Teaching ToleranceCulturally Responsive Teaching

Awards Celebration

December 9, 2011Washington, D.C.

In association with:

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PRESENTING ORGANIZATIONSThe Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a nonprofit organization that combats hate,

intolerance and discrimination through litigation, investigative journalism, and education. With its Teaching Tolerance project, the SPLC reached out to the next generation to promote respect for diversity. Founded in 1991, Teaching Tolerance is dedicated to reducing prejudice, improving intergroup relations, and supporting equitable school experiences for our nation’s children. Teaching Tolerance magazine is sent to 450,000 educators, reaching every school in the country, twice annually. Online, in print, and in person, the project works with districts and schools across the country to equip teachers with the skills and dispositions required in their work with students from diverse backgrounds.

Teaching Tolerance teaching materials have won two Oscars, an Emmy, and dozens of honors from the Association of Education Publishers, including two Golden Lamp Awards, the industry’s highest honor.

Education Week Teacher, a part of Editorial Projects in Education, is an interactive service providing news, resources, and professional community for teacher leaders. Launched in 2007, Teacher has become a dynamic and

trusted forum where classroom professionals can learn about, reflect on, and contribute to conversations on instructional practice and policy.

For more than 40 years, Walden University has supported working professionals in achieving their academic goals and making a greater impact in their professions and their communities. Walden’s Richard W.

Riley College of Education and Leadership, named for the former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, is committed to providing programs and specializations that help enhance educator effectiveness and student success. Our degree programs connect learners with nationally recognized education experts, researchers, and scholars and supports the needs of educators at all levels and stages of their profession.

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WELCOMEDear Education Leader,

Welcome to the Teaching Tolerance Culturally Responsive Teaching Awards Celebration. Education Week Teacher, a part of Editorial Projects in Education, is proud to be a partner in this special event and to help honor five extraordinary teachers. We hope the afternoon is both informative and inspirational for you.

With achievement gaps persisting and school enrollments becoming increasingly diverse, educators urgently need to identify and develop effective ways to improve learning experiences for students from minority backgrounds. The presentations and discussions today, in keeping with our own editorial mission of facilitating knowledge-sharing around key instructional issues, are designed to help education leaders explore and reflect on the unique needs of students from diverse backgrounds. In addition, we hope to highlight strategies and policy shifts that are helping educators and school leaders connect with these students to boost academic achievement and engagement.

Of course, the teachers being honored here today offer the greatest lessons on enhancing learning for culturally diverse students. By valuing differing contexts for learning and tapping into their students’ strengths, they have made their classrooms, to paraphrase current National Teacher of the Year Michelle Shearer, places “that really [are] for every student.”

We are honored to join Teaching Tolerance and all our guests today in highlighting and learning from their work.

Sincerely,

Anthony Rebora Managing Editor Education Week Teacher

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AGENdA 2:00 p.m. Welcome and Introductory Remarks

• MAUREEN COSTELLO, Director, Teaching Tolerance

• WILLIS B. HAWLEY, Professor Emeritus of Education and Public Policy, the University of Maryland

• KATE STEFFENS, Dean of The Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership, Walden University

2:15 p.m. Awards PresentationTeacher Awardees• SILvESTRE ARCOS

• SONIA GALAvIz

• KATY LACROIx

• AMBER MAKAIAU

• TRACY OLIvER-GARY

2:45 p.m. Panel discussionUnderstanding Culturally Responsive Teaching• SONIA GALAvIz, Teacher, Endeavor Elementary

School, Nampa, Idaho

• JACqUELINE JORDAN IRvINE, Charles Howard Candler Professor Emerita of Urban Education in the Division of Educational Studies, Emory University

• CAROL R. JOHNSON, Superintendent, Boston Public Schools

MODERATOR: ANTHONY REBORA, Managing Editor, Education Week Teacher

3:30 p.m. Networking BreakCAFé 9, Ninth Floor

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3:45 p.m. Panel discussionCulturally Responsive Schools: Policy and Leadership Perspectives• RUSSLYNN ALI, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights,

