Engaging Culturally & Linguistically

Diverse Families in Education Presented by

Vito Borrello,

Executive Director, NAFSCE

WELCOME

Susan Shaffer, President, MAEC,

Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Equity

Center, Board Chair & Founding Partner of

NAFSCE

The NAFSCE Mission & Vision

Mission: Advancing high-impact policies and

practices of family, school and community

engagement to promote child development and

improve student achievement.

Vision: A world where family engagement is

universally practiced as an essential strategy for

improving children’s learning, and advancing equity.

NAFSCE Progress

Launched our website, www.nafsce.org

Launched Founding Membership campaign

Hiring Director of Capacity Building Programs

Received 2 year $500,000 funding commitment from Heising-

Simons Foundation

Enhancing future NAFSCE Network Meetings

Happy Birthday to NAFSCE!

Pamela Higgins Harris, Senior Educational

Equity Advisor, Mid-Atlantic Equity Center

Vision: MAEC envisions a day when all

students have equitable opportunities to

learn and achieve at high levels.

Mission: MAEC’s mission is to promote

excellence and equity in education to

achieve social justice.

Core Values:

Excellence

Equity

Integrity

Innovation

Synergy

The Center is one of ten equity

assistance centers funded by the

U.S. Department of Education

under Title IV of the Civil Rights

Act of 1964. The Center provides

technical assistance and training to

school districts in the areas of:

• Race

• Gender

• National Origin/English

Language Learning

The Mid-Atlantic Equity Assistance Center

Please text in a response:

Q 1: What is one thing you know about

engaging culturally and linguistically diverse

families?

Please text in a response:

Q 2: What is one thing you still want to learn?

© Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, Inc. 2013.

10

Social Cultural Identities

Identity Wheel

Ability Developmental

Emotional Physical

Interpersonal Socialization

Age

Home Language

Gender

Ethnicity

Race

Religion

Spiritual Affiliaton

Sexual

Orientation

The Cultural Proficiency Continuum

Cultural Destructiveness

Cultural Incapacity

Cultural Pre-competence

Cultural Competence

Cultural Proficiency

See the difference, stomp it

out See the difference, make it

wrong See the difference, act like

you don’t See the difference, respond

inadequately

Cultural Blindness

See the difference, understand

the difference that difference

makes See the difference, respond

positively and affirming Adapted from:: Cultural Proficiency for School Leadership by Lindsey, Robins & Terrell, 2009

CONTRASTING CULTURAL VALUES

Source: Adapted from Kohls, L.R. (1984). The Values Americans Live By.

Washington, D.C.: Meridian House International.

Family Group Emphasis; Sharing

Cooperation; Interdependence

Democratic Orientation; Egalitarian

Extended Family; Flexible Roles

Indirectness; Saving Face Ritual

Patience ; Honesty; Harmony

Personal Interaction Dominates

Individual Emphasis; Privacy

Competition, Independence

Authoritarian Orientation

Nuclear Family; Rigid Roles

Directness; Open Honesty

Assertiveness

Adherence to Time Dominates

Assumptions Cultural Incompatibility Miscommunication Misunderstanding Inequitable Treatment Alienation Disengagement Gaps in Participation Lack of Success Oppositional Coping Behaviors

Downward Spiral – Deficit Based

Dynamics to Prevent

Upward Spiral Mindset

Seeking to understand

Cultural Compatibility

Positive Communication

Mutual Understanding

Equitable Treatment

Safety & Inclusiveness

Authentic Engagement

Active Participation

Access & Support for Success

Positive Supports

Student Perspectives

The school gives my family ways to know

about my work and my relationships at

school. I know because ________.

I feel my teachers respect me and know how

to care about me . I can tell because

they______________

The school really tries to make me feel like a

belong even though my background may be

different from the school. They do things

like_________.

Family Perspectives

The provides family members with

adequate information about the academic

program in a language that I can

understand. I get information

about_________.

I feel that teachers respect me as a

parent/caretaker at my child’s school. I can

tell because____

The school makes a special effort to reach

out to families from all racial, cultural and/or

language groups. They do things like____

School Culture and Climate

A Guide for Culturally Responsive Environment

The 2016 Annual Conference Ensuring that Every Student Matters

Save the Date!

