NUA was a subcontractor on a multi-million dollar federal grant obtained by the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 2005 to 2010. They provided extensive professional development to 100s of Birmingham City Schools teachers and principals. The grant was obtained under my leadership as dean of the UAB School of Education and I was intimately involved in the details of the grant operations.

The NUA leadership and their consultants showed passion and commitment throughout their work. Their deep understanding of how teachers and principals could change the direction of teaching and learning in urban schools was truly outstanding and the delivery of the professional development they offered matched their understanding.

The consultants as a group had extraordinary capacity to bring teachers specific strategies for allowing students to develop the confidence to move directly to acceleration instead of persisting in remediation, both in attitudes towards school and in direct educational outcomes.