U.S. Department of Education

• A. WADE BOYKIN, Professor of Psychology, Director of the Developmental Psychology Graduate Program. Howard University

• JUDITH C. RICHARDSON, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Urban Initiatives, National Association of Secondary School Principals

MODERATOR: LIANA HEITIN, Associate Editor, Education Week Teacher

4:30 p.m. Keynote Address“Celebrating Culturally Responsive Teachers: Learning What It Takes to Teach All Children Well”SONIA NIETO, Professor Emerita of Language, Literacy, and Culture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the author of Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education

5:00 p.m. Wine and Cheese ReceptionCAFé 9, Ninth Floor

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KEYNOTE AddRESSSonia NietoProfessor Emerita of Language, Literacy, and Culture School of Education University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Nieto was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., and educated in the New York City Public Schools. She became a junior high school teacher of English, Spanish, and ESL in Ocean Hill/Brownsville, Brooklyn, and in 1968 took a job at P.S. 25 in the Bronx, the first fully bilingual school

in the Northeast. Her first position in higher education was as an instructor in the department of Puerto Rican studies at Brooklyn College, where she taught in a bilingual education teacher-preparation program co-sponsored with the school of education.

Nieto taught students at all levels, from elementary through graduate school, and she continues to speak and write on multicultural education, teacher preparation, the education of Latinos, and other culturally and linguistically diverse student populations. Her book Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education (6th ed, 2012, with co-author Patty Bode), is widely used in teacher-preparation and in-service courses. Her other books include: The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities (1999, 2010); Language, Culture, and Teaching (2002, 2010); What Keeps Teachers Going? (2003); and three edited volumes, Puerto Rican Students in U.S. Schools (2000), Why We Teach (2005), and Dear Paulo: Letters From Those Who Dare Teach (2008).

In addition to serving as an advisory member on many boards and editorial boards, she is also a trustee of the Center for Applied Linguistics; Mass Humanities (Massachusetts’ affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities); and the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts. She has received many awards for her scholarship, advocacy, and activism, including the 1997 Multicultural Educator of the Year Award from the National Association for Multicultural Education; an Annenberg Institute Senior Fellowship (1998-2000); the Outstanding Language Arts Educator of the Year from the National Council of Teachers of English (2005); the 2008 Social Justice in Education Award from the American Educational Research Association; and honorary doctorates from Lesley University (1999), Bridgewater State College (2004), DePaul University (2007), and Manhattanville College (2009). She was named a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association in 2011.

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PANELISTSRusslynn AliAssistant Secretary for Civil Rights U.S. Department of Education

As assistant secretary, Ali is U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s primary adviser on civil rights and is responsible for enforcing U.S. civil rights laws as they pertain to education—ensuring the nation’s schools, colleges, and universities receiving federal funding do not engage in discriminatory conduct related to race, sex, disability or age.

Prior to joining the department, Ali served as vice president of the Education Trust in Washington, D.C., and as the founding executive director of the Education Trust—West in Oakland, Calif. In those positions, she advocated for public school students in California, focusing on achievement and opportunity gaps separating low-income African-American and Latino students from their peers; worked with school districts to improve curriculum and instructional quality at high-poverty and high-minority public schools; and designed, field-tested, and implemented comprehensive audit tools that examined inequities in schools and districts. She was a member of the review board of the Broad Prize in Urban Education, was appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Education Excellence and the Curriculum and Instruction Committee of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, and received the Aspen Institute’s New Schools Entrepreneurial Leaders for Public Education Fellowship.

Previously, Ali was a teacher, and served as the liaison for the president of the Children’s Defense Fund, as assistant director of policy and research at the Broad Foundation, and as chief of staff to the president of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education.

