Former TASA President Karen Rue has joined a select group of distinguished Texans to receive the Golden Deeds Award, considered the most coveted award in the field of Texas education and the highest recognition for distinguished service to education in the state.
The Texas A&M University Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development and TASA present the Golden Deeds Award at the annual Dr. John Hoyle Memorial Administrative Leadership Institute to be held November 30-December 1 on the Texas A&M University campus. The award is given to an individual from any profession who has, through actions and deeds, improved the educational system in Texas to enrich the lives of all Texas public school students.
Rue’s educational career spans 37 years. Currently a clinical professor of K-12 educational leadership in the Baylor University School of Education, she previously served as superintendent of Northwest ISD (from 2005 until her retirement in 2016) and Tuloso-Midway ISD, and as executive director of Katy ISD.
Rue has been active in leading and creating a transformational shift in education, with a focus on preparing future-ready students, encouraging innovation and creativity, and developing more meaningful assessment and accountability measures. She was a founding member of the Public Education Visioning Institute and served as co-chair of the Texas High Performance Schools Consortium.
Rue served as president of TASA (2015-16), the Urban Superintendents of America Association, the Fast Growth Schools Coalition, and the Texas Association of Suburban/Mid-Urban Schools. She also served as vice president for the Texas School Coalition.
Rue has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, a master’s from Lamar University, and a doctorate from Texas A&M University. All three degrees are in education.
She was named a 2016 AASA Women in School Leadership Award finalist, the 2014 Region 11 Superintendent of the Year, selected to participate in Classroom Connectivity in Texas at the governor’s mansion and in the Connected Superintendents Summit at the White House, chosen as a finalist in the eSchool News Tech-Savvy Superintendent Awards program, and named one of the nation’s Top 50 Innovators in Education by the Center for Digital Education.
Recipients of the Golden Deeds Award are nominated by a committee of school district superintendents from across Texas. The awards ceremony will be held Thursday, November 30, 6-8 p.m., at The George hotel in College Station.
