Taishya Adams
Taishya Adams serves is a senior technical consultant at AIR. Adams serves as Minnesota state manager for the Midwest Comprehensive Center. Adams manages multiple projects and staff working in collaboration with senior leadership of the Minnesota Department of Education to implement key initiatives in a number of areas, including American Indian education, early childhood, educator effectiveness, standards implementation, school climate and school improvement.
Adams has also served as the REL Midwest School Turnaround Research Alliance. The Alliance builds capacity among its State Education Agency (SEA) members to use and access data to address questions on how to improve low-performing schools. The School Turnaround Alliance’s research informs the development of evidence-based tools, processes, and policies to help states, districts, and schools support school improvement efforts.
Adams has served as a consultant to the National Charter School Resource Center which serves as a national center to provide resources, information, and technical assistance to support the successful planning, authorizing, implementation, and sustainability of high-quality charter schools; to share evaluations on the effects of charter schools; and to disseminate information about successful practices in charter schools. Adams has extensive history in project management, new charter school development, governance and oversight. She has also served as a peer reviewer for the U.S. Department of Education Charter School Expansion and Replication and SEA grant competitions.
Prior to joining AIR, she served as the director of state services for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) where she led the Master Class Series for over 35 state charter support organizations aimed to strengthen support services offered to charter schools through intensive trainings and coaching in the areas of new school development, governance, school leadership, finance and operations. She also served as a performance officer with the D.C. Public Charter School Board, providing oversight and guidance on accountability practices for a portfolio of over 15 charter schools in the areas of academic, non-academic and organizational performance.
Adams is also the founding Board President for New Legacy Charter School – a charter high school and early learning center for teen parents and their children in Aurora, Colorado and currently serves as the co-chair of the Academic Excellence Committee.