Kremen School of Education and Human Development
Nancy Akhavan
Associate Professor
Educational Leadership | 559-278-0345
Education
Courses Taught
EDL 503 Educational Policy Environments
EDL 506 Conceputal Curriculum Perspectives
EAD 261 School Leadership for Equity and Improvement
Dr. Nancy Akhavan has spent 30 years as an educator and consultant. Her work focuses on student support through good first instruction, and intervention, literacy, English language development, leadership development and organizational systems to increase student achievement.
For the past fifteen years she has conducted professional development, given keynotes and provided seminars for thousands of educators nationally and internationally. She has served as a consultant for numerous districts and coached school district leaders, principals and teachers related to serving the most challenged situations and historically underserved youth in our educational systems. She provides support to school districts on a variety of related topics to foster institutional change that ensures equity and access to educational opportunities for all students. She believes that literacy achievement is an equity issue, as all students deserve to read, write, and think well in a variety of content areas and in a variety of genres.
Currently, she works as an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership
where she teaches courses in Educational Leadership and Educational Reform to doctoral
students and Master’s degree students. Dr. Akhavan has been a bilingual teacher, principal
of three schools all identified as Title One schools, and a district administrator
of a large urban district for ELA, Math, Social Studies, Science and World Languages.
Dr. Akhavan also is the administrator of a multi-million dollar grant focused on implementing
school models at elementary, middle and high schools to increase student achievement
and decrease the disproportionality of students of color being suspended and expelled.
She served as Assistant Superintendent Secondary Division in Fresno Unified School
District with supervising 15 middle schools, and providing systems support to schools
K-12, and professional development to leaders and teachers for the district which
has over 73,000 students. Dr. Akhavan has experience in urban and rural districts.
Additionally, she has worked as a facilitator and coach of district level leaders
through the John D. Welty Center for Educational Policy and Leadership, formerly CVELI.
Dr. Akhavan is recognized for her expertise in teaching literacy practices and has
published eleven books that focus on instruction that increases student achievement
through focused teacher professional support and development.
Leadership
Instructional Coaching
Journal Articles
Akhavan, N. & Walsh, N. (2020). Cognitive apprenticeship learning approach in K-8 writing instruction: A case study. Journal of Education and Learning 9(3), 123-142.
Akhavan, N. & Masumoto, M. (2019). A network across fields, orchards and hills: A rural support system for superintendents and their districts. Learning Forward 40(5).
Akhavan, N. (2019, Feb.). Believe in fate no longer: Five ways to respond to student depression. School Administrator. AASA.
Walsh, N., & Akhavan, N. (2018). Developing High Quality Teachers Through Professional Pre-Service Teaching Opportunities. Contemporary Issues in Education Research (CIER), 11(4), 153-164.
Hively, J. & Akhavan, N. (2017). Equity and impact of linked learning for students with disabilities: An investigation of implementation fidelity. Scholar-Practitioner Quarterly 11(1), 12-31.
Akhavan, N., Emery, R., Shea, G., & Taha-Resnick, A. (2017). The success of urban schools in Oxnard, California: An in-depth look at developmental and relational assets. The Educational Forum, 81(4), 432-445.
Bernal, C., Lajoie, A., Monosov, N., Raigoza, A., Stencler, A., & Akhavan, N. (2017). Gender bias within the superintendency: A comparative study. Journal of School Administration Research and Development 2(1), 42-53.
Akhavan, N. (2015). Coaching side by side: One-on-one collaboration creates connected, caring teachers. Journal of Staff Development 36(3), p. 34-37.
Akhavan, N. (2013). Information nation: What the mind needs to do to read nonfiction. ASCD Express. November, 2013.
Akhavan, N. (2005). Creating and sustaining a collaborative culture. Leadership 34(5), p. 20-22
Akhavan, N. (2003). Purpose, passion and conviction: Three traits that matter most when the going gets tough in instructional reform. ERIC Document, EA032301.
Akhavan, N. (2002). Seven powerful steps sustaining reform. Leadership, 31(3), p. 24-26.
Book Chapters
Akhavan, N. (2020). In Students’ Voices: How Middle School Students Perceive Their Needs for Effective Reading Comprehension Strategies, in Stacki,S. & Mertens, S., Eds. Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: Intersecting New Needs and New Approaches. Information Age Publishing, 99-126.
Akhavan, N. (2013). Teaching Long-Term English Learners to Write in Content Areas, in Pytash, K., Rasinski, T., & Ferdig, R., Eds. Preparing Teachers to Teach Writing Using Technology. ETC Press.
Books
Akhavan, N. (2019). At the Reading Table: Striving readers. New Jersey, Benchmark Education.
Akhavan, N., Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2019). This is Balanced Literacy. Thousand Oaks,California: Corwin Press.
Akhavan, N. (2018). The Big Book of Literacy Tasks, Grades K-8: 75 balanced literacy activities students do (not you!). Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.
Akhavan, N. (2014). The Nonfiction Now Lesson Bank, Grades 4-8: Strategies and routines for higher level comprehension in the content areas. Thousand Oaks,California: Corwin Press.
Akhavan, N. (2009). Teaching Writing in a Title I School, K-3. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann Publishing Company.
Akhavan, N. (2008). The Content-Rich Reading and Writing Workshop: A time-saving approach for making the most of your literacy block. New York: Scholastic.
Akhavan, N. (2008). Teaching Reading in a Title I School, K-3. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann Publishing Company.
Akhavan, N. (2007). Accelerated Vocabulary Instruction: Strategies for closing the achievement gap for all students. New York: Scholastic, Inc.
Akhavan, N. (2006). Help! My Kids Don’t All Speak English: How to set up a language workshop in your linguistically diverse classroom. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann Publishing Company.
Akhavan, N. (2004). How to Align Literacy Instruction, Assessment and Standards and Achieve Results You Never Dreamed Possible. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann Publishing Company.
Creative Works
Akhavan, N. (2019). Literacy Instruction for Students Who Experience Trauma. Quick Reference Guide. Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English.
Akhavan, N. (2017). Noteworthy nonfiction collections. Nonfiction book collection partnership with AKJ Education.