Farah Assiraj

Farah Assiraj is a national leader in race, equity and immigrant education. She currently serves as the Chief of Teaching and Learning for the Council of the Great City Schools where she leads professional learning, equity, equitable Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) and supports the Council’s 78 urban member districts with curriculum and instruction across content areas.  

Farah previously served as the Deputy Chief Academic Officer for the Boston Public Schools (BPS) where she led the district’s MTSS strategy and supported academics, professional learning, equitable literacy, multilingual and multicultural education, special education, restorative justice, behavioral health, social-emotional and wellness and student services.  As the former Interim Assistant Superintendent for the BPS’ Office of Multilingual and Multicultural Education (OMME), Farah overhauled the department and developed a three-year strategic plan to adopt bilingual education policies and revision curriculum, instruction and materials for bilingual, ESL and sheltered content learning.  

Additionally, she implemented a systemic action plan that moved the district to achieve the highest compliance ratings for English learner services in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice’s agreement with the Boston Public Schools. Farah is a former ELA, reading, ESL, newcomer and SLIFE teacher spanning K-12 grades. Through cairEDucation consulting, Farah continues to support districts and national organizations with professional development, strategic planning and coaching on Culture, Access, Inclusion, Race, Equity and Diversity. Farah is the founder of Peregrinum nonprofit community organization, cairEDucation consulting, Schooling Justice Initiative and a co-founder of many educational coalitions.  

As a Moroccan immigrant who arrived in the U.S. at the age of ten fluent in three languages and later graduated high school as an undocumented student, Farah’s personal schooling experience and professional trajectory have culminated in a deep understanding of systemic inequities and necessary conditions required for all students to thrive. Farah leads with a collective framework and consistently centers students on the margins in policy and practice.