Stories of Impact
We collaborate with leaders and their teams to build schools and communities of acceptance, belonging, and high expectations for every single learner, all while honoring the unique contexts of each school, leader, and learner. Learn what this looks like in action below.
Tony Castillo, YES Prep
Tony Castillo is a Head of Schools at YES Prep Public Schools in Houston, TX. Tony was part of AMA’s first cohort during which he served as the Principal of YES Prep Fifth Ward. In addition to his work coaching and supporting school leaders at YES Prep, Tony also serves as a coach of AMA’s current leaders. Listen to Tony share the ways in which AMA’s practices enabled his team at Fifth Ward to go from a rating of C to a rating of A in the Texas state ratings Domain 3 “Closing Performance Gaps” (for race/ethnicity, special education, English learners, Economically Disadvantaged and Continuously Enrolled and Economically Mobile) and what that means for his students.
Sarah Stuntz, Excel Academy
Sarah Stuntz is the principal of Excel Academy High School in Boston, MA. Sarah participated in AMA’s Cohort 3 with her fellow principals and network academic leaders from Excel. Sarah recently shared her story and AMA journey with Cohort 4 members and sat down with us to share the impact her team noticed when she started implementing and building AMA culture and practices. Hear from Stuntz how these practices built her team’s culture for all students. In addition to the impact on her team in service of all students, she shared growth in her student survey results prior to AMA and during her year in AMA. Students with Disabilities experienced the highest growth of all students for the questions “How high are teachers’ expectations?” And “How often do teachers push you to not give up?”
Jessica Strong, Public Prep
Jessica Strong is the Director of Alumni Engagement at Public Prep Network in New York. Jessica was a part of AMA’s first cohort during which she served as the Principal of Girls Prep Lower East Side Middle School. Jessica now also serves as Faculty and Mentor Coach for All Means All. While in AMA as a school leader, Jessica led her school to dive deep into historical data to understand where there were differentials in her data for specific demographic groups of students and built her team’s culture for radical problem solving around student needs. As a result of her efforts, she saw closed the growth gap for students with IEPs, reversing it completely in reading and saw the highest growth in the network on the math state test (increasing proficiency for all students by 18 points) among many other exciting outcomes.
Ramya Subramanian, Alpha Public Schools
Ramya Subramanian is the Associate Director of Academics for the network at Alpha Public Schools. While she was on the leadership team of Alpha Jose Hernandez, she participated in AMA’s first and second cohort. Listen to Ramya share a pivotal moment in her AMA journey where she decided to lean in to the AMA Habit of Mind “Impossible' Happens Here” and lean in to what her team could believe was possible - and achieve - for students who might struggle the most.
Learn more about Ramya’s specific work here on Developing Coaching Structures to Shift Mindsets and Outcomes →
Dominique Tross, STRIVE Collegiate Academy
Dominique Tross is the Director of Academics for STEM and on the leadership team at Strive Collegiate Academy in Nashville, TN. The STRIVE leadership team is in AMA’s Cohort 2 and implemented the practice of Radical Problem Solving, which they described as taking their leadership meetings from transactional to transformational. Listen to Dominique share more about how their work, leadership, and impact grew with this practice.
Tina Tonino, Blackstone Valley Prep
Tina Tonino, engaged for two years as part of All Means All Cohort 1, built Blackstone Valley Prep’s first-of-its-kind 18-22 postsecondary transition program. Tina used her first year to design the Advancement Academy with a community-centered approach and launched the program in Year 2. Watch her Impact Story to learn more about what is possible and how AMA helps organizations dream big and go beyond how they currently serve all students.
Andrea Citchen, YES Prep Public Schools
Cohort 2’s Andrea Citchen, M.Ed, Principal at Southside Elementary for YES Prep Public Schools in Houston, TX, spoke to Cohort 3 at March Intensive about her All Means All journey. Watch to learn more about AMA’s coaching model and how it helped her drive powerful impact at her school.
Jamie Gutter, Valor Collegiate Academies
Jamie Gutter is a Principal at Valor Collegiate Academies in Nashville and a member of AMA's Cohort 2. As part of Jamie’s AMA Learning Cycles, he focused on maximizing the impact of Valor Flagship Academy's co-teaching model to close differentials for students with disabilities and multilingual learners. Hear Jamie describe how AMA’s Learning Cycles, content, and coaching supported this impact while developing his own leadership practice.
Neema Desai, DC Prep, Anacostia MS
As a member of All Means All’s first cohort, Neema and her team at Anacostia Middle closed achievement gaps between general education and special education. As she transitioned into the Director of Schools role, Neema shared her vision for scaling this impact with a team from DC Prep in Cohort 2.
Jonathan Caldera, DC Prep
Jonathan Caldera is the Principal of Edgewood Elementary campus for DC Prep. As a member of Cohort 2, he witnessed firsthand the impact of All Means All at Neema’s school. Hear Jonathan speak about the power of being able to collaborate with a team from DC Prep in the All Means All Program.
Soraya Verjee, Faculty
Soraya Verjee serves as the Chief Talent Officer at Collegiate Academies and is a faculty member for All Means All. Hear her perspective of what it means to be All Means All, why she chooses to be involved with this program, and what she sees as the value, impact and difference of All Means All.
Rosie Carlson, Alpha Public Schools
As a member of All Means All’s first cohort, Rosie and her team at Alpha Jose Hernandez began to serve a broader range of student needs; and introduced modified assessments to give teachers a finer level of detail to accelerate student growth for students traditionally stagnant in data. Hear Rosie share what made the difference, as she transitions out of the principal role to lead academics in a network leadership role.
Julianna Parra, Alpha Public Schools
Julianna Parra joined All Means All’s Cohort 1 as a member of Rosie Carlson’s school leadership team at Alpha Jose Hernandez. Julianna then became principal for Alpha Jose Hernandez and a member of All Means All Cohort 2. She shares how All Means All helped her address the needs of both students with disabilities and multilingual learners.
YES Prep Public Schools
The YES Prep’s All Means All team, which included network and school leaders, named improving and eradicating their disciplinary disproportionality for students with disabilities and Black students as a core OKR (Objective and Key Result) across the network. Given the collaborative work of this team and the larger network, they substantially decreased suspensions for students with disabilities by 63% across the system.
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