What is Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education?
The CR-SE is a framework utilized in New York State education that creates student-centered learning environments to:
• Affirm racial, linguistic and cultural identities;
• Prepare students for rigor and independent learning;
• Develop students’ abilities to connect across lines of difference;
• Elevate historically marginalized voices; and
• Empower students as agents of social change.
The framework itself is grounded in four principles:
• Welcoming and Affirming Environment
• High Expectations and Rigorous Instruction
• Inclusive Curriculum and Assessment
• Ongoing Professional Learning
The 64-page framework, which may be found on the NYS website at http://www.nysed.gov/crs/framework, goes into more depth on each principle and its intended outcomes.
Locally, the Spencerport Central School District initiated work around CRE three years ago with a multi-tiered approach led by Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Ty Zinkiewich. This approach, which is outlined on these pages, engages different stakeholders in a series of conversations in the area of CRE.
Spencerport holds regular virtual meetings with our middle and high school students, to continue the conversation around race, diversity, culture, and equity, and more specifically to learn about their personal instructional and social experiences within our district and schools.
From these meetings, the students developed the following recommendations:
| 1. Teacher and staff professional development |
- Training on how to address use of the n word
- Honest conversations about microaggressions and their impact
- Extend dialogue and acknowledge diversity –going beyond black and white
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| 2. Analyze policies that involve discrimination (i.e. Code of Conduct) |
- Engage students in conversations about restorative practice procedures for individuals that display prejudice in schools
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| 3. Continuation/expansion of student summits, Equity Committee, faculty meetings, professional development, and candid conversations |
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Students also helped to inform and develop the following target objectives:
- Spencerport’s Board of Education, superintendent and leadership have committed to ongoing professional learning and support around CRE. Last summer, administrators focused on social emotional learning, as well as CRE, during their annual retreat.
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- Over the last two years, 44 SCSD teachers, counselors, principals and administrators have attended a six-part training to further develop CRE competency within our district. The training is offered through NYU and Monroe 2 BOCES, and:
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- examines what it means to be culturally responsive
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- helps to assess and develop CRE practices, and
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- provides a reflective framework to shift believes, policies and practices to support students and their families to address inequities
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- Faculty meetings during the 2021-22 school year will continue to build upon the progress made in the last two years
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- Engaged the expertise of Shane Wiegand, a fourth grade teacher in Rush Henrietta who has developed lessons about racism
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- Spencerport, along with other Monroe County school districts, have partnered with Wiegand and the PathStone Foundation to provide more in-depth curriculum focused on structural racism in Rochester - from its history to present day, as well as resistance against it.
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Community engagement is another key area in Spencerport’s work with CRE. The district has held a number of meetings to connect with our Urban-Suburban parents.
The Equity Committee, consisting of parents, students, community members, civic leaders, and staff, has met both in-person and virtually to grow our efforts around CRE.
New York State’s public school student population is among the most racially and socioeconomically diverse in the United States.
Statewide, enrollment data shows public school students are 45% white, 26% Latinx, 18% Black, 9% Asian/Pacific Islander, 2% multiracial, and 1% Native American.
Spencerport Central Schools are not as diverse compared to these state figures, however a comparison of data from 2000-01 to 2017-18 shows our population has changed to reflect more student diversity:
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| Population |
2000-01 |
2017-18 |
| White |
92.5% |
81% |
| Latinx |
1.4%
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7% |
| Asian/Pacific Islander |
2.5% |
2% |
Black/African American
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3.5% |
5% |
| Multiracial |
no data |
5% |
Spencerport held a series of summits to gain student perspectives on culturally responsive education in our district. In addition, students helped to define the following terms as we move forward with this work.
Equal Learning Opportunity (much like an Equal Opportunity Employment Statement)
Spencerport Central Schools is an equal opportunity educational system and will work to ensure that our curriculum and instructional materials reflect the needs of our students. The responsibility of education throughout the Spencerport learning community involves making connections and providing students opportunities to enhance their personal and academic well-being. Spencerport is responsible for educating each and every student through a culturally responsive approach to provide equity and access for all.
Equity Diversity Inclusion (DEI) Statements:
Diversity – Continuously valuing, reflecting, and acknowledging the differences among the stakeholders here in Spencerport including, but not limited to race, ethnicity, customs, gender, physical appearance, religion, socio-economic status, and sexual orientation.
Equity - Equitable access and personalized opportunities to every stakeholder in the Spencerport learning community.
Inclusion – Every Spencerport student and family feels valued, welcomed, and accepted throughout the learning community.
For more definitions and glossary terms please visit this link.