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From: nccrest@cudenver.edu
Date: 04/01/04

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

Volume 2, Number 3 March 2004
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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.

In this issue:

==> NCCRESt Update: Special Education & "Brown vs. Board of Education,"
NCCRESt PI examines the impact of "Brown," NCCRESt PI to receive AERA
award
==> Events: CEC Convention (April 14-17); International Conference on
Diversity (July 6-9)
==> New Resources: "No Excuses," "Losing Our Future," "The World of
Immigrant Students"
==> NCCRESt Support Desk
 
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==> NCCRESt presents...

Special Education & "Brown vs. Board of Education," 1954:
Still Separate, Still Unequal

Monday, April 26 to Friday, April 30, 2004

A free online discussion co-facilitated by

Dr. Beth Harry and NCCRESt Principal Investigators, Drs. Alfredo J.
Artiles, Janette K. Klingner, Elizabeth B. Kozleski, and Cheryl A. Utley

Fifty years after the landmark "Brown vs. Board of Education" case, we
still must combat discrimination:
* the discrimination of students of culturally and linguistically diverse
backgrounds who are commonly over-represented in special education
* the discrimination of children and youth with disabilities who are
segregated in separate classrooms
* the discrimination of students who attend our nation's overcrowded,
rundown, ill-staffed urban schools

This weeklong online event will link the historic Brown case to the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 and the current day
disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse
students in special education. It is designed to bring together a wide
array of practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and others concerned
about finally fulfilling the promise of "Brown."

Dr. Harry of the University of Miami, Florida, will guide participants in
a historical overview of Brown and current research and data related to
the separate and unequal education that still prevails for both children
and youth of diverse backgrounds and those with disabilities. NCCRESt's
principal investigators will share a conceptual framework for reducing
disproportionality in special education and ensuring a culturally
responsive education for all students. Participants will be encouraged to
offer their own thoughts and strategies related to achieving true
educational justice for all in modern day America.

For more information or to log onto the discussion, please visit
www.nccrest.org.

==> New NCCRESt Principal Investigator publication examines the impact of
the "Brown"

NCCRESt Principal Investigator Dr. Cheryl Utley of the Juniper Gardens
Children's Project, University of Kansas and Dr. Festus Obiakor of the
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, are the authors of "Educating
Culturally Diverse Learners with Exceptionalities: A Critical Analysis of
the Brown Case" In this article, Drs. Utley and Obiakor examine the
"Brown" case and its impact on the historical contexts of special
education as they affect culturally diverse learners with
exceptionalities.

Available in the March issue of the "Peabody Journal of Education." To
download a copy, please visit
http://www.leaonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327930pje7902_10

==> NCCRESt Principal Investigator to receive AERA's Early Career Award

Dr. Janette Klingner, Co-Principal Investigator of NCCRESt and Associate
Professor of Bilingual Special Education at the University of Colorado,
Boulder, will receive the American Education Research Association's
prestigious Early Career Award at AERA's annual meeting in San Diego on
April 14th. Dr. Klingner is also an Investigator for the National Center
on Personnel Studies in Special Education, a consultant on other federally
funded projects, and a widely published scholar. Congratulations, Janette,
on this well-deserved honor!
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EVENTS

==> Council for Exceptional Children's Annual Convention & Expo features
presentations from NCCRESt
April 14-17, 2004 * New Orleans

Several sessions at CEC's annual convention will focus on the education of
culturally and linguistically diverse students. NCCRESt will be involved
in two of these programs.

On Thursday, April 15 (8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.), NCCRESt Co-Principal
Investigator Dr. Cheryl Utley will be presenting a publications workshop
titled "Research, Scholarship, and Knowledge: The Power of Insider
Cultural Worldview." Dr. Utley will be joined by Drs. Festus E. Obiakor,
Bridgie Ford, and James Patton.

NCCRESt also is taking a lead role in organizing the Multicultural Summit,
which will be held on Saturday, April 17th (8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.).
Attendees will participate in small group discussions focused on critical
issues concerning culturally and linguistically diverse students.
Facilitators include: Betty Greene-Bryant, CEC; Janette Klingner, Alfredo
Artiles, and Cheryl Utley, NCCRESt; Anh-Kay Pizano and Tracy Dace, Linking
Academic Scholars to Educational Resources; Norma Lopez-Reyna, the Monarch
Center; Evelyn Astwood, National Alliance of Black School Educators; and
Rachael Gonzales, Division for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse
Exceptional Learners.

