About
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Since 1997, Michѐle Solá has been director of Manhattan Country School (MCS), a pre-K through 8th grade school founded in 1966 as a private school with a public mission. She was previously director of public school outreach and special programs and an upper school Spanish teacher. Public school partnerships led to curriculum development, literacy projects, and the founding of alternative and charter schools on the MCS model. During her tenure, MCS has become a resource for people seeking models of racial and economic diversity and equity in schools, culturally relevant curriculum, social justice and activism, multi-cultural community-building, sliding-scale tuition, and farm-based education. In 2008, Michele was selected for the heads-of- school program at the Klingenstein Center (Teachers College). Based on her project, the MCS board adopted strategic goals for MCS 2020 that resulted in relocating and doubling enrollment from 200 students. Michѐle served on the Barnard School Foundation board, and has been on the board of Progressive Education Network since 2012. PEN hosted a 2015 conference, "Access, Equity, and Activism: Teaching the Possible." Michѐle earned her bachelors degree from Cornell University, her masters degree in teaching from Indiana University, and her doctorate in education from Boston University. She worked with migrant farmworkers in Indiana, bilingual preschools in Boston, and communities in transition in Nicaragua and Peru. She has presented at conferences and been a consultant to schools transitioning from founding or long-serving directors to new leadership, and creating equitable learning environments in multicultural communities. She is a Fellow of the 19th class of the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
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