What are the Communities of Practice offerings for the 24-25 school year? Read below to meet one facilitator team. For more updates, visit our CoP page.
Meet your 24-25 CoP Facilitators
Ira Rigaud is the Associate Director of Implementation for Assessment for Good based in Oak Park, IL. As a former teacher, he is grateful for the opportunity to work with schools and communities to help them find ways to better serve their students. Prior to joining AFG, he was a Partners Success Director with Ellevation, a company that built software to serve English Learners throughout the country. He also co-led an elementary school as the Director of Operations at North Star Academy in Newark, NJ. He taught for eight years, most recently as a founding teacher at Ocean Hill Collegiate Charter School in Brooklyn, NY, part of the Uncommon Schools network. He was a 2004 Teach for America Corps Member in the Bronx, and also worked for TFA training and developing new teachers as a curriculum specialist at TFA’s Summer Institute. Ira speaks Haitian Creole and received his Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and an MBA from the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor.
Nakeyshia Kendall Williams is the Founder and CEO of MindCatcher, a non-profit that fosters the social-emotional growth and decision-making power of educators and youth. MindCatcher envisions a world where all young people are designers of their own future and all educators are equipped to support youth in their journey. Nakeyshia is passionate about cultivating the capacity within educators to build and transform learning environments into affirming spaces that our youth deserve. Prior to founding MindCatcher, she led product marketing for a tablet-based, K-12 curriculum at Pearson and co-led an education partnership formed to increase innovative learning practices in public education.
She is a member of Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC) and Freedom Dreams Lab, served on the Advisory Council for Digital Promise’s Center for Inclusive Innovation, and is an alum of National Equity Project’s Leading for Equity Fellowship, and 4.0. Nakeyshia holds a BA from Columbia College, Columbia University and MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Outside of work, Nakeyshia enjoys road trips and barbecues with her husband.
CoP Overview
In this Community of Practice facilitated by Assessment for Good (AFG), participants will learn about co-design, the importance of centering learners when designing new tools, and about how new types of formative assessments can positively impact learner experiences and outcomes. Their focus will be contributing to the work to build formative assessments that measure whole child development and are built with Black and Latinx learners.. They will be active participants in a research study, learning best practices around participation and sharing insights related to their participation. Ultimately, participants will experience how contributing to active research
Participants will work with AFG. AFG is an inclusive and highly collaborative R&D program committed to creating asset-based formative assessments and interventions that are culturally affirming and honor the continuum of a learner’s development across academic, emotional, and social domains.
- In order to maintain high ethical standards, participating sites will be expected to sign a Data Sharing Agreement and a Grant Agreement, which will lay out expectations for data privacy, confidentiality and security.
- Sites will be financially compensated for their participation. Compensation starts at $7,500 per participating site
- As a research study targeting Black and Latin learners, participants ideally would represent school communities with at least 40% Black and/or Latinx students
- In order to ensure meaningful engagement, participating sites will be expected to have educators representing at least two grade levels participate in research activities.
Centering Student Voice: Co-Designing Whole Child Formative Assessment Tools Alongside Black and Latin Learners will be meeting at the following dates and times for 24-25 School Year (all ET). Unless noted all meetings are held virtually on Zoom.
- October 8 2pm ET
- November 12 2pm ET
- December 10 2pm ET
- January 29 (in person at The Renaissance Hotel – Nashville, TN)
- February 18 2pm ET
- March 11 2pm ET
- April 15 2pm ET
- May 13 2pm ET
- May 29 (CoP WRAP Party) 3 – 4:30pm ET
