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From: nccrest@cudenver.edu
Date: 07/31/03

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NCCRESt News, the electronic newsletter of the
National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems

Volume 1, Number 2 July 2003
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Welcome to NCCRESt News, the monthly electronic newsletter of the National
Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCRESt). NCCRESt
News keeps you informed of the work of this project and other news and
information related to reducing the disproportionate representation of
culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education. Each
issue features resources, research, events, and examples of educational
practices that facilitate the learning and development of all children.

"?inclusive ways of knowing and living offer us the only true way to
emancipate ourselves from the divisions that limit our minds and
imaginations." --bell hooks

IN THIS ISSUE:
==> Publication Highlight: Guide prepares urban educators to lead change
in their school districts
==> NCCRESt Update: NCCRESt seeks Technical Assistance Coordinator;
NCCRESt's participation at Harvard Institute
==> Events: Harvard's Civil Rights Project (Aug. 30-Sep. 1), Historically
Black Colleges and Universities (Sep. 14-17), Council for Children with
Behavioral Disorders (Oct. 2-4), National Association for Multicultural
Education (Nov. 5-9)
==> Web Site of the Month: Teaching Diverse Learners
==> Culturally Responsive Resource: Ability Profiling and School Failure
==> NCCRESt Support Desk
 
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PUBLICATION HIGHLIGHT

==> New guide prepares urban educators to lead change in their school
districts

The National Institute for Urban School Improvement, a proud partner of
NCCRESt, is pleased to announce the release of a new Leadership Academy
Manual, which was created to help urban schools and school districts
develop the capacity to meet the needs of all learners. In the past several years, the National Institute has hosted
more than 80 leadership academies in school districts across the country.
Based on this experience, it has developed a practical guide to encourage
more schools and school districts to design their own academies as a
strategy for building more inclusive schools and communities.

The Leadership Academy Manual is free and comes complete with:
* guidelines for hosting a leadership academy
* activities and handouts, including sample agendas and evaluation forms
* modules that address improving education, creating building leadership
teams, mining school data, and teaching diverse learners

All of these resources and materials are available for downloading from
the National Institute's Web site: http://www.inclusiveschools.org/lamanual/lamanual.htm.
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NCCRESt UPDATE

==> Position announcement: Technical Assistance Coordinator

The Technical Assistance Coordinator will be responsible for developing,
coordinating, tracking, and reporting on all aspects of NCCRESt's
technical assistance goals and outcomes and providing technical assistance
to states and regional groups. A complete description of this position and
how to apply are available on NCCRESt's Web site: http://www.nccrest.org/job.html.

==> NCCRESt plays major role at Harvard's Summer Institute on teacher
preparation and support

NCCRESt's Principal Investigators' Drs. Elizabeth Kozleski and Alfredo
Artiles and advisory board member Dr. Brenda Townsend were featured
faculty members at this year's Harvard Summer Institute on Critical Issues
in Urban Special Education. Dr. David Riley, NCCRESt's Director of
Networking and Dissemination and Executive Director of the Urban Special
Education Leadership Collaborative, served as co-chair of the institute.
"Preparing and Supporting Teachers of Students with Disabilities" took
place at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, July 14-18, and was
attended by 100 general and special education professionals from across
the country.

Dr. Kozleski, Associate Dean of the School of Education, University of
Colorado, Denver, set the stage for the week with two presentations,
"Quality Teaching and Learning: Teachers and Their Profession" and "What
are the Critical Dimensions of Teaching and How Do Teachers Develop Their
Craft?" Dr. Artiles, Associate Professor, Peabody College at Vanderbilt
University, emphasized the importance of understanding cultural contexts
in his presentation, "Teacher Learning in Urban Schools: A Cultural
Historical Vision" (this presentation will be available on NCCRESt's Web
site in early August: http://nccrest.edreform.net/). Dr. Townsend, Professor, Department of Special Education, University of
South Florida, presented "From Doo-Wop to Hip-Hop: Culturally Responsive
Teaching in Urban and High Poverty Schools," and then engaged middle
school students from Boston Public Schools in a lesson that demonstrated
culturally responsive educational practices and classroom management
skills.
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EVENTS

==> Harvard's Civil Rights Project presents:
"Color Lines Conference"
August 30-September 1, 2003 * Cambridge, MA * REGISTER TODAY! DEADLINE:
AUGUST 1.

On the cusp of the 50th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education,
Harvard's Civil Rights Project will lead a vital national debate about the
past, present, and future of racial integration in the United States. As
many as 1,000 researchers, civic and business leaders, journalists,
activists, and policymakers will engage each other in the course of more
than forty panels and numerous presentations exploring how major
institutions--from corporations to schools to media conglomerates to
religious institutions to federal, state, and local governments, and
more--are responding and should respond to our nation's racial challenges
and changes.

Education-related panel themes include:

* Inequality in K-12 Educational Opportunity: The Historic and Continuing
Significance of Race
* Inequality in Higher Education: The Historic and Continuing Significance
of Race
* Lessons from Brown I: Consequences for Districts, Students, and Parents
* Lessons from Brown II: A New Demographic Landscape and Alternative
Remedies to School Segregation

For more information or to register, please visit http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/convenings/colorlines/call_synopsis.php.

==> Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week and National
Conference:
"Historically Black Colleges and Universities: A Storied Past, A
Challenging Present, A Bright Future - No Child Left Behind"
September 14-17, 2003 * Arlington, VA

President George W. Bush is scheduled to issue a proclamation honoring
America's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and
designating the week of September 14-20, 2003, as National HBCU Week. Congress will issue a joint resolution commemorating the significant
contributions these institutions have made to our nation's growth. The
White House Initiative on HBCUs also will host a four-day conference in
celebration of this occasion. For more information about the Week and its related conference, please visit http://www.dtiassociates.com/hbcu/index.cfm.

==> International Conference on Children and Youth with Behavioral
Disorders:
"Meeting the Diverse Needs of Children and Youth with Learning and
Behavioral Problems: Strategies, Supports, and Services that Work!"
October 2-4, 2003 * St. Louis, MO

This conference from the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders
will help all those who provide direct or indirect services to children
with learning and behavioral problems learn more effective and efficient
ways to ensure that appropriate and quality services are available.
Conference highlights include:

* "Understanding/Teaching Minority Males" with Rita Pearson
* "Failure is Not an Option: How High-Performing Schools Revive Hope and
Succeed with Low-Achieving Students" with Alan Blankstein
* "Strategies and Procedures that Reflect Culturally and Linguistically
Responsive Programming" with Howard Gardner III

Register by September 12 to save on the registration fee. For more
information, contact Dr. Lyndal Bullock, University of North Texas, P.O.
Box 310860, Denton, TX 76203-0860; phone: 940-565-3583 or fax:
940-565-4055; email: bullock@tac.coe.unt.edu.

==> The National Association for Multicultural Education's 13th Annual
Conference:
"From Rhetoric to Reality: Student Achievement in Multicultural Societies"
November 5-9, 2003 * Seattle, WA

The National Association for Multicultural Education's annual conference
will feature presentations from Cherry McGee Banks, James Banks, Eugene
Garcia, Geneva Gay, Carl Grant, Louise Derman-Sparks, Sonia Nieto, among
many other leading researchers and scholars in the field. Participants
will have opportunities to interact with educators who are conducting
exemplary programs, share effective strategies, obtain valuable curricular
and resource materials that support diversity and educational equi
ty, visit multicultural schools and sites in Seattle, and much more.

For more information, please visit http://www.nameorg.org/conferences.html.
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WEB SITE OF THE MONTH

==> Teaching Diverse Learners - http://www.alliance.brown.edu/tdl/

The "Teaching Diverse Learners" Web site is dedicated to enhancing the
capacity of teachers to work effectively and equitably with English
language learners. One of its newest publications, the Diversity Kit: An
Introductory Resource for Social Change in Education, addresses the
importance of improving the educational experience of English language
learners, as schools and teachers meet the challenges of new student
demographics and changing student needs. The Web site also includes
information
on:
* teaching and learning strategies on culturally responsive teaching,
mainstream classrooms, bilingual/ESL classrooms, and special education
* strategies for performance and student assessment
* organizations that may be useful to teachers of language minority
students
* funding opportunities and grants for teaching English language learners
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CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE RESOURCE

==> Ability Profiling and School Failure: One Child's Struggle to be Seen
as Competent
K. M. Collins, 2003

Ability Profiling and School Failure is a new book, which explores the social and contextual forces that shape
the appearance of academic ability and disability and how these forces
influence the perception of academic underachievement of culturally and
linguistically diverse students. It offers a powerful case study of a
competent fifth grader, an African American boy growing up in a
predominantly white, rural community, who was excluded from participating
in science and literacy discourses within his classroom community. The
case study form allows for the integration of the story of the student's
struggle to be seen as competent in school, a context where his teacher
perceives him as learning disabled, with Dr. Collins' own perspective as a
researcher and teacher-educator engaged in a professional development
effort with the teacher. The contribution of this book is to make visible
the situated and socially constructed nature of ability, identity, and
achievement, and to illustrate the role of educational and social
exclusion in positioning students within particular identities. Highly
relevant across the field of education, this book will particularly
interest researchers, graduate students, and professionals in literacy and
science education, curriculum and instruction, sociocultural theories of
learning, discourse analysis of classrooms, research on teaching and
learning, special education, social foundations, and teacher education.

Available from the publisher, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: http://www.erlbaum.com.
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NCCRESt SUPPORT DESK

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Archives of NCCRESt News are available at http://www.edc.org/hypermail/nccrest/
For more information about NCCRESt, please contact:
Shelley Zion, Project Coordinator
National Center for Culturally Responsive
Educational Systems (NCCRESt)
1380 Lawrence Street, Suite 625
Denver, CO 80204
Phone: 303-556-3990
Fax: 303-556-6141
Email: shelley.zion@cudenver.edu
Web: www.nccrest.org

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NCCRESt is a technical assistance center funded by
the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education.
Project Officer: Grace Zamora Duràn. Award No. H326E020003.
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