Dr. Asia Franks is a Senior Educational Consultant at Teaching Matters. During the last 15 years, Asia has worked with various organizations and stakeholders to ensure that teachers and school leaders feel empowered and equipped to provide students with high-quality mathematics instruction that is relevant, rigorous, and fun! She earned her BS degree in Secondary Education with a minor in mathematics from Temple University, her MA degree in Mathematics Education from Teachers College, and an MS degree in School Leadership from Baruch College. Her teaching career began in the South Bronx where she taught middle and high school mathematics, was a mathematics instructional team leader, and was the middle school Assistant Principal. Passionate about preparing teachers to teach with an emphasis on conceptual understanding, she was an Adjunct Professor at Relay Graduate School of Education and the Graduate School of Education at Fordham. While pursuing her Ph.D. in Innovation in Curriculum and Instruction, she created and facilitated professional development sessions for teachers as the Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Fraser’s Mathematics Solutions, coached teachers as the head of the Mathematics Department at Packer Collegiate Institute, and was a consultant for Student Achievement Partners and Springpoint Schools.
Asia has proven herself to be a highly effective mathematics educator, coaching teachers to enhance their instructional practices and engage all students in rigorous, student-centered instruction that creates equitable and empowering classrooms for minority and underrepresented students. Her research interests include student-centered mathematics instruction, pre service teacher programs, and teacher conceptions and attitudes toward mathematics. When she is not coaching mathematics teachers, she is doing math with her tutoring clients, scrapbooking, and being a plant mom.