Creating Culturally Responsive Educational Systems

1. Creating Culturally Responsive Educational Systems Alfredo J. Artiles Beth Harry Janette Klingner Elizabeth Kozleski Grace Zamora-Durán

2. Why NCCRESt?

3. Purpose Provide technical assistance and professional development to • Close the achievement gap between students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and their peers • Reduce inappropriate referrals to special education. • Critical Foci • Culturally responsive practices • Early intervening • Literacy • Positive behavioral supports

4. What is Disproportionality? “the extent to which membership in a given group affects the probability of being placed in a specific special education disability category.” ( Oswald, et. al. 1999.)

5. Does Disproportionality Exist? • Has been a concern for over three decades (Dunn, 1968; Johnson, 1969; Donovan & Cross, 2002). • Black children are 2.88 times more likely to be labeled MR and 1.92 times more likely to be labeled ED than white children. • In some states, Asian/Pacific Islanders are more than twice as likely to be identified as SLD • Native Americans are twice as likely to be labeled ED or SLD. • Although Latino students are often not over-represented in state and national data it is likely to change when their proportion of a district’s diverse student body increases (Losen & Orfield, 2002).

6. Why is Disproportionality a Problem? • Bias or inappropriate practice in the referral and placement process • Disability label stigmatizes a student as inferior • Results in lowered expectations • Potentially separates the student from peers

7. Why is Disproportionality a Problem? • Leads to poor educational and life outcomes • Students may be denied access to the general education curriculum • May receive services that do not meet their needs • Students may be misunderstood or underserved in General Education

8. Disproportionality is an Education Issue Special Education

9. Ideology Dis/Ability Participation Goals & Means Access Time & Space The Cultural Construction of Dis/Ability

10. Ideology Participation Goals & Means Access Time & Space The Cultural Construction of Dis/Ability People Dis/Ability Practices Policies

11. Why Does Culture Matter? Cultures in the classroom and classroom cultures All teaching is cultural

12. Changing the vision… “Eliminating disproportionality is an adult issue.” (Joseph Olchefske, Superintendent of Seattle Schools) “We must change the way we think about ability, competence and success and encourage schools to redefine support so that the need to sort children is reduced.” (Testimony before the President’s Commission, 2002)

13. What’s in an Educational System?

14. Features of Culturally Responsive Educational Systems • Culture, language, heritage, and experiences of ALL students and families are • valued; • respected; and • used to facilitate learning and development.

15. Features of Culturally Responsive Educational Systems • Practitioners and Administrators assume responsibility for the learning of ALL students from ALL cultural and linguistic backgrounds. • Every student benefits academically, socioculturally & linguistically. • Access to high quality teachers, programs, curricula, and resources is available to every student.

16. How do we know what to change or where to begin? The answer is in rich and accessible data.

20. People • Who are our students? • What are their concerns? • How are they doing? • Are different groups of students experiencing different levels of success? • What do we know about their school experiences?

21. What is Systemic Change? SimultaneousRenewal in Multiple Layers of the System

22. Balancing Change Dynamics Practice Access Commitment Flexibility Context Research Equity Capacity Coherence Universality Excellence

23. Interrelated Domains in Addressing Disproportionality Teacher Education PEOPLE Administrators Professional Development Teachers Instruction: Literacy Families Early Intervention in GE Students Positive Behavior Supports Communities PRACTICES School District District State POLICIES Federal

24. School Examining Policies Federal • Equitable • Create Access Federal State State District

25. Federal and State Policies • Reexamine and revise: • Eligibility for special education • School financing and the allocation of resources • Accountability measures • Teacher and administrator education programs and certification requirements

26. Curricula Tracking Discipline Resource allocation Hiring, assignment, and retention of highly qualified administrators, teachers, and support personnel Collaboration and partnerships: Between special education and general education With community agencies and local leaders With teacher education programs District Level Policies

27. hiring assignment of teachers to classes assignment of students to classes (by ability level or heterogeneously) discipline (e.g., alternatives to suspension) student retention class size scheduling paraprofessionals the extent to which interruptions are allowed whether students can take school books & other materials home how resources are allocated curriculum School Level Policies

28. Examining Practices • Tools • Evidence • Collaboration

29. Practices • Curriculum • Instruction • Assessment • Pre-referral and referral processes • Discipline

30. Practices • What is being taught and how? • What is being learned and by whom? • What are the contexts for teaching and learning? • Do practices differ from classroom to classroom? • From school to school?

31. Presence • Participation • Emancipation Teachers Families Students People Communities Administrators

32. Culturally Responsive Administrators • Provide strong leadership • Are proactive in seeking change • Create spaces for on-going dialogue and self-reflection • Possess effective interpersonal as well as management skills • Validate teachers and students’ self-worth • Exemplify a “sí se puede” (it can be done) attitude

33. Culturally Responsive Teachers • Value cultural diversity as well as cultural similarities • Are caring, committed, and respectful • See themselves as agents of change • Assume responsibility for providing students with empowering instruction • Are aware of the influence cultural knowledge that children bring to school has in their way of thinking, behaving, being, and learning • Learn about the lives of their students and students’ experiences outside school

34. Families and Communities • Culturally responsive schools reach out to families and communities as valued, respected partners. • Families and communities possess rich and varied “funds of knowledge” upon which learning experiences should be built.

35. Students • Culturally responsive educators focus on students’ potential and strengths. • Children start school ready to learn (though not necessarily in the ways teachers expect). • Culturally and linguistically diverse children living in poverty come to school with a variety of background experiences and from complex circumstances—students’ backgrounds are assets that students can and should use in the service of their learning.

36. Klingner, J. K., Artiles, A. J., Kozleski, E., Harry, B., Zion, S., Tate, W., Durán, G. Z., & Riley, D. (2005). Addressing the disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education through culturally responsive educational systems. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 13(38). Retrieved [date] from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v13n38/.

37. www.nccrest.org

38. Matthew’s Dream • I have a dream that there will be no more wars. There will be no more fighting, throw away the drugs. I have a dream that one day there will be no more rich people poor people. We will all be equal. I have a dream that we will all wear helmets with our stoooters and bikes.