NSDC: Capron and Nickerson: Expanding Racial Consciousness Colorado Staff Development Council April 10, 2008 Scott Capron Rob Nickerson Expanding Racial.

NSDC: Capron and Nickerson: Expanding Racial Consciousness

Colorado Staff Development Council

April 10, 2008Scott Capron

Rob Nickerson

Expanding Racial Consciousness




Learning Goals: Explore how the dynamics of

student’s race and racial self identity impact learning

Examine how teachers’ consciousness about race and racial self-identity impact their effectiveness



Learning Goals: Explore frameworks and structures for

schools to become more culturally responsive

Examine staff development strategies that support educators in closing achievement gaps


Building A Community

Be Present Allow Disequilibrium Speak Honestly Walk Away with Understanding and

More Questions


Common Terms

In groups, choose two or three of the common terms and discuss your interpretation of them.

How would the teachers in your school define these terms?

Source: Office of Educational Equity, Jefferson County Public Schools


Common Terms Anti-racism Colorblind Equity Ethnicity Institutional Racism Race Racism White Privilege


Common Terms

White PrivilegeInstitutional and cultural preferential

treatment toward people with European ancestry over people of color.


Common Terms RacismRacial prejudice plus institutional and

systemic power to dominate, exclude, discriminate against or abuse targeted groups of people based on a designation of race.

“System of advantage based on race”Beverly Daniel Tatum PH.D


Common Terms

ColorblindMakes race irrelevant and invisible by

erasing racial categories and ignoring differences to achieve an illusory state of equality. A belief in the sameness of humans can deny the existence of differences.


Common Terms

Anti-racismOur conscious and deliberate, individual

and collective action that challenges the impact and perpetuation of institutional White racial power, position, and privilege.


Common Terms

EthnicityA basis for social categories that are

rooted in socially perceived differences in national origin, language, and/or religion.


Common Terms

RaceA classification of humans created by

Whites which assigns the status ‘White' as the height of human achievement for the purpose of maintaining privilege and power.


Common Terms

Institutional RacismThe way institutions systematically afford

White people an array of social, political, and economic advantages, while marginalizing people of color. These institutions generate and maintain racial discrimination, segregation, and inequalities of opportunity that keep people of color apart from the mainstream of American economic and political life.


Common Terms

EquityThe state, quality, or ideal of being just,

impartial, and fair.


Common Terms

Partner Task: Why might it be important to seek

common understanding of vocabulary when talking about equity with colleagues?


Practical Idea #1: Another Layer of Professional Learning

Interview Season

How do we make the Diversity Question truly important?

What answers do we want to hear?


Interview Questions

What are some ways you worked to be culturally responsive in your teaching? Knowledge and understanding of the

community, culture, and use different strategies to meet the needs of various people while maintaining high expectations for all learners.


Interview Questions

What do you understand about the achievement gaps of various racial groups?

Think of a time when the issue of race came up in your classroom, how did you facilitate the conversation?


Colorado Data

Colorado Math and Reading at 3rd and 10th grade disaggregated by race

What do you notice?

Group Task: Share 2 observations per slide


3rd Grade CSAP ReadingColorado 2007

17

6

16 19

5

55

68

5550

72

29

2 210

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Am Indian Asian Black Hispanic White

%Unsat

%Pprof

%Prof

%Adv


10th Grade CSAP ReadingColorado 2007

127

1518

4

28

17

30 31

14

50

61

46 44

67

4

13

3 2

12

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Am Ind Asian Black Hispanic White

%Unsat

%Pprof

%Prof

%Adv


3rd Grade CSAP MathColorado 2007

12

4

1714

3

33

16

3437

17

39 4136 38

46

15

39

13 11

33

0

10

20

30

40

50


%Unsat

% PProf

%Prof

%Adv


10th Grade CSAP MathColorado 2007

47

22

57 55

23

31 3127

3136

14

35

10 10

32

2

11

1 17

0

10

20

30

40

50

60


%Unsat

%Pprof

%Prof

%Adv


Data Reflection

Partner Conversation: What are some factors that contribute

to this data?

What would your colleagues say?


Avoidance Responses

Poverty Family Language Mobility

What about……..race?


SAT Achievement Scores

Average Scores by parental income and race/ethnicity

San Francisco Examiner, June 7, 1998

666

737778

810

711

781

853904899

933 949995

818

925972

1050

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

Below $20,000 $20-40,000 $40-60,000 Above $60,000

Black Latino White Asian


Race

Why not talk about race? How do we keep the conversation

about race and data real?

Partner Task: How do you identify yourself? (1 minute per person)

“The key here is not the kind of instruction but the attitude underlying it. When teachers do not understand the potential of the students they teach, they will underteach them no matter what the methodology.”

Lisa Delpit



Study Group which Evolves to ActionLeadership

Example: Read “Why Do All the Black Kids Sit Together in the Cafeteria” by Beverly Daniel Tattum


Racial Self Identity

The psychological construct of an individual to determine identity based on race in a larger social context. For adolescents, this identity develops in response to messages from peers, adults, family, the media, and the community at large.



Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? By Beverly Daniel Tatum

Defining Racism Multiple Identities Identity Development in Adolescence Understanding Racial Identity Development Developing a healthy sense of white

identity



Text Based Protocol Part I

Read your assigned excerpt Look for two major ideas

Part II Gather in a group where all 6 excerpts

are represented Share the major ideas



Table Group Conversation: Connections to our schools

Do we nurture a positive racial self identity for our students?

