Handout 1.1
Consider these areas of the cultural competence model
(wheel) that we will be focusing on today:
Become Self-Aware (WILL):
● To better understand the profound
impact of our values, beliefs, practices,
and assumptions on the students we
serve
● To recognize that we bring our race
and culture to every interaction and
relationship
Accept Institutional Responsibility
(SKILL):
● We recognize and believe our own
practices and beliefs are the leverage
points for change
● We commit to adapting our school to the
diversity of our students
● We build the capacity of staff to use
cultural knowledge in their day-to-day
interactions with students and families
● Adapting...
Lead, Model, and Advocate for Equity
Practices (SKILL):
● Stand up to inequities while
simultaneously inviting others into
collective learning
● Be courageous leaders in this work by
acknowledging and accepting personal
responsibility
● Lasting system change requires directed
attention at multiple levels
● Make commitments and follow through
on commitments
Handout 1.2
CULTIVATING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICES ACROSS YOUR SYSTEM
Action Plan & Commitment
Direction: List the professional learning opportunities you, your team, and/or your school has
engaged in around culturally responsive practices (e.g. book study; RtI Center Culturally Responsive
Practices training, site visit).
Handout 1.3
CULTIVATING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICES ACROSS YOUR SYSTEM
Action Plan & Commitment
Directions: List the qualitative and quantitative strategies and actions you will take personally
or as a team to become self-aware, accept institutional responsibility, and lead, model and advocate
for equity practices?
Area of Focus
What Qualitative (Heart) SelfMonitoring Strategies Will You
Use to Measure Your Actions?
What Quantitative (Head) SelfMonitoring Strategies Will You
Use to Measure Your Actions?
What Do the Data
Conversations Look
Like?
Consider examples given in this
session
Consider examples given in this
session
Structural Equities
Students and
Families See
Themselves as Part
of the School
How We Collect,
Look at and Make
Decisions Around
Data?
Team Norms &
Roles
Handout 1.4
CULTIVATING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICES ACROSS YOUR SYSTEM
Action Plan & Commitment
Direction: List the qualitative (heart) and quantitative (head) strategies you will personally
implement and the actions you commit to taking with your team to become self-aware, accept
institutional responsibility, and lead, model and advocate for equity practices?
Area of Focus
What Qualitative (Heart) SelfMonitoring Strategies Will You
Use to Measure Your Actions?
What Quantitative (Head) SelfMonitoring Strategies Will You Use
to Measure Your Actions?
What Do the
Data
Conversations
Look Like?
Strategies before the meeting:
Conversational strategies about
students:



Ask/Discuss how your own
background could affect the
meeting process or discussion
Ask “What does it mean for you to
teach/work with others who are
from a different culture than you?
Ask/Discuss the process of the
team’s thinking prior to engaging in
conversations about students and
families
Strategies during the meeting:





Ask yourselves “Who is benefitting
from this meeting?”
Share “We want to hear your
voice/opinion” at least twice during
each meeting with a family member
Clarify the parent/family member’s
values about a particular behavior
or strategy
Listen attentively and then validate
and affirm what students,
parents/families, and/or
community members are saying.
Allow two or three people to speak
before you speak.
Strategies after the meeting:



“How many assumptions did we
make about culture during the
meeting?
“What assumptions did we make
about culture during the meeting?”
Ask “Does our conversations align
to our beliefs, vision, and mission?
Are we who we say we are? What is
our most recent evidences?




Number of strength-based versus
deficit-based comments about a
student, parent and/or family
Number of times someone said “those
kids”, “them” versus “us” or “we”
How many assumptions were made
during the meeting?
How many times did we act on our
assumptions during the meeting?
Conversational strategies about
parents and families:



Number of times parents were
validated and affirmed during a
meeting about their child
Number of times family (member) is
blamed during a discussion about a
student
Number of times the family member’s
viewpoint is sought during a meeting
about their child
Structural
Equities









Students and
Families See
Themselves as
Part of the
School



Ask yourself: Who has the power
and privilege in this situation? In
this meeting?
Are locations for the discussions
easily accessible, familiar, and
comfortable for everyone involved
(especially the family)?
Does family have control over the
time, place, and location of the
meeting?
Have we honored the assets
students and families bring to our
school?
Are all racial/ethnic groups who are
affected by the decision/practice at
the table?
How will the proposed
decision/practice affect each group?
How will the decision/practice be
perceived by each group?
Does the decision/practice worsen
or ignore existing disparities?
Based on the above responses, what
revisions are needed in the
decision/practice under discussion?
Staff meeting: Do we reflect the
norms of all cultures in our school
or only the norms of the dominant
culture?
Ask underserved students how they
perceive school and what would
make them feel valued?
Identify action steps and hold to
them by assigning roles for follow
through and checking back at each
meeting





Number of meetings with
representation of those most affected
by the disparity?
Number of times parent chose the
meeting location… the meeting time
Do families engage in both written and
verbal participation?
Do parents join you in doing walk
throughs of the school? Do they plan
with you on how to make
improvements?
Count the number of places in the
school/classroom where students see
themselves, and their future selves, as
positive, belonging and valued
(quarterly counts, for example)
How We
Collect, Look
at and Make
Decision
Around Data



Every data conversation considers
an equity lens
Every type of data – student
achievement, behavior data,
graduation rates, attendance...
Everyone involved is part of making
meaning of the data/interpreting it



Number of different perspectives
sought before a decision is made about
a student(s)
Climate Survey Data - What inequities
do we see in the data? What actions will
we take to address the inequities?
Look at more than one form of data to
identify disproportionality:
1. Office Disciplinary Referrals
2. Subjective referrals for
disproportionality
3. Consistency - Same data over time
4. Consider outliers versus
averages/means
Team Norms
& Roles

Ask “Who benefits from our norms
and roles?”
5. Different formulas/calculations of
risk…(e.g. risk ratio, composite
index, risk index, etc.)
 How many times have we questioned
whether our team norms and roles are
changing the way we conduct business?
 How many times have we refined our
team norms and roles to support us in
moving toward equity practices?