About Confianza
Our Vision & Mission
Confianza envisions an educational landscape where all leaders and educators are prepared to provide access and opportunity for culturally and linguistically diverse learners across the entire system. We increase student outcomes in schools and organizations by improving cultural understanding, communication, and collaboration.
We break down silos.
We break down the “silos” that multilingual learners experience to help students meet the highest standards. We aim for sustainable impact by building capacity across grades and disciplines and guiding teachers to incorporate language and literacy strategies that support academic language development and content learning. We start with Tier 1/universal instruction so that ALL students can benefit!
We live our values.
Confianza is a mission-driven, woman-owned small business. As a social enterprise, we are committed to supporting and elevating the voices of those who are not historically heard. A portion of our sales go directly to non-profit organizations with like-minded missions and a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice.
Culture and identity are central to learning, especially for multilingual students. As educators, we must acknowledge, respond to, and celebrate the backgrounds of our students and intentionally create learning environments that are equitable and engaging. This includes incorporating students’ first language (L1 home language/native language/mother tongue) and valuing multilingualism and translanguaging.
+ Valuing ALL Languages and Cultures
+ Equity-Driven Leadership
+ High Expectations for All Students
+ Differentiated and Student-Centered Instruction
+ Learning within Context
+ Educators as Social Agents of Change
At its core, confianza is a cultural concept meaning mutual respect and trust. Respect changes the status quo and communities are built on trust. We embody confianza by building strong, caring relationships with our clients and understanding their needs to create a plan that will help teachers and students thrive. Together, what we can accomplish is limitless.
Sarah B. Ottow | Founder & Director of Confianza
Sarah B. Ottow is a change agent and professional development specialist focused on improving cultural understanding, communication, and collaboration. She enjoys supporting public and private schools, non-profit organizations, and corporations across the US and internationally, teaching learners from pre-K to adults. Sarah has a master’s in curriculum and instruction with a focus on social justice in urban education and certifications in general education, English as a Second Language, bilingual education (Spanish), reading, and coaching/mentoring. Sarah founded Confianza in 2015.
Sarah is also the author of The Language Lens for Content Classrooms Guidebook.
“Working with Confianza enhanced the capacity of our district to teach all students. Our building principals, central office staff, and teachers have been inspired by their engaging hands-on support.”
“These resources really helped guide us through our collaboration process. We’ve spent time working together and using what we learned to jump in and start co-teaching!”
“Confianza has a wealth of knowledge, tools, and strategies to help your school move forward in meeting the needs of all students. Our language specialists and content area teachers feel more equipped.”