Akron Public Schools' chief academic officer dislikes words like "achievement gap" and "at-risk students." Ellen McWilliams-Woods, who also serves as the district's assistant superintendent, believes those terms discourage students and imply they are broken and must be "saved" by predominantly white teachers. “Our students aren’t broken," she said. "They’re absolutely brilliant. "…Our students have the greatest perseverance, the greatest creative thinking skills, problem-solving skills. Their dedication to their own education is the strongest every single day, but we’ve got to be able to create those environments to let that absolutely flourish so that their own culture can be in the front of everything that they’re doing.”