Contexts of Cultural Diversity Professional Development in Schools

This report is part of a larger MERC study on Professional Development for Success in Culturally Diverse Schools.The goals of the larger study are (1) to understand the landscape of diversity within the schools in the MERC region, (2) to consider the implications for school policy and professional practice, (3) to review the current models of professional development that support teachers and other school professionals in regards to issues of cultural diversity, and (4) to develop and test models of professional development that have positive impacts on teacher practice, student outcomes and overall school success. With these goals in mind, this report contains three parts. Part 1 discusses demographic changes in the MERC region and provides historical, political, social, and economic contexts for understanding these changes. Part 2 describes the federal, state, and local policy contexts relevant to cultural diversity within schools, and professional development (PD) related to this topic. This section also reviews research on how policy contexts shape teachers’ decisions to participate in PD. Part 3 reviews existing studies of cultural diversity PD and describes the types of PD programs currently available in the MERC region. In the conclusion to the report, we present a list of recommendations for policy and and for future development and implementation of PD related to cultural diversity. The final section of the report also describes gaps in the existing body of knowledge and the research needed to better understand PD related to cultural diversity

Ripple Effects: How Teacher Action Research on Culturally Relevant Education Can Promote Systemic Change

Teacher action research has been shown to both promote professional growth in teachers as well as produce gains for students. However, to date, little research has examined how action research might contribute to systemic changes in schools and school districts. This qualitative study of six teachers from various districts, subject areas, and grade levels, illustrates how action research can have simultaneous impacts on teachers, their students, and their schools and districts. The teacher action research projects all focused on culturally relevant education and the pursuit of equity. Impacts included teachers’ deepened understandings of equity and inclusivity; students’ diversity awareness, positive self-identities, and access to wider opportunities; and schools’ adoption of equity-focused strategies. The findings suggest that action research on culturally relevant education serves not only as a powerful form of professional development but also as a means to potentially transform schools

Editorial: Learn, by listening to the child in neoliberal schools

This Special Issue for the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies emerged out of a disappointed search for literature on the experiences of neoliberal education as spoken by children and youth. While there is no shortage of work on the reverberations of market ideology within the structures, policies, and practices of schooling in the United States, an overwhelming majority of this is discussed through the reflective hindsight of the adult. Thus, we as editors, purposefully designed this issue to address the marginalization of a constituency who we believe can illuminate the state of schooling in ways that we as adults cannot. In this introduction, we put the child and youth in question by interrogating commonly held beliefs that regard such as natural,determined and predictable life stages defined by colloquial uptakes and developmental theories. With the aim of understanding these concepts as social productions, we present the following nine articles as examples of how children and youth are reclaiming discursive spaces both in and out of school sites, providing adult teachers, teacher educators, and policy-makers with experiential grounds upon which to rethink how neoliberal practices impact them as individual beings

Rebels with a Cause: VCU Student Emergency Fund

The project’s mission is to establish a VCU Student Emergency Fund to support the well-being of students who face financial emergencies and to increase student retention and academic success. The fund will provide financial relief to students facing sudden and unexpected financial hardships that can impact their financial stability, academic success, and ability to remain enrolled at VCU. The project will support the work of student support services personnel administering the fund by providing a campus outreach plan to those who can recognize students in financial crises and refer them to the fund\u27s administrators. The project will also support the work of development personnel who will raise money for the fund by providing a donor outreach plan

Cultural Diversity Professional Development in Schools Survey

This report presents findings from the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) Cultural Diversity Within Schools Survey. This survey was designed for school- based professionals (i.e., teachers, instructional staff, administrators) within the MERC region. Administered in the fall of 2018, the survey collected information about experiences of professional development related to cultural diversity, attitudes toward cultural diversity within schools, perceptions of barriers and opportunities, and perspectives on the need for professional development. Section 1 of the report discusses the context for this survey effort: increased cultural diversity in our schools, increased cultural mismatch between students and teachers, and multicultural education as a promising practice. This is followed in section 2 with information about the survey development and administration process. In section 3, we present the findings from the survey in several subsections that explore group comparisons and results related to the different topics covered in the survey. In section 4, we share recommendations for policy, practice and future scholarship. These recommendations are informed by the relevant literature as well as the results of the survey. The report also includes two appendices: Appendix A presents a full version of the survey, Appendix B provides detailed tables of survey results disaggregated by school division. A third appendix, Appendix C provides technical information about the survey methodology, and is available online

Using standards and high-stakes testing for students : exploiting power with critical pedagogy /

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