MEETING THE CULTURAL

NEEDS OF ALL OF OUR

STUDENTS!
By: Cory Muller

Presentation Points of Emphasis

What do our data tell us about the growth of general education students,
students who have an I.E.P., and students who are culturally diverse?
What do data tell us about students from different ethnic groups?
What can we do to improve to make sure we are meeting the needs of all
our diverse learners?
How can we embrace diversity by implementing it into our curriculum?

MAP SCORES FALL TO WINTER-4th Grade Lake Cable

We are meeting expectations of
growing our general education
students and students with an
individualized education plan.
Only half of students from different
ethnic backgrounds grew from Fall
to Winter.
The number of students represented
is small, but does our curriculum
incorporate diversity?

Gen Ed
I.E.P.
NonCaucasian

% who
grew

# of
students

81

75

100

12

50

12

How we help struggling students!

We communicate constantly with administration
and parents to determine best solutions for
struggling students.
We implement a data team that analyzes
student data brought to them to determine the
best plan of action to help students, who
teachers see as needing extra support.
We determine students who need I.E.P.s and
504s to help them succeed!
After completing a survey of parents, teachers,
and administrators, 98 % of respondents
strongly agreed that we meet the needs of all
our diverse students.
The only issue with this data, is 98% of
respondents were white!
How do we meet the cultural needs of our
students?

Alarming statistics of students from diverse

backgrounds!
Educators are facing a challenge on how to improve learning for our diverse
students.
Carter and Welner (2013) show that only 66% of African American and
Latino students graduate from high school, while 92% of white students
graduate.
Barnet and Lamy (2013) show that many of these students are
disadvantaged: Low socioeconomic status, come from one parent homes,
experience a lack of parent involvement, live in high crime areas, etc.
Schools should represent equity of races, where everyone has equal
opportunities to thrive. We need to find a way to close the gap.
How can we make sure that all students feel like they belong and are
accepted?

Stages of implementing culture into our curriculum

James A. Banks (2013) writes about the Levels of Integration of Multicultural Content.
The elementary buildings need to transform their curriculum in order to meet the needs
of our diverse learners.
Stage 1- Birthdays and Holidays- Here ethnic content is limited to special weeks,
birthdays, or months related to ethnic events and celebrations. This is where we are
currently.
Stage 2 and 3- This would be the next step in changing the way we think about
diversity in our curriculum.
Stage 2 adds concepts, culture, perspectives, and themes without changing curriculum
structure.
Stage 3-The structure of the curriculum is changed to enable students to view concepts,
issues, events, and themes from the perspectives of diverse ethnic and cultural groups.
Many schools believe by incorporating multicultural books, they have met cultural
needs. However, Christine Sleeter (2005) states Even when textbooks look
multicultural on the surface, most present a sanitized view of the world that suggests
everyone is fairly content (p. 87). We need to be cautious as to how we integrate
diversity into our curriculum.
Pamela Joseph (2011) believes cultural goals need to be explicit or obviously stated so
that teachers and students will be able be better able to meet cultural goals.
In order to better meet the learning needs of all of our students, we need to make them
more cultured! We can do this by implementing more culture into our curriculum.

CARE TEAM IMPLEMENTATION

What is it and how do we implement it?

CARE TEAM
Would look similar to our current data teams,
but would focus on the cultural and emotional
needs of the student.
Consists of administrators, counselors,
psychologists, and general education
teachers.
Would include students from different ethnic
backgrounds, religious groups, socioeconomic
statuss, new students to the district, etc.
Most importantly they would discuss
how to implement culture into the
teaching standards.
Implementing culture into the curriculum
would make sure that all students are
culturally aware and become a more culturally
accepting group of young men and women.

WE LEARN WHAT WORKS BEST!

Professional development would be necessary for successful

implementation.

Give teachers some incentive to be a part of the team! This

could be a great way to get new teachers involved in
leadership positions.

We need a deeper understanding of what it means to come

from a diverse background.

Leaders in education that specialize in diverse learning

should be consulted and part of the process of building a
CARE team.

Meet with curriculum directors specializing in implementing

diversity into the curriculum.

The process will not be fast, but it will be beneficial!

How do we transition CARE team into the classroom?

Care team leaders from each school would provide

professional development to all teachers in the district.
This could be done during beginning of the year or end
of year meetings.
Curriculum directors would work with Jackson
instructional coaches to compile a database of diverse
resources that could cover learning standards, while
also incorporating diversity into the classroom.

Benefits of implementing a care team

Makes sure all students feel
culturally accepted.
Provides students with a
meaningful more cultured
education that enriches learning.
Enables teachers to become
involved in leadership positions.
Molds our students into respectful,
culturally accepting adults.
Culture in curriculum will allow our
students to learn how to discuss
difficult subject matters such as
slavery, racism, sexism, etc.

Conclusions
Our data are telling us that we are
meeting the learning needs of our
students.
We are not a diverse school setting, but
we need to implement culture into our
curriculum to mold more well rounded
responsible students.
CARE team would make sure that all
students feel welcome by successfully
integrating diverse learning into our
curriculum. They would also make sure
all students felt safe and culturally
accepted.
Although the process would take some
time, the overall benefits outweigh the
training that would be needed for
successful implementation.

References
Banks, J. A. (n.d.). Multicultural Education, Approaches to Curriculum
Reform.Encyclopedia of
Diversity in Education.
Barnett, S., & Lamy, C. (2013). Closing the opportunity gap what America must do to
give
all children an even chance. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Carter, P., & Welner, K. (Eds.) (2013). Closing the opportunity gap what America
must do to
give all children an even chance. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Joseph, P. B. (2011).Cultures of curriculum. New York, N.Y.: Routledge.
Sleeter, C. E. (2005).Un-standardizing curriculum: Multicultural teaching in the
standards- based classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.