formal biographical sketch on Kidwell, provided by the Milkin Foundation, stated she spends mornings greeting the students and families outside of the school. She oversees the Response to Intervention program, visiting classrooms to address the individual needs of the students, and collaborates with the school system’s instructional coach, the English language arts coach and math coach to help the students reach their potential. She helps select students for the Tennessee Accelerating Literacy and Learning Corps (TN ALL Corps) program.
Kidwell also is leader of the school system’s new teacher academy. She served on former Gov. Bill Haslam’s Teacher Cabinet and School Safety Working Group, and presented at the 2023 NIET National Conference. NIET stands for the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, the Arizona-based nonprofit that Barnett leads as CEO.
‘Oscars of Teaching’
The Milken Educator Awards were created by Lowell Milken in 1987 to “celebrate, elevate and activate the K-12 teaching profession,” according to information on the website. The awards target early-to-mid-career education professionals for their achievements and, more significantly, for the promise of what they will accomplish in the future. Educators can’t apply for the awards and don’t know they are candidates. They’re all surprised with their wins. Candidates are sourced through what is described as “a confidential selection process and then reviewed by blue ribbon panels appointed by state departments of education. Those most exceptional are recommended for the award, with final approval by the Milken Family Foundation.”
Vicky Condalary was a 2001 Milken Award winner when she was teaching first grade at a school in Baton
Rouge, Louisiana. Now working for NIET, she said the teachers in her life made a huge difference, as all teachers do. She said they loved her and took care of her. She told the young students to be teachers: “it’s a great profession.”
Kidwell agreed. “I wouldn’t trade what I do for anything,” Kidwell said.
The Oak Ridger’s News Editor Donna Smith covers Oak Ridge area news. Email her at dsmith@oakridger.com and follow her on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, @ridgernewsed.