Culturally Proficient Learning Communities


Book Description

Integrating the four Tools of Cultural Proficiency with the PLC framework, this guide provides school leaders with practical strategies for building equity-focused PLCs to help all students achieve.




Cultural Proficiency


Book Description

This powerful third edition offers fresh approaches that enable school leaders to engage in effective interactions with students, educators, and the communities they serve.




Culturally Proficient Learning Communities


Book Description

Close the achievement gap with equity-focused professional learning communities! Integrating the four Tools of Cultural Proficiency with the PLC framework, this relevant guide offers school leaders, district administrators, and staff developers a collaborative approach to address bias and inequity. The authors discuss the impact of our history on cultural understanding and provide a wealth of practical strategies and tools for building equity-focused PLCs, including: Templates, protocols, activities, and rubrics for deconstructing inequity in student achievement Stories, tools, and thinking prompts to guide an inside-out transformation toward cultural proficiency An extended example of one school district’s journey




Culturally Proficient Instruction


Book Description

Are you doing all you can to improve teaching and learning? Culturally proficient instruction is the result of an inside-out journey of teaching and learning during which you explore your values and behaviors while evaluating the policies and practices of your workplace. The journey deepens your understanding of yourself and your community of practice. In the newest version of their best-selling book, the authors invite you to reflect on how you engage with your students and your colleagues as a community of learners. The third edition features a case study to show cultural proficiency in practice and: An updated discussion of standards-based education guidelines A conceptual framework for the tools of cultural proficiency New language for understanding the microaggressions of dominant cultures An integrated guide for use with study groups Each chapter contains reflective activities and group work conducive to collaborative professional development. Culturally Proficient Instruction is invaluable for anyone dedicated to creating an environment in which all learners can succeed.




Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain


Book Description

A bold, brain-based teaching approach to culturally responsive instruction To close the achievement gap, diverse classrooms need a proven framework for optimizing student engagement. Culturally responsive instruction has shown promise, but many teachers have struggled with its implementation—until now. In this book, Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain-compatible culturally responsive instruction. The book includes: Information on how one’s culture programs the brain to process data and affects learning relationships Ten “key moves” to build students’ learner operating systems and prepare them to become independent learners Prompts for action and valuable self-reflection




Leading Change Through the Lens of Cultural Proficiency


Book Description

"Leading Change through the Lens of Cultural Proficiency is rooted in the proven tools of Cultural Proficiency and a case study of an actual P-12 school district that contended with its own approach to teaching and valuing students of diverse backgrounds. Using vignettes focused on community engagement, leadership, implementation frameworks, and collaborative professional learning communities, the authors demonstrate and recommend organizational changes necessary for uncovering and remedying inequities like those described above. The book is designed to support school leaders in developing policies and fostering practices that respond to the educational and social needs of all students"--




A Culturally Proficient Response to LGBT Communities


Book Description

High impact strategies to improve student outcomes Positive systemic change begins when school leaders elevate understanding and propel schools toward safe and diverse-friendly environments. To combat anti-gay discrimination, educators often use silence, policy, legislation and compliance. This brave book maintains that building safe and welcoming schools begins not only with effective and appropriate policy but also with inside-out analysis of one’s own beliefs and values. Resulting cultural proficiencies boost empathy and improve learning environments. On this simple premise, readers will find: Inside-out growth through personal stories and case-studies Reflection through activities appropriate for individuals and teams Insight through current responses to bullying




Culturally Proficient Leadership


Book Description

Becoming a culturally proficient leader requires the kind of courage, clarity, and insight that can only come from looking inward first. It’s a personal learning journey of will and skill, and if you’re up to the challenge, one that will change how you see your school, your students, and yourself as you build your own cultural competence. Consider this second edition of Culturally Proficient Leadershipyour personal road map for navigating that journey. Each chapter of Culturally Proficient Leadership invites you to put your experiences up front and challenges you to reframe your story based on multiple viewpoints—now, notably, with the addition of new coauthors Delores Lindsey and Eloise Kemp Terrell, who have their own remarkable stories and insight to share. Overall, all four authors will help you answer the critical question “Is what we say what we do?” utilizing the tools of Cultural Proficiency to engage in Reflections and Cultural Interviews to explore what you learn about those who are culturally different from you develop a Cultural Autobiography to provide a picture of the cultural memberships that have influenced who you are as a person use the Cultural Proficiency Continuum to examine your progress as a leader in serving your students and communities prepare an intentional Leadership Plan that summarizes your journey from Cultural Precompetence to Cultural Proficiency The central “inside-out” premise of Cultural Proficiency is that engaging in deep introspection around one’s personal beliefs, values, and behaviors in response to human differences is the first step toward systemic educational reform. We invite you to embark on this journey of self-awareness, of moral courage, and of the life-affirming power of human diversity. “I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together—unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and may not come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction: toward a better future for our children and our grandchildren.” —Barack Obama, Los Angeles Times, 2008




Culturally Proficient Inquiry


Book Description

Use inquiry to promote equity and transform your school’s educational environment! Using cultural proficiency as a lens, the authors guide practitioners through the process of gathering and analyzing data to meet the needs of historically underserved students. This book outlines a critical evaluation process and provides rubrics to examine why some students are not being educated to their full potential. With a CD-ROM of tables and spreadsheets for data entry, the book show educators how to: Encourage discussions about educational equity Create a realistic picture of a school's cultural and economic diversity Initiate authentic systemic change Effectively respond to NCLB mandates




Culturally Responsive School Leadership


Book Description

Culturally Responsive School Leadership focuses on how school leaders can effectively serve minoritized students—those who have been historically marginalized in school and society. The book demonstrates how leaders can engage students, parents, teachers, and communities in ways that positively impact learning by honoring indigenous heritages and local cultural practices. Muhammad Khalifa explores three basic premises. First, that a full-fledged and nuanced understanding of “cultural responsiveness” is essential to successful school leadership. Second, that cultural responsiveness will not flourish and succeed in schools without sustained efforts by school leaders to define and promote it. Finally, that culturally responsive school leadership comprises a number of crucial leadership behaviors, which include critical self-reflection; the development of culturally responsive teachers; the promotion of inclusive, anti-oppressive school environments; and engagement with students’ indigenous community contexts. Based on an ethnography of a school principal who exemplifies the practices and behaviors of culturally responsive school leadership, the book provides educators with pedagogy and strategies for immediate implementation.