Cynthia Robinson-Rivers

The work I do: I am currently a partner for school design services at Transcend, where I work on a team that shares the Whole Child Model with partner schools in Washington, DC, Tennessee, and Texas.  Before this I served as the founding Head of School at Van Ness Elementary, where the model was developed and codified.  Before Van Ness, I worked in the DCPS central office as the Director of Teacher Retention and Recognition. My team  developed projects to improve retention of highly effective teachers, including LIFT: Leadership Initiative for Teachers, a career ladder system for teachers.  Prior to this I worked on the development of IMPACT, the district’s teacher evaluation system, and taught PK3 up to 2nd grade in public and charter schools in DC, Oakland, and East Palo Alto.

My connection to the work of Student Achievement Partners: I’ve been passionate about the work of Student Achievement Partners since back when I used the resources daily as an Assistant Principal for Literacy when DC Public Schools adopted the Common Core State Standards and I supported ELA teachers’ implementation of our curriculum that reflected the shifts the standards required teachers to make.  Later, I worked with teachers at Van Ness to align our curriculum to authentic and real world projects that center equity and social justice.  I’m excited to join Student Achievement Partners’ board because of the alignment I see between my focus on the latter and Student Achievement Partners’ renewed investment in equity and inclusion.

The perspective I bring to this Board: My primary areas of expertise are early childhood education, teacher retention and evaluation, elementary literacy instruction, and a new passion for maker-centered learning.