Charlotte educator hits stride as a school administrator

MOVEMENT FREEDOM MIDDLE SCHOOL

Charlotte native Kenneth Gorham, 26,is the youngest principal at Movement Freedom Middle School.

Kenneth Gorham’s life has not always been easy.

Nevertheless, it has been rewarding.

The 26-year-old Charlotte native is principal at Movement Freedom Middle School, the youngest person to ever hold the position.

“They had no idea,” Gorham said. “And I didn't either. I actually just thought that they were like principals younger than me. I didn't know that I was the youngest principal until all this attention came.”

Movement is a charter school in the North Carolina public charter school system with five campuses in Charlotte. The first location opened in 2017 on Freedom Drive. In addition to Charlotte campuses, Movement also has a campus in Charleston, S.C., that will open in August. They also recently were approved to open campuses in Atlanta and Raleigh.

Gorham started his education career after graduating North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. In 2019, he was placed at the Movement Elementary School through Teach for America and taught reading to fourth graders. He ascended to the middle school in 2021.

At 24, Gorham made history as becoming the school’s youngest principal.

“That was the last thing we knew,” he said. “They truly promoted me based on just my work ethic, my belief in kids, my output as a leader. But none of us knew that this was going to happen.”

According to Zippia, the average school principal age is 47 years old. Nearly 65% are white.

Gorham said he believed his interest in supporting children came after losing his mother to cancer when he was 12 years old.

“She promoted academic excellence so much,” he said. “She was so hard on me as it relates to my academics. She did not accept mediocrity. And she really was just like, ‘you will always do your best.’ She was like, ‘if it's not your best, it's not good enough,’” he said.

Though education has become important in his life, Gorham did not always want to be in education.

“My goal was to go to law school and become a family law attorney,” he said. “And the reason I wanted to become a family law attorney and become a family court judge eventually was because I had a judge who actually was the presiding judge for … [determining custody] for my brother and I. We were very tired of being in the system and going back and forth from different places, and he really saw my younger brother and I and allowed us to find somewhere consistent to live. And so that was my goal.”

However, another opportunity became available.

“I had a friend that said, ‘Ken, have you ever thought about teaching?’” Gorham recalled. “I was like, ‘Teaching … I don't know if they make enough money.’ I don’t know that for me. But you know, again, as a college senior, you’re like, the more offers you have, the better. So, I said, ‘Well, let me go ahead and do this.’ I got into the classroom, and I literally fell in love with it.”

As a teacher, Gorham’s students made impressive strides, including standardized end-of-grade testing.

“EOGs are like the state assessments that the state gives at the end of every year for kids to take to assess grade level proficiency,” he said. “So I had the highest scores across my grade level that year. That was only my second year of teaching.”

Since his appointment as principal, Gorham said he has doubled growth in math and reading scores and emphasized the importance of athletics in the student development.

“I always want them to thrive academically, like that's the most important thing to me, is that kids are learning and that they're growing,” he said. “But outside of them just growing academically, are we also exposing them to real world experiences where they can understand what does it take for me to be a profitable member of society?

“We have community meetings every Friday. I talk about topics such as racism, oppression, how to tie a tie. What is the power of having confidence, even when you're facing adversity? If we have a moment where for the young men, how do you support and how do you show respect to women, what are your ways that you show chivalry. … It’s just so many things we talk about, like historical things.”

Though Gorham still faces challenges such as closing education gaps that the Covid-19 pandemic worsened, he is confident in the power of education on children.

“Even though there are deficits that covid, unfortunately has impacted as relates to our kids learning, we have not allowed it to be an excuse to not go after excellence,” he said. “We don't allow excuses. Even though we recognize what's there, we recognize it, and then we adapt, and we make changes, and we keep moving.”

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