Rachelle attended Indiana University and American University for undergraduate studies, graduating from American University with a dual degree in Spanish & Latin American Studies and Women’s & Gender Studies.

Rachelle attended Indiana University and American University for undergraduate studies, graduating from American University with a dual degree in Spanish & Latin American Studies and Women’s & Gender Studies.

Rachelle Adams

Founder & Co-Director

Rachelle is a teacher educator, trainer, and Spanish teacher who is committed to having every world language classroom be the place where culturally-responsive teaching happens through Comprehensible Input (CI). It is her passion for language and culture that led her to the classroom. She loves teaching youth and adults alike, and opening doors to the kinds of cross-cultural dialogues our global community requires. As a committed CI-based teacher and trainer, Rachelle ensures that each of her students is able to build deep language acquisition faster, and have fun in the process. 

She teaches Spanish to learners of all ages and brains in person in the DC area, as well as online for learners around the globe. She runs a monthly job-embedded professional development series for world language teachers in the DC metro area. Working with administrators and teachers, Rachelle helps create culturally responsive CI curricula for a variety of independent and public schools and districts. Based on CI teaching methods she trains language teachers regionally, nationally, and internationally, embedding all instruction within a culturally responsive teaching framework. 

Rachelle founded Elevate Education Consulting in 2016 based on the humanistic principles of Soka education and a desire to support teachers and students alike to experience the fundamental purpose of education; for youth to realize their precious potential and to display their unique individuality with enthusiasm and vigor, and to create supreme value in their own lives as well as for society. 

She brings a unique emphasis on culturally responsive teaching to the CI/TPRS community. Rachelle has shared this unique perspective at conferences such as NTPRS, iFLT, Comprehensible Midwest, Comprehensible Cascadia, GWATFL, as well as the IGNITE Conference. In her partnership with Cherokee Nation as an instructional coordinator for the IGNITE (Indigenous Gathering on Native Language Instructional Techniques for Educators) conference. The primary focus of Rachelle’s role is to listen to the needs of teachers, students and leaders working to revive native languages in their communities, and then match leading CI experts to share their expertise.

Rachelle has worked with District of Columbia Public Schools on curriculum development, teacher training modules, as well as training pre-service teachers. This, combined with Elevate’s ongoing professional development opportunities for DC area teachers, is part of her commitment to ensuring that DC and the surrounding school districts become the CI capital of the United States.    

When she isn’t working Rachelle can be found seeing live music, reading and writing poetry, supporting the SGI-USA, loving on her two sons and dog, and cooking up a fabulous meal while dancing to a funky beat.