Culture and Inclusion

Reflection #1

Fallon Parker
 In the article Cultural Diversity and Academic Achievement, Barbara Bowman states, “If

current trends in educational achievement continue, millions of students (primarily poor African-

American, Asian, Native American, and Hispanic) will not obtain the education necessary for

full participation in the economic and civic life of the country” (Bowman, 1994). This is a

sobering statement especially as an educator. I think about what the mission and vision of my

school is and I pulled out these specific phrases; “We believe that all children have a

fundamental right to an excellent education” and “Students from underserved communities are

prepared to compete successfully on life’s uneven playing field” As I read through Bowman’s

article I kept circling back to my school’s mission and vision. Do we believe that all children can

learn? We acknowledge that millions of students do not have the same resources both in school

and at home. Do we have the necessary tools to support students in this ever changing society?

Bowman goes on to talk about how it’s not only the children’s readiness to learn but also

the school’s readiness (Bowman, 1994). Are our schools perpetuating the cycle or are we

acknowledging what is happening and trying to address it. During our in-service at the beginning

of the school year we discussed our mission and vision and acknowledged that in our community

we have a children for different cultural and socioeconomic groups. We made a commitment that

all children have a right to an excellent education no matter what their background is. Although

we are making this commitment to our students and families we have to continuously evaluate

and reflect on this commitment.

Evaluating our practices in schools to understand our community is an essential part of

the work we do. We look at trends across our sites and think about the concept of equity. I

attending Standards Institute with my leaderships team where we discussed equity in schools.

One of my key takeaways was around teaching the standards is that without productive struggle
there is no progress. Productive struggles is not only what our students need, it’s what they

deserve. If we lower the expectations or our students from different cultural, linguistic,

demographic or socioeconomic backgrounds is this setting them up for success when they leave

our school. This is why evaluating our systems and current practices is important. We need to

identify and provide systems to support a vision so equity.

I was challenged by what Bowman states about assessments “In school, behaviors

characteristic of middle-class white children have been seen as the only valid representation of

competence” (Bowman, 1994). I immediately think about our standardized testing in America.

When we think about our biggest assessments like the ACT and SAT they are often gatekeepers

for college. When referencing the California Common Census one of the issues California is

facing is poor student performance. The Census sates that 4th and 8th graders are performing in

the bottom tenth percent nationwide in both Reading and Math. Also the high school dropout rate

are significant and only 38% of graduates meet the requirements to attend a University. This

goes back to my question about standardized testing. Are measuring the success of our students

across our state and nation? Or are they accurately depict how students are as learners? Are these

assessments setting up our students to fail? The Censes goes on to say “There is a clear

educational achievement gap among students with different ethnic and socioeconomic

backgrounds.” I think if you talk to any educator they will say this same statement, but my push

is what are we doing about it?

I think back to a 6th grade student who was a newcomer to our school this year. Their

home language is Spanish and as they started the school year we were asked to give them the

first standardized test. This experience was this student’s first experience in a school in America

and we were asking them to complete a pretty rigorous assessment in English. The look on this
student’s face as they tried to navigate this test was one of confusion and worry. This student

scored in the 1st percentile. We then decided to give this student the same test but in their home

language and they scored in the 99th percentile. When I think about how the expectation theory

as described by Mathew Lynch. “Teachers often expect less from students from certain racial,

ethnic, and cultural backgrounds.” I think about this student. What if we hadn’t tested them in

the their home language? What would the teacher expect from this student? Knowing that they

were completely proficient with grade level materials in their native language what would their

expectations of their work have been? Would they have changed their work and given them

something easier to work on instead of meeting the cognitive demands of grade level standards?

As I reviewed our own English learner data at our school I noticed a trend that our

reclassified students actually outperform our English only students. Thinking about this trend I

had recently attended a training about English Language Development and they stated that our

students who are learning English are having to cognitively work extra hard on skills as they are

navigating two languages and often times when then have mastered both we are seeing them

outperform our English only students. We should view our English Learners as an asset and not a

deficit, I believe teachers expectations and attitudes would change around these students.

As I reflected on the impacts of shifting cultural, linguistic, demographic and

socioeconomic trends I continuously think about how we are as educators preparing to teach

diverse learners. As a school administrator is to evaluate our systems so that all children have an

equitable education. The current trends do not paint a optimistic picture of our educational

system. I believe it is part of my role to challenge those trends and help prepare our teachers to

not only meet the needs of our community but understand and celebrate our diversity.
 References

Bowman, Barbara T. Cultural Diversity and Academic Achievement, North Central Regional
Education Laboratory, 1994

Lynch, Mathew. Examining the Impact of Culture on Academic, 2016

Tatum, Adam. K-12 Education – Unsustainable California: The Top 10 Issues Facing the
Golden State, June 11, 2014