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A. Wade BoykinProfessor of Psychology Director of the Developmental Psychology Graduate Program Howard University

Boykin is a professor of psychology and director of the graduate program in the Department of Psychology at Howard University. He is also the executive director of Capstone Institute at Howard University, formally known as the Center for Research on the Education of

Students Placed at Risk. Boykin has done extensive work in the area of research methodology; the interface of culture, context, motivation, and cognition; black child development; and academic achievement in the American social context. He is co-editor of the book Research Directions of Black Psychologists, which was a finalist for the American Psychological Association’s Book of the Year. He is currently completing an entry for the Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education entitled “Talent Development Model of Schooling,” and just recently completed a co-authored book, Creating the Opportunity to Learn: Moving from Research to Practice to Close the Achievement Gap. In addition, Boykin has done research and evaluation projects and conducted workshops on topics such as school reform, culturally responsive pedagogy, and minority student achievement, for several school districts in this country and abroad.

Jacqueline Jordan IrvineCharles Howard Candler Professor Emerita Emory University

Irvine is the Charles Howard Candler Professor Emerita at Emory University and an elected member of the National Academy of Education. Dr. Irvine’s specialization is in multicultural education and urban teacher education, particularly the education of African Americans. Her books include Black Students and School Failure, Growing Up African American in

Catholic Schools, Critical Knowledge for Diverse Students, Culturally Responsive Lesson Planning for Elementary and Middle Grades, In Search of Wholeness: African American Teachers and Their Culturally Specific Pedagogy, and Seeing with the Cultural Eye.

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In addition to these books, she has published numerous articles and book chapters and presented hundreds of papers to professional education and community organizations. Some of her awards and recognitions include: American Educational Research Association (AERA)’s Outstanding Achievement Award – Research Focus on Black Education (RFBE) Special Interest Group; Distinguished Career Award from Committee on the Role and Status of Minorities; Dewitt-Wallace/AERA Lecture Award; President’s Distinguished Service Award from the AERA: RFBE Special Interest Group; the AERA Social Justice Award; Division G’s award for Outstanding Service in the Preparation of the Next Generation, and Division K’s Legacy Award. The American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education has recognized her work with the Outstanding Writing Award; the Charles W. Hunt Lecture; and the Lindsay Award for Distinguished Research in Teacher Education. Emory University noted Dr. Irvine’s accomplishments with The Distinguished Emory University Faculty Lecture and Award; the Thomas Jefferson Award, an award given at commencement to a faculty member for contributions in research and service; and the Crystal Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching Graduate Education. In 2010, she was presented an alumni award at Howard University’s Charter Day for Distinguished Postgraduate Achievement.

Carol R. JohnsonSuperintendent Boston Public Schools

Johnson has been superintendent of the 56,000-student Boston Public Schools since August 2007. Under her leadership, the district has focused on closing achievement and access gaps, as well as graduating all students prepared for college and career success. Boston currently has its lowest dropout rate in over two decades, and BPS students most recently outperformed

their urban peers in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Johnson serves on the board of directors of the Council of the Great City Schools, the Spencer Foundation board, and the Harvard University Urban Superintendents’ advisory board, and she has served on the College Board.

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Judith C. RichardsonDirector of Diversity, Equity, and Urban Initiatives National Association of Secondary School Principals

In her current position, Richardson works with school leadership teams on ways to apply local assessment data to drive equitable education reform. She also helps principals and school leaders identify best practice resources for leading diverse schools and assessment tools for

equitable school improvement.

Richardson is the principal author of the 2011 NASSP second edition publication, Making the Mathematics Curriculum Count: A Guide for Middle Level and High School Principals. She was previously a secondary principal in the District of Columbia Public Schools, where she initiated a national award-winning STEM-business partnership. In addition, she has served as a central office administrator, principal mentor, assistant principal, program director, mathematics chairperson, and teacher.

In all her work, Richardson aims to guide school improvement by focusing on strategies for implementing rigorous curriculum, making learning personal, creating a culturally rich environment, closely monitoring instruction, targeting staff development, and utilizing disaggregated standardized test data in program design.

Richardson has served as assessment team chairperson for the Middle States Accreditation Association, program evaluator for the MetLife Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough Schools program, and as a full- and part-time mathematics professor at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of the District of Columbia. She has written mathematics and computer science curriculum textbooks and a criterion-test construction manual.

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AWARdEESSilvestre ArcosMiddle School Math Teacher The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, Bronx, N.Y.

