By Cora Goldston
October 28, 2020
Recent national conversations have been important catalysts for acknowledging and addressing systemic racism and inequities, including inequities in our education system. To effectively serve diverse students, educators must understand and be responsive to their students’ unique contexts and needs. Browse these resources from across the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) network for evidence-based recommendations to support culturally responsive practices.
Cultural awareness in practice
- A REL Mid-Atlantic webinar describes the research on effective strategies to promote culturally responsive instruction.
- REL Midwest produced a three-part blog series about cultural competency in education as part of our work to close opportunity gaps. The series features interviews with an elementary school principal and a state American Indian education director, along with research-based practices that teachers can use in their classrooms:
- A webinar hosted by REL Northeast and Islands explores the connections among culturally responsive education, literacy skills, and college and career readiness.
- As part of an archived REL Northwest workshop, Dr. Anne Gregory from Rutgers University presented strategies for culturally responsive problem solving in the classroom. Another REL Northwest webinar highlights the benefits of integrating cultural responsiveness into both teaching and school leadership practices.
Data use to inform culturally responsive education
- REL Midwest hosted an event with Wisconsin educators on using school data to understand opportunity gaps and identifying culturally responsive practices to address the gaps.
- A two-part REL Northeast and Islands virtual workshop series explores the use of data to inform culturally responsive pedagogy, including supporting a culturally responsive approach to data literacy in the preparation of teachers and using data to promote culturally responsive teaching.
Culturally responsive pedagogy and teacher preparation
REL Mid-Atlantic has developed several resources related to understanding culturally responsive teaching practices and preparing teachers to support the needs of diverse learners:
- A fact sheet highlights effective and culturally responsive practices [592 KB
], along with considerations for implementing the practices. - A webinar presents research and teacher perspectives to prepare educators for teaching diverse groups of students.
- A four-part webinar series describes research on culturally responsive teaching practices and how to put those practices into action:
- A framework for educational equity and culturally responsive pedagogy
- Research and practice in culturally responsive pedagogy and sustaining systemic changes
- Implementing district and school policies and practices to support culturally responsive pedagogy
- Developing culturally responsive educators in pre-service programs
Responsive practices to support specific student populations or subjects
- A REL Northeast and Islands webinar highlights steps educators can take to create a culturally and linguistically appropriate multi-tiered system of support for English learner students.
- A REL Northwest webinar describes strategies to create supportive learning environments for diverse students from prekindergarten through grade 3.
- REL Southwest developed a webinar on resources for providing culturally responsive education for Native American students, including resources from the National Indian Education Association and resources from the Center on Standards & Assessment Implementation.
Ask A REL responses
The Ask a REL reference desk service has compiled research citations on several topics related to culturally responsive education:
- State policies and programs to promote culturally responsive instruction, equity and inclusion, and positive school climates and to counter implicit bias in schools (REL Appalachia)
- Data that can help school administrators understand inequities and make instruction more responsive to students’ needs (REL Mid-Atlantic)
- School leadership practices and culturally responsive education (REL Midwest)
- Effective teacher preparation practices to promote cultural responsiveness (REL Mid-Atlantic)
- Relationship between equity/cultural responsiveness training and school climate (REL Southeast)
- Outcomes of teachers completing cultural competence training (REL Midwest)
- What is known about culturally responsive instruction (REL Mid-Atlantic)
- Relationships between culturally responsive education and student outcomes (REL Midwest)
- Effective strategies for culturally responsive pedagogy (REL Central)
- Use of culturally responsive instruction in middle school math (REL West)
- Measuring culturally responsive math instruction (REL West)
- Using technology to support culturally responsive education (REL Northeast and Islands)
- Using culturally responsive practices to support social and emotional learning (REL Northwest)
- Engaging families in inclusive and culturally responsive ways (REL Appalachia)
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