Presenter RFP is now open

Submit your proposal by November 6, 2015 at: http://www.maec.org/conference/presenters.html

Learn more about the conference at www.maec.org/conference

Follow us on twitter: @maec4education #MAEConf2016, #MAEC4equity

Engaging Families to Advance Language Development for Young

English Learners through Conversations around Science in Multiple

Contexts and Languages

Jess Gropen,

Senior Research Scientist

Jessica Wildman,

Family and Community

Engagement Specialist

• Investing in Innovation Fund (i3)

Project – Development Grant

• Hartford Foundation for Public Giving,

William Caspar Graustein Memorial

Fund, Hartford Public Schools

• 4 year project (2014 - 2018)

• Hartford, Connecticut

• Young English Language Learners

(PreK, Kindergarten, 1st Grade)

Improved literacy and academic outcomes

for English Learners (ELs) in Hartford, CT

Integrated program of

supports for ELs,

across contexts,

grades,

and content domains

Increased system-

wide capacity

Model and

recommendations for

state-wide scale up

PD and

Supports for

Coaches

Family

Supports

Overarching

Goal

Short & Long

Term Goals

Key

Components Leadership

Alliance

Professional

Development

(PD) for

teachers

Research

Conversations

(Dickinson & Tabors, 2002)

Conceptual

Transfer

(Barsalou, 2012 Cummins, 2007; Kroll

& De Groot, 2005; Pavlenko, 2009)

Shared Context

(Smith & Vela, 2001)

LASErS Family and Community Engagement (FaCE) Model

LASErS Family and Community Engagement (FaCE) Model

LASErS Family and Community Engagement (FaCE) Model

LASErS Family and Community Engagement (FaCE) Model

Implementation Challenges & Next Steps

Implementation Challenges

Coordination

Buy-in

Participation

School Culture

Next Steps

2015-16 in a Nutshell

Data Collection

Future Years

CONTACT INFORMATION

Pamela Higgins Harris, Senior Educational Equity Advisor, MAEC

O: 301-657-7741 ext. 113

E: pchh@maec.org

Jess Gropen, Senior Research Scientist, EDC

O: 617-618-2455

E: jgropen@edc.org

Jessie Wildman, Family, School, and Community Engagement

Specialist

O: 860-278-6360

E: JWildman@edc.org

Next NAFSCE Meeting

NAFSCE Networking Meeting

Featuring:

Ready to Learn

Save the Date: Wednesday,

October 28th, 2015 from 3-

4:30PM EST

Become a NAFSCE

partner, by going to:

http://nafsce.org/get-

involved/#become-a-

partner

Thanks to our host for NAFSCE Networking Meetings: National Education Association

& Our Generous Funders:

Heising-Simons Foundation and The David and Lucille Packard Foundation

References

Barsalou, L. W. (2012). The Human Conceptual System. In M. Spivey, K. McRae, & M. Joanisse (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook

of Psycholinguistics (pp. 239–258). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Cummins, J. (2005). Teaching for Cross-Language Transfer in Dual Language Education : Possibilities and Pitfalls. In TESOL

Symposium on Dual Language Education: Teaching and Learning Two Languages in the EFL Setting (pp. 1–17). Istanbul, Turkey:

Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.tesol.org/connect/tesol-resource-

center/page/26/

Cummins, J. (2007). Introduction. In Bilingual education. Vol. 5. International Encyclopedia of Language and Education (2nd ed.,

Vol. 5, pp. xi–xiv). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Cummins, J. (2008). Teaching for transfer: Challenging the two solitudes assumption in bilingual education. In J. Cummins & N. H.

Hornberger (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd Edition, Volume 5: Bilingual Education. (2nd ed., Vol. 5, pp. 65–

75). New York: Springer Science + Business Media LLC. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_116

Dickinson, D., & Tabors, P. (2002). Fostering language and literacy in classrooms and homes. Young Children, 57(2). Retrieved

from http://www-tc.pbs.org/teacherline/courses/rdla170/docs/fostering_language.pdf

Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1983). Mental Models. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kroll, J. F., & De Groot, A. M. B. (2005). Handbook of Bilingualism: Psycholinguistic Approaches. (J. F. Kroll & A. M. B. De Groot,

Eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pavlenko, A. (2009). Conceptual Representation in the Bilingual Lexicon and Second Language Vocabulary Learning. In The

Bilingual Mental Lexicon (pp. 125–161). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Smith, S. M., & Vela, E. (2001). Environmental context-dependent memory : A review and meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin &

Review, 8(2), 203–220.