Ashley Avila

Ashley Avila

Ashley Avila is an English teacher at Proviso East High School in Maywood, Illinois. She has been an educator since 2009. In 2011, she began working at Westside Holistic Leadership Academy, a small alternative charter school in Chicago. It was through this employment that Ashley became passionate about bridging the gaps in education and working with youth who are troubled or at risk. In 2013, she joined the charter’s competency-based education leadership team and worked alongside the committee to develop a framework that several of their schools would adopt. In 2015, Ashley took her current position at Proviso East, where she was given the opportunity to participate in their competency-based education pilot and continue to be an advocate for underserved and underrepresented youth.

Ashley has led various school-level professional development sessions for her colleagues, presenting on relevant competency-based topics and helping lead the effort to gain the status of first-ever high school–level Marzano Academy. She has offered advice and professional development for local districts as they began to develop or plan their own transitions to competency-based education. Ashley focuses on providing an inclusive, welcoming environment for attendees and believes in offering practical examples that can be used or modified with ease. In 2019, she began working to complete the Marzano High Reliability Teacher certifications and has to date completed Level 1, Courses 1 and 2.

Ashley received a bachelor’s degree in English (with a concentration in writing) from the University of Illinois Chicago. She also holds a master’s in education from Lewis University and a master’s in reading from Saint Xavier University.