OCTOBER 2002 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPME...
OCTOBER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEWSLETTER
Theme: Cultural Proficiency<?xml:namespace prefix = o />
Becoming culturally proficient is more than acknowledging our varied
and diverse cultures, ethnicities, languages, or physical abilities. It is
more than bulletin board displays during designated months or
multicultural assemblies. In the words of Drs. Randall Lindsey,
Kikanza Nuri Robins, and Raymond Terrell (Cultural Proficiency:
A Manual for School Leaders): “Cultural proficiency is the policies
and practices of a school or the values and behaviors of an
individual that enables the person or school to interact effectively
in a culturally diverse environment. Cultural proficiency is
reflected in the way an organization treats its employees, its
clients, and its community” (1999). This issue of the
Professional Development Newsletter focuses on cultural
proficiency and ways to create inclusive environments in
the school and workplace.
1. Recreating Schools for All Children
2. Hope for Urban Education
3. Helping All Students Achieve
4. Bridging Cultures
5. Raising the Achievement of Low-Performing Students
6. Closing the Achievement Gap
7. Testing Trap
8. Transforming School Culture is Key to Change
9. Diversity and Excellence
10. The ERIC Clearinghouse on Cultural Diversity
11. Developing and Sustaining Schools
1. RECREATING SCHOOLS FOR ALL CHILDREN
Author John Morefield discusses the 12 characteristics of successful
schools in his article “Recreating Schools for All Children”
(Transforming Education, 1998). Looking at “what works” in American
schools, the following were identified as indicators that ensure equity
and excellence for all students in all classrooms at all schools: strong
leadership; unity of purpose; a school environment that is caring and
nurturing; all adults responsible for all children; firm, fair,
consistent, and positive discipline; high expectations for all
children; a staff that believes that teaching is a calling, not just a job; a multicultural curriculum woven into the daily life of the school; outstanding instructional practice; a belief that parent and community involvement is important; an effective mental health approach; and safe, clean, and aesthetically pleasing school environments.
http://www.newhorizons.org/article_morefield.html
2. HOPE FOR URBAN EDUCATION
This study compares and contrasts nine high performing urban schools that serves children of color. “These schools have attained higher levels of achievement than most schools in their states and most schools in the nation. They have achieved results in reading and mathematics beyond that achieved in some suburban schools.” Among some of its suggestions for reform, the Hope for Urban Education (December 1999) study recommends that all schools: build the capacity of principals to provide instructional leadership; create clear, measurable and rigorous school accountability provisions; help educators create regular opportunities for true professional development; and build the capacity of teachers and parents for increasing parental involvement at schools.
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/urbanhope/differences.html
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3. HELPING ALL STUDENTS ACHIEVE
Kati Haycock, quoted in Educational Leadership (March 2001) says “to increase the achievement levels of minority and low-income students, we need to focus on what really matters: high standards, a challenging curriculum, and good teachers.” The article, "Helping All Students Achieve" seeks to provide a research-based, experiential understanding of achievement patterns and outlines four lessons that can be learned from the data and from communities that have been successful in closing the gap for their underrepresented students.http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/0103/haycock.html
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4. BRIDGING CULTURES
The Knowledge Brief, “Bridging Cultures in Our Schools: New Approaches That Work,” (WestEd, April 2001) discusses ways that educators can understand various cultures by individually and collectively looking at their own value system. Authors Elise Trumbull, Carrie Rothstein-Fisch, and Patricia M. Greenfield write, “A critical step in making schools places where all children can learn is for educators to first see how their own cultural values operate in the classroom.” Readers are encouraged to look for ways to create classrooms that welcome students and their families, serve as cultural mediators who work to understand the “thinking, norms, and cultural ways” of poor or immigrant homes, and create peer support groups to discuss ideas for creating inclusive school cultures.
http://web.wested.org/online_pubs/bridging/part7.shtml
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5. RAISING THE ACHIEVEMENT OF LOW-PERFORMING STUDENTS
In an effort to respond to the converging trends of accountability
and equitable achievement of students of color and low-income
students, the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning
(McREL) convened a series of Diversity Roundtables to find ways to
help disenfranchised students meet standards and published a policy
brief synthesizing the findings. Author Bryan Goodwin states,
“Students who are members of certain demographic groups are, of
course, at some disadvantage when they go to school, but disadvantage
is not something inherent; it is transactional. Students are
disadvantaged...because of the way in which education is provided.”
