Closing the gap through professional development: Implications for reading research

Abstract

This article describes the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education (NUA), a nonprofit advocacy organization that engages with school communities through professional development to build relationships with educators, students, parents, and community stakeholders. NUA consultants are former and current university professors, former superintendents and principals, and classroom teachers with an average of 18 years' experience. The organization is currently involved with partnerships in 26 school systems in 8 cities across the United States. The goal for each site is to advocate for students in a manner that reverses the effects of institutional racism and improves life trajectories, working with district partners to close the achievement gap by reversing underachievement in urban youth and supporting administrators and faculty to increase student success. The NUA conducts rigorous internal professional development and evaluation procedures to ensure consistency of the goals, values, and dispositions of its personnel. The organization also strives to balance the reciprocity among culture as a motivator, language as a mediator, and cognition as a facilitator of learning. This triad forms one structure through which the NUA provides services.