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From: nccrest@cudenver.edu
Date: 11/08/04

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

Volume 2, Number 7 November 2004
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In this issue:

==> NCCRESt Update: Distinguished researcher/educator joins NCCRESt PI
team; new staff; teleseminar CD-ROMs available; NCCRESt presentation at
national accountability conference
==> Publication Highlight: Culturally Responsive Literacy Instruction
==> Web Site of the Month: Improves the quality of education for African
American children
==> New Resource: Burro Genius: A Memoir
==> NCCRESt Support Desk
 
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==> Distinguished researcher/educator joins NCCRESt PI team

NCCRESt is pleased to announce that Dr. William Tate, Professor and Chair
of the Department of Education in the College of Arts and Sciences at
Washington University in St. Louis, has joined the project's team of
principal investigators. Dr. Tate holds additional academic appointments
in Applied Statistics and Computation and American Culture Studies. For 10
years, Dr. Tate served on the faculty of the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. He has authored over 50 scholarly journal articles,
book chapters, and reports focused on school mathematics, school science,
technology education, and urban school reform. Dr. Tate has also served as
a co-editor of the American Educational Research Journal (Teaching,
Learning, and Human Development). In 1998, he received an Outstanding
Scholar Award from the Special Interest Group Research Focus on Black
Education of the American Educational Research Association. In 2000, he
received an Early Career Research Award from the American Educational
Research Association for his scholarly contributions to mathematics
education and urban education.

==> NCCRESt new hires

Deidre Magee recently joined NCCRESt as a Professional Research Assistant.
Ms. Magee is a doctoral candidate at Colorado State University and will be
defending her dissertation entitled, "The International Baccalaureate
Middle Years Program: An Empirical Study" in November. Her background is
in PK-12 education. She has been an educator in the New Orleans Public and
Catholic schools for 15 years as a teacher and staff developer. Ms.
Magee's most recent position in the New Orleans Public School District was
Title I Coordinator of Instruction. As a doctoral student at Colorado
State University, she was an instructor in the Teacher Licensure Program
and a researcher at the Research and Development Center for the
Advancement of Student Learning.

Wendy Wyman will serve as NCCRESt's evaluator and policy analyst. Her
professional background includes work as a Title I senior consultant at
the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). In this capacity, Ms. Wyman
worked at the state level on implementation of No Child Left Behind. At
the local level, she worked with 19 districts in the Denver metro area on
implementation and compliance issues. Ms. Wyman has experience as a policy
analyst at the Education Commission of the States where she worked with
state-level policymakers from across the country on teaching quality
issues. She has also served as a literacy resource teacher and coach, and
as a classroom teacher. Ms. Wyman is a doctoral student at UCD in the
final stages of writing her dissertation. Her research agenda
concentrates on teacher quality, systemic change, and accountability.

==> CD-ROMs of NCCRESt October 15 teleseminar now available

NCCRESt's first quarterly telephone seminar, "Disproportionality is NOT a
Special Education Issue: Linking General Ed and Special Ed to Close the
Achievement Gap," was well attended with over 150 participants at 30 sites
around the country. CD-ROMs of this program are now available for
purchase. The CD-ROMs are $95 (including shipping/handling), with a
special price for organizations who participated in the seminar of $35.00.
For more information, visit NCCRESt's Web site:
 

==> NCCRESt presented an annual performance report (APR) analysis at
National Accountability Conference on Special Education and Early
Intervention
October 4-5, 2004 * New Orleans, LA

Earlier this month, Wendy Wyman represented NCCRESt during a presentation
on APR analysis at the National Accountability Conference on Special
Education and Early Intervention. Sponsored by the Office of Special
Education Programs, this conference shared information about effective
practices and addressed state agency challenges in monitoring and ensuring
accountability of local programs providing services under Parts B and C of
the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
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PUBLICATION HIGHLIGHT

==> Culturally Responsive Literacy Instruction

Recent studies affirm that to improve literacy instruction, we must
examine teaching expertise rather than expect a panacea in the form of
materials or blame the students, the parents, or social class. Teaching
ability, over and above reading programs, is the major contributor to
students' literacy success. This new practitioner brief from NCCRESt
discusses the importance of using multiple forms of literacy and writing
for real-life purposes. It suggests that multiethnic literature, as part
of a literature-based reading program, can be used in the classroom to
affirm the cultural identity of culturally and linguistically diverse
students and to develop all students' understanding and appreciation of
other cultures. A list of authors of African American, Asian American,
Native American, and Latino American literature is included.

Downloadable copies of this practitioner brief may be obtained from
NCCRESt's Web site: http://www.nccrest.org/publications.html.
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WEB SITE OF THE MONTH

==> National Association for the Education of African American Children
with Learning Disabilities (NAEAACLD)

http://www.charityadvantage.com/aacld/HomePage.asp

NAEAACLD seeks to improve the quality of education for African American
children by raising the level of awareness about learning differences and
promoting an understanding among parents, educators, and others of the
culturally sensitive issues facing culturally and linguistically diverse
children with learning disabilities. The project's Web site features a
number of culturally responsive resources, such as:
* "One Child at a Time...A Parent Handbook and Resource Directory for
African American Families with Children Who Learn Differently"
* Articles, such as "Educating Kids Who Learn Differently," "The Law
Ensures a 'Free Appropriate Public Education' for All,a^?? and "Continued
Mislabeling of African American Children Requires Parental Attention"
* Resources focusing on "the myth of lazinessa^?? and "how public schools
discriminate against the poor."
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NEW RESOURCE

==> Burro Genius: A Memoir

Dr. Todd Fletcher, an associate professor at the University of Arizona,
heartily recommends, "Burro Genius," a new memoir from Victor VillaseA?}or.
Highly gifted and imaginative, VillaseA?}or coped with an untreated learning
disability and the frustration he felt growing up Latino in an
English-only American school system that had neither the cultural
understanding nor the resources to deal with Hispanic students. Often
beaten by his teachers because he could not speak English, VillaseA?}or was
made to feel ashamed about his heritage, and even questioned the core
values prioritized by his tight-knit family. VillaseA?}or's dyslexia, and
growing frustration over not fitting in, fueled his dream to one day
become a writer. He is now considered one of the premier writers of our
time.

For more information about this book, visit
http://www.harpercollins.com/catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=0060526122
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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 DurA n. Award No. H326E020003.
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