Goodwin goes on to cite the reasons for both low and improved
achievement in his brief, “Raising the Achievement of Low-Performing
Students” (May 2000). Low achievement is attributed to weak or
inappropriate curricula; ineffective instruction; disengaging
classroom discourse; poor student self-concept; unsuccessful
adjustment to school culture; and prejudice. Conversely, ways to
improve student achievement are: providing all students with
rigorous curriculum; helping teachers improve instruction; providing
support to students; creating smaller classes and school units;
increasing parent support to students; identifying and fixing the
ways low performance are manufactured; and establishing strong,
yet fair, accountability.
http://www.mcrel.org/products/school%2Dimprove/raising.html
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6. CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
The Journal of the Annenberg Challenge has published their study on “Closing the Achievement Gap: How Schools are Making It Happen” (winter 2001-02). Using vignettes from schools across the country, author Robert Rothman gives examples of approaches and best practices used by schools to close the achievement gap. The article discusses teacher attitudes, student attitudes, resource disparities, and examples of communities working together to share data and ideas for raising achievement for all students. http://www.annenbergchallenge.org/pubs/cj/gap_cj.htm
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7. TESTING TRAP
Richard F. Elmore writes, “You can’t improve a school’s performance, or that of any teacher or student in it, without increasing the investment of teachers’ knowledge, pedagogical skills, and understanding of students.” His article “Testing Trap” (Harvard Magazine, September-October 2002) looks at the history of the Federal government’s accountability movement and the mandates for test-based accountability in American public schools. http://www.harvard-magazine.com/on-line/0902140.html
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8. TRANSFORMING SCHOOL CULTURE IS KEY TO CHANGE
"The reform in standards-based education will not come from what we do to students based on test scores, but from what we do to foster school cultures that respect and address the noncognitive factors that contribute to student learning," states author Paul Garcia in this Education Week article, "Nontraditional Students, With Traditional Needs" (October 17, 2001). The author argues that transforming school climate and culture is critical to bringing about lasting change in student achievement. http://www.edweek.org/ew/newstory.cfm?slug=07garcia.h21
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9. DIVERSITY AN EXCELLENCE
The Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence (CREDE) provides an excellent Web site with links to publications, research findings, videos, and articles about cultural proficiency. http://www.crede.ucsc.edu/
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10. THE ERIC CLEARINGHOUSE ON CULTURAL DIVERSITY
The Educational Resources Information Center, Counseling and Student Services (ERIC/CASS) provides a wide range of services and materials about cultural proficiency and diversity. Products and services include resource guides with links to Web sites, publications, and other sources of information. http://ericcass.uncg.edu/virtuallib/diversity/diversitybook.html
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11. DEVELOPING AND SUSTAINING SCHOOL
"Developing and Sustaining Schools as Learning Communities in the Midst of the Whirlwind," a presentation given by Dr. Carol Lee at the statewide silomar conference last February, will be available from the California Professional Development Consortia in mid-October. Dr. Lee acknowledges the challenges we face in helping ALL students achieve high levels of mastery, but feels we already know how to do it. "In each and every discipline, we know how to teach each and every kid. What we don't know is how to teach the adults who are teaching the kids." What is needed? She describes the aspects of teacher knowledge that support student performance and encourages all educators to find ways to grapple with their assumptions, biases, and stereotypes about which children can learn. We need to re-conceptualize culture as a resource, she says, and find ways to help students from diverse backgrounds demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. Available after October 10. http://www.scoe.org/ncprofdev/whats_new.html
This electronic newsletter is sponsored by the Region 8 California Professional Development Consortium (CPDC) administered by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office. To subscribe or unsubscribe from this newsletter, or to subscribe to our other our free electronic Newsletters: we offer them for High Schools, and Middle Schools, email, call or fax Christina Doyle:
email - cdoyle@kern.org, phone (661) 636-4331 or fax (661) 636-4135.
Interested in back issues? They are archived online at http://learning.kern.org/pdc.
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