For more information or to register, please visit CEC's Web site:
http://www.cec.sped.org/neworleans/reg.html

==> The Fourth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations,
Communities, and Nations
"Representing Global Diversity, Mediating Cultural Difference"

July 6-9, 2004 * University of California, Los Angeles

The Diversity Conference has a history of bringing together scholarly,
government, and practice-based participants on diversity and community.
This year's conference will examine the concept of diversity as a positive
aspect of a global world and globalized society. Diversity is in many ways
reflective of our present world order, but there are ways of taking this
further without necessary engendering its alternatives: racism, conflict,
discrimination, and inequity. Diversity as a mode of social existence can
be projected in ways that deepen the range of human experience. The
conference will seek to explore the full range of what diversity means and
explore modes of diversity in real-life situations of living together in
community. The conference supports a move away from simple affirmations
that "diversity is good" to a much more nuanced account of the effects and
uses of diversity on differently situated communities in the context of
our current epoch of globalization. The conference is structured around
five themes:
1) Representing Diversity: The Globalizing Media
2) Critical Diversity: The Diversity of Cultures
3) Learning Diversity: Education Across Lines of Difference
4) Working Diversity: Managing the Culture of Diversity
5) Governing Diversity: Supporting Diversity in a Globalizing World

For more information or to register, visit
http://diversity-conference.com/Background/index.html
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NEW RESOURCES

==> "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning"

In this new book, Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom, two distinguished
experts on race in America, offer a sober appraisal of the racial gap in
education—and show how it can be overcome. They believe there is no
greater problem in education today than the gap in academic performance
between African American and Latino children on the one hand and white and
Asian American students on the other. That gap in academic skills and
knowledge, they state, is arguably the central civil rights issue of our
time. Inequalities in the K-12 years create learning disparities that are
almost impossible to overcome later on.

The Thernstroms believe the racial gap in learning is a problem that can
be solved. In "No Excuses," they highlight inner-city schools across the
country that are models of superb education.

For information or to order this book, visit
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/noexcuses/

==> "Losing Our Future: How Minority Youth are Being Left Behind by the
Graduation Rate Crisis"

Every year, across the country, a dangerously high percentage of
students—disproportionately poor and culturally and linguistically
diverse—disappear from the educational pipeline before graduating from
high school. Nationally, only about 68 percent of all students who enter
9th grade will graduate "on time" with regular diplomas in 12th grade.
While the graduation rate for white students is 75 percent, only
approximately half of black, Hispanic, and Native American students earn
regular diplomas alongside their classmates. Graduation rates are even
lower for culturally and linguistically diverse males. According to this
new report from the Harvard Civil Rights Project, misleading and
inaccurate reporting of dropout and graduation rates has kept the public
largely unaware of this educational and civil rights crisis.

The report was written to raise public awareness of the issue, and to make
improving high school graduation rates a more central component of
national educational reform efforts. Authors Gary Orfield, Daniel Losen,
Johanna Wald, and Christopher B. Swanson believe that the first step must
entail highlighting the severe racial disparities in high school
graduation rates that exist at the school and district levels.

Download a copy of the report from the Civil Rights Project's Web site:
http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/dropouts/call_dropout04.php

==> "The World of Immigrant Students"

In the March issue of "Principal Leadership," Judy Smith Davis outlines
some promising practices for serving language-minority students, the
fastest-growing population in U.S. public schools. The practices emerged
from a pilot study Dr. Davis conducted in five school districts that have
experienced significant influxes of immigrant students (Las Vegas, NV; Lee
County, NC; Prince George's County; Portland, ME; New York City Community
School District #17).

For example, the study found the following strategies to be effective:

* Creating school-based community centers that provide services for
immigrant families of school children, such English as a Second Language
(ESL) instruction, parent workshops, computer training, translations, and
referrals to other agencies
* Adopting a five-year high school plan for immigrant students, rather
than a four-year schedule, which is useful for students who have the
desire and capacity to attend college but arrive in the United States too
late to complete requirements or who need additional time to learn English
* Instituting team teaching and other types of partnering between general
and special educators and ESL teachers
* Initiating a one-year alternative certification program to train and
certify immigrants who were teachers in their countries of origin
* Holding teacher exchanges with various countries

Visit the "Principal Leadership" Web site to read more about this study
and other best practices for educating immigrant students:
http://www.principals.org/publications/pl/pl_world_immigrant_students_0304.cfm

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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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