In the summer of 2009, I completed the Generating Expectations for Student Achievement or (GESA) facilitator program that was hosted by the Project SMART office at SUNY Oswego during their summer institute.

GESA has been nationally recognized by the many of the most prominent Teacher organizations across the country as being one of the most effective professional development programs for increasing achievement for all students. The necessity of high expectations for all students has been identified repeatedly as an essential factor for educational success at all levels. GESA was created to help achieve this goal after several decades of research identified five areas of disparity in the classroom that directly impact the academic achievement of students. GESA training highlights these five areas of disparity and then encourages teachers to utilize research based, proactive instructional strategies and resources to eliminate the disparities and support high expectations.

These areas of disparity have proven to be generic and are applicable to concerns related to gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, developmental or physical disability, socioeconomic class, perceived ability, or any of the labels which tend to deal people out or permit them to deal themselves in or out of the educational system.

Therefore, the GESA program is based on the premise that in order to ensure quality and excellence on an equitable basis, school districts need to directly confront the issues of gender, race, ethnic and other bias in teachers’ interactions with students.