What do we need to think about as we nurture positive racial identity in our students?

How might we encourage teachers to talk about racial self identity?


Practical Idea#3: Another Layer of Professional Learning

Placement of Students in Programs (academic and student leadership)

Get involved in the process and ask lots of questions


“Class, race, sexuality, gender and all other categories by which we categorize and dismiss each other need to be excavated from the inside.”

Dorothy Allison


Summary and Break

Insights from the morning

Hopes for our remaining time together


Time to take a pulse:

1. Is there anything that has made you uncomfortable up to this point?

2. What do we do about it?



Analyze and review school norms, policies, and discipline procedures

Are they culturally proficient and equitable?


Culturally Responsive Teaching Teaching and leading in such a way

that more of our students across more of our differences achieve at a higher level and engage at a deeper level more of the time without fundamentally giving up who they are.

Source: Office of Educational Equity, Jefferson County Public Schools


Culturally Responsive Tools

“Cultural Proficiency is a way of being that enables one to effectively respond in a variety of cultural settings to the issues caused by diversity.”

Source: Cultural Proficiency: A Manual for School Leaders page 84.



Table Group Conversation: Reflect on your school and school district

What programs and practices are you using to address culturally responsive teaching?

Describe the informal and formal conversations you have about race?



Essential Elements of Cultural Proficiency Assess Culture: Name the Differences Value Diversity: Claim your Differences Manage the Dynamics of Difference: Frame

the Conflicts Caused by Differences Adapt to Diversity: Change to Make a

Difference Institutionalize Cultural Knowledge: Train

About Differences



Essential Elements of Cultural Proficiency Table Group Task:

Why is this element important? How would this element ‘look’ and ‘sound’

in your school? What is the first step towards making this

element a reality?



Essential Elements of Cultural Proficiency Whole Group Task:

Why is this element important? How would this element ‘look’ and ‘sound’

in your school? What is the first step towards making this

element a reality?



Background of the Continuum Highlight each descriptor

Cultural destructiveness Cultural Incapacity Cultural Blindness Cultural Pre-competence Cultural Competence Cultural Proficiency



How do you respond to elevate consciousness? What questions do you ask?

“Why can’t those kids just act normal?”




“All they want to do is talk to each other in their own language. I know they are talking about me. I make them stop.”




“I know that those kids don’t pay any attention to time, so I let them come in late.”




“For the students with extended absences for family reasons, we are designing a re – entry program.”



Evaluation Cycle – an opportunity to ask questions about interactions with students.

Do we truly promote high expectations and assets based approach?


Racial Perspectives in Literature

Learning Goals: Explore racial perspectives in

literature to make connections with our students of color.

Investigate literature as a strategy for staff development



Joseph Bruchac Sandra Cisneros Paul Laurence Dunbar Langston Hughes Walter Dean Myers Tu-Uyen Nguyen Sherman Alexie



Process: Read your piece of literature Respond to guiding questions Prepare a presentation



Read and Reflect on these Questions: What messages do you hear in the voice of the

author?

What new connections do you make with the message and someone at school?

How does the literature inform us about the impact of race on student achievement?



Prepare a 2 Minute Presentation for the Group

Choose a powerful excerpt from your literature selection that carries the voice

As you read it, physically demonstrate it through motion or still pose



Whole Group: How does exploring literature help us

connect to students?


Summary

Dyads: As we think about today and what we

have heard and talked about: What insights have we gained about our

schools, our students, and our racial consciousness?

What are possibilities for moving forward?

What is your commitment for personal learning and action at school?


Feedback and Thank You

Please provide feedback on our session today and leave it at your table

Thank you for your conversation, time, and commitment


Additional slides section


Gathering a sense of the group. Respond to one of the following questions.

Table Group: 1. Does racism exists in our schools? 2. Do we have evidence that racial self-

identity impacts learning? 3. Do teachers’ lens of race impact student

success? 4. Does the cultural structure of schools

impact students of color? 5. Is it important to talk about the concepts

and nuances of racism?


3rd Grade CSAP ReadingColorado 2006

17

6

20 20

6

56

70

51 49

72

37

2 28

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80


%Unsat

%Pprof

%Prof

%Adv


10th Grade CSAP ReadingColorado 2006

118

1721

5

27

20

31 32

16

52 54

4540

62

5

17

4 3

15

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Am Ind Asian Black Hispanic White

%Unsat

%Pprof

%Prof

%Adv


3rd Grade CSAP MathColorado 2006

11

3

1613

3

30

14

34 35

15

42 4137 39

44

17

42

13 12

38

0

10

20

30

40

50


%Unsat

% PProf

%Prof

%Adv


10th Grade CSAP MathColorado 2006

44

21

57 55

22

37 36

29 31

38

14

32

10 10

33

2

10

0 16

0

10

20

30

40

50

60


%Unsat

%Pprof

%Prof

%Adv

NSDC: Capron and Nickerson: Expanding Racial Consciousness Colorado Staff Development Council April 10, 2008 Scott Capron Rob Nickerson Expanding Racial.

Documents

racial consciousnessnsdc

racial categories

racial consciousnessbuilding

racial selfidentity

racial discrimination

scott capronrob nickerson

white people

people of color