Our Story
In 2015, we began a partnership journey with the Raikes Foundation when we were selected to be part of the Building Equitable Learning Environments (BELE) Network in the fall of 2015. We entered as Teaching Excellence Network (TEN) and our main goal was to scale our online teacher effectiveness platform. Since then, TEN has led nearly 400 schools in over 60 districts nationwide through an innovative, transformational process of professional development informed directly by the priorities of community stakeholders. We then shifted our focus to directly impact marginalized youth through the classroom and created Community Responsive Education (CRE). CRE centers equity as the solution to the most pressing challenges in education. The Youth Wellness Movement (YWM) is our main project aimed at repurposing youth education to focus on wellness.

Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, Ph.D., is a Professor in the College of Ethnic Studies and Educational Leadership at San Francisco State University. She cofounded Community Responsive Education and Teaching Excellence Network. She has published five books and a wide array of articles and book chapters that focus on the development of ethnic studies curriculum and community responsive pedagogy. Professor Tintiangco Cubales has won many awards including being named one of the 100 most influential Filipinas in the world. In 2014, she was also given the Community Advocacy Award from the Critical Educators for Social Justice group from the American Educational Research Association.

Glenda Macatangay is a social justice entrepreneur that utilizes art, creativity, and innovation to operationalize core values and philosophies of equity in building community-responsive sustainable businesses. She is the Chief Operations Officer of Community Responsive Education and the Managing Partner of UpperCloud, a media agency for social impact in Oakland, Ca. She holds a Masters in Social Work degree from California State University at Sacramento and a Bachelors in Sociology and Women’s Studies from the University of California at Davis. She was a practicing clinician and clinical director in various environments of private practice, non-profit and community-based organizations, schools and the juvenile justice systems for over 19 years and has continued to serve her community in support of mental health and wellness through public art, film and radical healing experiences. She has been a community organizer for over 25 years. Organizing is the cornerstone of how she positions all her work in business, art, and radical healing.