When he first surveyed the program for English-language learners at his school, Arcos—who holds an MA in bilingual/bi-cultural education from Teachers College at Columbia University—was disappointed by the use of the traditional, “subtractive” model of weaning students from their first language as they learn English. The

English-only focus had caused “a serious divide,” he says. In 2007, Arcos’ principal asked him to direct a new, dual-language program that would emphasize cross-cultural learning and the development of Spanish-language as well as English skills. As a result, the students have a renewed respect for both languages and soaring proficiency scores. “We do not see them coming in with zero knowledge,” says Arcos of Spanish-dominant students. “We see them coming in with a wealth of knowledge. They are just adding a second language to their repertoire.”

Sonia Galaviz5th Grade Teacher Endeavor Elementary School, Nampa, Idaho

Galaviz’s school serves many students from low-income families and has the highest English-language learning population in her district. “Building relationships is at the heart of my pedagogy,” says Galaviz, who holds a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction (bilingual ed. emphasis) from Boise State University. She starts by visiting the homes of each of her students

during the first two weeks of school to learn more about each student’s hidden strengths and how to work best with their families. In class, Galaviz supplements the curriculum with authentic materials and experiences that reflect the cultures of her Mexican-American, Asian, Native American, and white Idahoan students. Galaviz sees her approach to teaching as a responsibility. “I don’t have the right to ask families to invest in my classroom if not investing in them first,” she says. And her students show very few behavior issues. “They know I’m invested,” she says with a laugh. “I know where they live!”

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Katy LaCroixLiteracy Specialist and 4th and 5th Grade TeacherLogan Elementary School, Ann Arbor, Mich.

In addition to teaching an ethnically and academically diverse mix of students, LaCroix—who holds a master’s degree in educational leadership from Eastern Michigan University—heads up her school’s “equity team,” a group of faculty members that meets throughout the year to share culturally inclusive teaching strategies. One of her key strategies is to learn as much

as she can about her students. She does this in part by going to lunch with them and, when she’s invited, attending important events outside of school—like church services and basketball games. “This strategy is at the heart of culturally relevant teaching,” she says. “Using what I know about my students, I can incorporate their interests, hopes, and aspirations into my classroom.” This also helps Logan’s equity team evaluate and revise its methods. Elementary students “are often hesitant to share their feelings about race,” says LaCroix. “But we want to keep them talking.”

Amber MakaiauSocial Studies Teacher Kailua High School, Oahu, Hawaii

Makaiau teaches “Hawaiian” students, meaning those from native Polynesian populations as well as those from around the Pacific Rim, including Japan and China. Her students, most of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds, often struggle to understand what “being Hawaiian means.” Today, they are addressing that struggle through an innovative course in ethnic studies

that Makaiau, who has a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Hawaii, helped to develop. Now mandatory for 9th graders, the course has been successful in reducing school violence and violence-related suspensions. Students see it as successful as well. In a recent essay, one student wrote, “I blossomed into something more [in this class]; my growth increases every day. … I am a girl who honors all of my family names, I am a proud leader, and I am Hawaiian.”

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Tracy Oliver-GaryHistory Teacher Paint Branch High School, Burtonsville, Md.

Oliver-Gary teaches open enrollment AP history classes to a mix of Asian, African, Latino, black, and white students, ensuring that all students have opportunities to tackle rigorous content. She believes that any teacher working with a diverse group of students faces a learning curve. “One thing I had to learn is that just because I’m black doesn’t mean I know how to teach black

kids,” says Oliver-Gary, who has been a teacher for 12 years. With more diverse classrooms—both in terms of academic skill and ethnicity—Oliver-Gary says she “had to be more intentional” in her teaching. For instance, despite studies showing that students of color—including black and Latino students—work well in groups, she has often found that “some students just really hate to work with other kids.” She now creates lesson plans as diverse as her students. And Oliver-Gary often finds herself teaching study skills as well as the curriculum. But she has learned how to access her talent for teaching in new ways. Giving her students a voice, she says, also allows her to “paint a picture of their future.”

