Board Meeting Dates

Additional Details

District and Community Relations Committee Meeting

AGENDA

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

5:00 PM

DeLayo-Martin Community Room, Alice and Bruce King Educational Complex, 6400 Uptown Blvd.NE

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Minutes of the District and Community Relations Committee Meeting

Board of Education

Albuquerque Public Schools

A District and Community Relations Committee meeting of the Board of Education (BOE) of Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) was held Wednesday, February 26, 2014, beginning at 5:00 p.m., in the DeLayo Martin Community Room, Alice and Bruce King Educational Complex, 6400 Uptown Blvd. NE.

I.          Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 5:01 p.m.

1. A. Roll Call

Present:  Dr. Analee Maestas, Lorenzo Garcia, and Dr. Don Duran; Martin Esquivel and Dr. David Peercy participated by phone.

Absent:  Steven Michael Quezada and Kathy Korte

1. B. Adoption of the February 26, 2014, District and Community Relations Agenda and the Approval of the January 7, 2014, and January 22, 2014, District and Community Relations Minutes (Discussion/Action)

Chairwoman Analee Maestas asked for a motion to adopt the agenda and the January 7, 2014, and January 22, 2014, minutes.   Dr. Duran moved for approval; Dr. Peercy seconded the motion; motion carried.

II.         Public Forum

There were no participants for public forum.

III.        Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council (SuperSAC) Report

(Discussion)

Presenters were unable to be present for this agenda item.

IV.        Superintendent’s Teacher Advisory Council (SuperTAC) Report

(Discussion)

Presenters were unable to be present for this agenda item.

V.         Cultural Proficiency Work Session (Discussion)

Toby Herrera, director, Student, School, and Community Service Center, and Lynne Rosen, director, Language and Cultural Equity, headed a work session to develop a shared understanding of how the cultural proficiency framework and culturally responsive instruction address equity, equal education opportunity, and student achievement.  Discussion points included:

• Why Cultural Proficiency?

When schools provide what students need and educators teach students and their families how to better access all that schools offer, achievement increases for all students.

• Reading: Cultural Proficiency: Tools for School Leaders
  • Culture shapes behaviors, values and institutions

To provide equitable education, educators must assess their own culture and learn to manage the dynamics of difference.  Interviews will be conducted to gather different perspectives and rubrics used to assist in addressing different areas of concern.

• Changing the conversation

Students and their families can access the best of what schools offer if educators can communicate effectively with them, understand who they are and the cultural context from which they come, and perceive and treat them with respect. This means that educators must shift their thinking from helping underachieving students and underprivileged families to meeting the needs of underserved clients.

• The Tools of Cultural Proficiency

Developing cultural proficiency involves using four tools from a framework developed by Terry Cross, Barbara Bazron, Karl Dennis, and Mareasa Isaacs (1989). The guiding principles are the underlying values of this approach.  The continuum provides language for describing both healthy and counterproductive policies, practices, and individual behaviors.  The essential elements are behavioral standards for planning and measuring growth toward cultural proficiency.  The barriers are obstacles that impede the process of developing cultural proficiency.

• Cultural Proficiency Continuum Activity

The Cultural Proficiency Continuum is a conceptual framework for assessing personal and organizational progress and providing common language to describe both healthy and dysfunctional events and policies. The points along the continuum can identify the current state of a situation or practice, project a future state of development, or gauge the distance between the current and future states.

• What Does Cultural Proficiency Look Like in the Classroom

Cultural proficiency is a systemic change, which requires that school leaders work strategically with stakeholders throughout the system.  As school leaders address the issues and opportunities that arise from diverse and complex school environments, they will approach diversity as an opportunity for inclusion and achievement rather than a problem to be solved.

Board members expressed their ideas of elements important for students:

• Achieve academic success
• Have a safe environment in which to learn and express themselves
• Learn to value and respect themselves and one another
• Develop integrity and good communication skills
• Learn to be a team player
• Become leaders and advocates in the community
• Learn to think critically and responsibly
• Be treated equally and given the same opportunities
• Have curriculum that adapts to different styles of learning, incorporates art, music, and cultural history
• Become life-long learners.

Board members felt the important considerations for the district to becoming culturally proficient should include:

• Commitment from the district as a whole
• Evaluating everything the district does through the lens of cultural competency
• Requiring all staff to be English Language Learner (ELL) certified
• Developing an implementation plan that establishes common language and school-specific baselines
• Avoiding misuse of power and institutional barriers
• Incorporating input from the community
• Consider utilizing an equity scorecard to help establish a baseline
• Recognizing where the district is presently on the continuum.

In closing, a video was shown of a fourth grade classroom as “Evidence of Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning.”  The video demonstrated that a productive learning environment incorporates the following elements:

• Print-rich environment
• Learning centers
• Colorful
• Arranged optimally
• Multiple libraries
• Technology utilized and prominently displayed
• Student work
• Rules, procedures, and protocols clear.

The video also showed the use of the following culturally-responsive techniques:

• Call and response (respectful procedures that students understood and had internalized)
• Action thermometer (allows students to share and be heard, active listening)
• Raise your righteous hand
• Think, pair, share
• Pick a stick
• Bottoms up, heads together
• Musical ‘round the room.

Discussion clarified that the students appeared happy and engaged, working with one other respectfully and integrated as a whole class.  Some training would be necessary on effective teaching strategies that allow students to be respected, valued, and to become critical thinkers. Good teaching transitions to students and their learning.  English as a Second Language (ESL) strategies are the same that Special Education teachers use.  It is important to incorporate all the modalities into teaching and to choose appropriate instructional materials that are representative of all of the children, their cultures and language.

Committees will be created to work on different phases with the community and board members will be included.  Board members would like to receive a report on the work done by the outside committees.

VII.       Next District and Community Relations Committee Meeting

Chairperson Maestas announced that the next District and Community Relations Committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 26, 2014, at 5:00 p.m., at the Alice and Bruce King Educational Complex in the DeLayo Martin Community Room.

VIII.      Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 6:38 p.m.