Sarah Ottow

Sarah enacts her mission of fostering trust and confidence in students and teachers through her Boston area-based organization, Confianza, specifically English Language Learners (ELLs).

Sarah has over fifteen years of experience teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students and their teachers in Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico. At the Center for Collaborative Education, Sarah served as Project Director for the Race to the Top funded Worcester ELL Teacher Residency (WELLTR) Program and the Teacher Leadership Network for ELLs, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s PD Redesign Challenge Grant. Sarah’s effective, action research-based approach for professional development and teacher training has been shared through state and national conferences and publications such as, “Improved Student Learning through Teacher Inquiry.”

Sarah holds a BFA (Fine Arts) and MS (Urban Education) from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, has earned four teaching certificates (Elementary, English as a Second Language, Reading, Bilingual–Spanish), and is a Certified Professional Trainer with the WIDA Consortium. In Spring 2015, Sarah founded Confianza to expand her “circle of influence” by deepening her partnerships to schools and organizations to improve democratic schooling for culturally and linguistically diverse learners in public schools. Sarah has study abroad and/or work experiences in the United Kingdom, The People’s Republic of China Special Administrative Regions, Central America and the Caribbean.