BIO

I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and grew up in the Bay Area after moving there at age three. After college, I spent three years teaching second grade bilingual and a first-second combo in East Oakland. The school had a dedicated group of teachers, parents and students with limitless potential, but disorganized district and school leadership could not keep it from failing No Child Left Behind. I worked with a team of parents and teachers to reconstitute it as a new small school. Our new school used frequent standards-based assessments to target instruction to individual students’ needs and supported teachers through professional learning communities, leading it to become one of Oakland’s most-improved schools.