Over 300 educators and community members attended the Teaching with Purpose Conference Oct. 10-11 to learn about culturally responsive teaching strategies.
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HEN HE WAS PRINCIPAL at Reynolds Middle School, Chris Russo regularly, if informally, met with one of the students at the school. The boy, who Russo described as a “young man of color,” would show up for casual chats on late afternoons or early evenings when Russo was working late. Though the two seemed to have a solid rapport, Russo noticed that something was off during one of their visits. The student wasn’t talking much, and Russo could tell that something was on his mind. Finally, the boy spoke up. Mr. Russo? I don’t like the way you look at me. Stunned, Russo looked up from his work and locked eyes with the student. The first response that came to his mind was something defensive, along the lines of Who are you talking to? But Russo paused long enough to realize that the boy was talking about something much bigger. He wasn’t singling out Russo in particular, but instead pointing out the fact that he didn’t feel comfortable in the school, didn’t like the way other, predominately white teachers and administrators and even some students made him feel. The boy was essentially saying he didn’t feel welcome or at home in his own school in his own community, and that took Russo by surprise. “All these times he had been visiting me, he had been working up the courage to say that to me,” said Russo, who’s now chief academic officer for the Reynolds School District. “I think about that all the time. It was a moment of disequilibrium for me. It rocked my world.” The moment mattered so much to Russo because up until that 30
TODAY’S OEA | OCTOBER 2013
point, he thought the school had been doing at least an OK job at accommodating its culturally diverse populations. It hadn’t been enough. Russo compared the scenario to a dinner party where the hosts have invited guests into their home for what they think is an evening of nice food and drink. “It all looks good,” Russo said, “but they’re not feeling comfortable in our home.” Russo’s story was one of many shared at the fourth annual “Teaching with Purpose Conference” at Roosevelt High School in October, and one of many that helps to paint a picture of just how far education in Oregon has come from a cultural standpoint — and how very far it still has to go. And one of the ways it’s going to get there is through culturally responsive teaching practices and teachers who not only highlight cultural diversity, but who weave it into their day-to-day classrooms, as well. “Children need images and a curriculum that honors their heritage,” said Doris McEwen, deputy director of curriculum and instruction for the Oregon Education Investment Board, “and not just African Americans, but Hispanics and Asians and our white children. Children need to be immersed in their culture because that is what makes us stronger as a people.”
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IVERSITY AND CULTURAL INCLUSIVENESS have long been a challenge in education in Oregon, in part because the state as a whole has never been incredibly diverse. The education system here mirrors that, as well. According to the Oregon Department of Education, just over 16 percent of public education students in Oregon in 1997 were students of color. Fifteen years later,