Former faculty in Residential Treatment facilities, now Curriculum Director for Dohn Community High School in Cincinnati, Dr. Jones-Parks has specialized in supporting teachers of disengaged learners.  “When I discovered the Gurian science and strategies,” Dr. Jones-Parks said recently, “everything fell into place.”  She became a GI Certified Trainer to apply science and strategies to students who had experienced absenteeism and truancy, learning deficits, trauma, poverty, food/shelter insecurity, and, as she notes, “previously unsuccessful ways of being mentored and taught.”

Dohn Community High School and Dr. Jones-Parks tackle these issues head on by addressing boys and girls in particular, with sensitivity to students presenting as gender fluid.  Because the state of Ohio has designated Dohn a dropout recovery district, and because Dr. Jones-Parks and colleagues have seen concurrent mental and emotional health issues linked to school failure, Dohn has deployed a strong learning structure with specific focus on the social-emotional development of each student.

In this dynamic and strategies-filled keynote, Dr. Jones-Parks will share this leading-edge cultural responsiveness work.  She will provide data showing success for science and strategies in both coed and single sex academies and apply SEL work specifically to hard-to-reach students.  She will then focus on new and leading-edge programming for boys in the English/Language Arts classroom, and for girls at-risk with social and mental health issues.