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PARTICIPANTSMatthew CibellisEvents Content Manager Education Week

Cibellis spearheads programming for live and virtual events as Education Week’s events content manager. Before joining the Editorial Projects in Education team in 2010, Cibellis served as the public-outreach officer for Reading Is Fundamental, the nation’s largest and oldest children’s-literacy organization, where he conceived, organized, and executed a wide variety of public-awareness campaigns. His work included

press conferences, panels, Capitol Hill outreach, regional gatherings, book fairs, open-air festivals, promotional video production, and RIF’s presence at major education conferences. His previous experience includes brand-promotions work at the Post-Newsweek Tech Media Group and the children’s-book publisher Magination Press, a division of the American Psychological Association. In addition, Cibellis was the festival director for a Washington-based film festival and a television production associate for “America’s Most Wanted.”

Maureen CostelloDirector Teaching Tolerance

Costello leads the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance program, one of the nation’s leading providers of anti-bias education resources. Costello oversees all aspects of the program, including the award-winning Teaching Tolerance magazine, the development of multimedia teaching kits, professional development resources, and special projects. Under Costello’s guidance,

Teaching Tolerance produced its most popular documentary and teaching kit, Bullied: A Student, a School and a Case That Made History. Before joining the SPLC, Costello oversaw development of the 2010 Census in Schools program for Scholastic Inc., in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau. For eight years, she directed Newsweek’s education program, which was dedicated to engaging high school and college students in public issues. She served as academic dean at Notre Dame Academy High School in Staten Island, N.Y., where she also taught history and economics. As a teacher, she worked with both the Advanced Placement Program and the New York State Regents on assessment-related projects.

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Willis d. HawleyProfessor Emeritus of Education and Public Policy at the University of Maryland Director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Diverse Students Initiative

Hawley taught political science at Yale and Duke Universities before becoming dean of Peabody College at vanderbilt University. He has been scholar-in-residence at the American Association of School Administrators, executive director of the National Partnership for Excellence and

Accountability, and founding director of the Common Destiny Alliance. His many publications deal with enhancing the learning opportunities of racially and ethnically diverse students, education of teachers, teaching quality, school reform, urban politics, political learning, organizational change, school reform, school desegregation, and educational policy.

Kate SteffensDean of The Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership Walden University

Steffens is the dean of The Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership at Walden University. Formerly, she was the dean of the College of Education at St. Cloud State University, where she also served as associate dean, assessment director, interim associate vice president for academic affairs, and as a special education faculty member.

Steffens also taught at Bemidji State University and held several roles at the University of Minnesota.

Steffens has a strong commitment to accreditation. She served as co-chair of the St. Cloud State University’s Higher Learning Commission Accreditation Review, and she is now a member and chair of The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education’s Board of Examiners as well as a national consultant on assessment and accreditation.

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MOdERATORSLiana HeitinAssociate Publisher Education Week Teacher

Heitin is the associate editor of Education Week Teacher and the Teacher PD Sourcebook, as well as a contributing reporter for Education Week. She previously taught students with special needs as a public school teacher, reading specialist, and private tutor. She has a master’s degree in cross-categorical special education and works as a freelance Web editor for LD OnLine, a website on

learning disabilities and ADHD. Liana’s writing was featured in the book, The Ultimate Teacher: The Best Experts’ Advice for a Noble Profession.

Anthony ReboraManaging Editor Education Week Teacher

Rebora is the managing editor of Education Week Teacher and the Teacher PD Sourcebook. In this position, he oversees development and aggregation of content specifically targeted to classroom professionals. Under his leadership, Teacher has grown into a multi-dimensional provider of service-oriented and peer-to-peer content for K-12 educators.

Rebora has written numerous feature articles on K-12 education issues and teacher professional development, and has moderated dozens of Web chats and webinars designed to help schools enhance instructional practice. He has also been a presenter at New York Channel 13’s Celebration of Teaching and Learning conference and Learning Forward’s annual conference. He is co-author and editor of the Education Week blog Teaching Now.

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NOTES

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