Tell us about your nominee. Why should he or she be recognized as a Jewish Community Hero?

A third generation Washingtonian, Aleta became a public school teacher after spending a year teaching playwriting to court-referred teenagers. She watched her students learn to read, write, and create a play that posed solutions to the problems in their community. Aleta realized that if the young people in her class had teachers who believed in them from the start, they wouldn't have ended up in the juvenile justice system, and their life trajectories would have been different. And so she decided to become a teacher.

After a few years of teaching in the public schools, Aleta became dissatisfied at the way schools seemed to value students' obedience more than their ideas and prized order over inquiry and learning. Determined to make a difference in education for children in low income communities, and for all children, Aleta founded Center for Inspired Teaching in 1995. Center for Inspired Teaching invests in teachers to ensure that school makes the most of children's innate desire to learn. Inspired Teaching focuses on DC public schools where it is common to have 70% to 90% of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch. Inspired Teaching reaches nearly 1000 Washington, DC teachers each year through courses and mentoring for teachers, school partnerships, and a teacher certification program. This means a better education for thousands of students. "Inspired Teachers" report increased job satisfaction and their students not only achieve at higher levels, they also experience a more engaging, meaningful education. Aleta has created an asset-based model of teacher education that begins before teachers enter the classroom and continues through their careers, all the way to retirement. This holistic model of teacher training results in a more effective, more meaningful school experience for children. Aleta hopes to replicate this model nationwide. Aleta also works to support budding social entrepreneurs in education and other fields, serving as a mentor for seniors at Brown University, her alma mater, and serving as a mentor for future executive directors through the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington's Future Executive Directors program. Aleta is a Fellow with Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, which recognizes and supports social entrepreneurs worldwide who have created innovative programs with the potential to make large-scale change. She's also been recognized as a Paul Harris Fellow with Rotary International.

What problem did your nominee identify in the community that needed to be solved? How has your nominee's efforts made a difference for others?

Aleta recognized that school was not enabling students, or their teachers, to achieve their full potential as learners, thinkers, and community members. But by investing in teachers, Aleta is beginning to turn this around. The key tenet in Inspired Teaching's philosophy is to instruct students in how, and not just what, to think. Aleta motivates teachers to see themselves less as "providers of information" and more as "explorers" in the classroom, professionals who learn just as much as their students. Aleta's work with teachers in the DC community has led to 3 measurable outcomes in the classrooms of "Inspired Teaching":

1. instruction becomes challenging, engaging, and student-centered, and students achieve at high levels;

2. school becomes a place where children thrive and where adults and children find joy in their work;

3. educators take ownership and become agents of change in their classrooms, schools, and beyond, so that changes are sustained.

Observational surveys conducted of teachers' classrooms before and after their participation in Inspired Teaching programs show an increase in student participation, rising from 18% to 43% of class time. The number of teacher-student interactions involving higher order questions (those that require critical thinking and analytical reasoning to solve) increased by 11%. In addition, the average amount of class time spent on discipline dropped from 40% before working with Inspired Teaching to 18% afterwards. Surveys conducted in Inspired Teaching partner schools show that "teacher support" and "teacher fairness" are regarded by students as the best part of their school experience, each category receiving an average of 4.1 on a 5-point scale. Aleta hopes to replicate her holistic, asset-based model of teaching training locally and nationally, working toward the day when all children learn to read, write, and achieve at high levels without having to surrender their creativity and passion for learning.