Director: Sharon Nelson-Barber    (Director, Culture and Language in Education Research) Contact: Sharon Nelson-Barber Tel: 650.381.6408 Email: snelson@wested.org

Culture and Language in Education (CLE) Research enhances the capacity of learning organizations to provide excellent education for traditionally underserved students. CLE staff members work with students from particular cultural, linguistic, and racial groups, and students living in poverty. Our work encompasses research and development, practice, policy, and consulting. CLE generates new knowledge and builds on the knowledge and resources of the schools and the communities we serve. Ultimately, the research and development work of CLE helps clients/partners do the following: develop capacity among individuals and institutions to use knowledge about language and culture to work effectively with families and students in order to reduce the achievement gap; build capacity to develop authentic, equitable assessment and accountability systems; respond to and evaluate the impact of policies affecting the education of underserved students; shape district and school policies in order to increase opportunities for all students to learn and demonstrate their learning; build capacity to evaluate the effectiveness of programs intended to reduce the achievement gap.

Who's involved with this Project? Jo Ann Izu (Senior Research Associate) Karen Kearney (Director, Leadership Initiative) Rachel Lagunoff (Senior Research Associate) Robert Linquanti (Project Director and Senior Research Associate) Sharon Nelson-Barber (Director, Culture and Language in Education Research) Ursula Sexton (Senior Research Associate)

What kind of Resources are available? Access and Engagement: Program Design and Instructional Approaches for Immigrant Students in Secondary Schools Many immigrant students in secondary school have problems succeeding because of the structures of the schools themselves. This book profiles six students to help illuminate the needs of immigrant students. It details the structural obstacles that inhibit students' success, and it describes ten priorities for designing effective teaching and learning contexts for immigrant students. The author describes four promising programs in detail and makes recommendations in the areas of future program development and research. Assessment Alternatives for Diverse Classrooms This book provides a framework for thinking about assessment and related issues, such as curriculum development, and brings these frameworks alive through real-world examples. The book is comprehensive in that it addresses in an integrated manner issues often covered separately. These issues include equitable education in a diverse society, multicultural instruction, second-language learning and bilinguality, and assessment. The authors’ primary focus, however, is on diversity as it relates to language and culture. Berry Picking Berry Picking is the companion book to the curriculum module, Picking Berries, and is part of the Math in a Cultural Context series. Designed for grades 2-3 and developed in consultation with Yup'ik elders, Berry Picking centers on a family camping and gathering food for the long winter season along the Kuskwin River in southwest Alaska. The children learn to carefully observe the environment and wait for the right time to pick berries. As they pick, the children are told traditional Yup'ik stories. When the family returns from their trip, they store most of the berries for later and use some of them to make ice cream. Written in both English and Yup'ik, the book features color illustrations on each spread as well as a glossary of terms. Big John and Little Henry Big John and Little Henry is the companion storybook to the curriculum module, Picking Berries, and part of the Math in a Cultural Context series. Repeated research trials of this series have shown improved math achievement when compared to similar groups of students who have used the school's regular curriculum. Students enjoy learning in this way. This story, designed to be used for grades 2-3, centers around two friends who decide to build a kayak for each other. The Yup'ik Eskimo elder's way of measurement, which takes into account the person, the object being made, and its use, is illustrated, thus showing students how to think proportionally. Filled with charming illustrations and written in both English and Tup'ik, Big John and Little Henry embed both mathematical concepts and unique culture, geographical, or historical information about southwest Alaska. Bridging Cultures between Home and School: A Guide for Teachers Teaching students from a range of cultural backgrounds is made easier when teachers understand the cultural norms of both the mainstream culture of schools and the cultures of their students. This guide provides a framework for learning about culture, along with many teacher-created strategies for making classrooms more successful for students, particularly those from immigrant Latino backgrounds. Contents of the guide include chapters that describe the Bridging Cultures framework of individualism/collectivism for understanding cultures, why parent involvement is not always successful plus some ways to improve working with parents, the cross-cultural parent-teacher conference, learning what works cross-culturally through teacher research with ethnography as a research tool, and a reflection on the Bridging Cultures project (a collaboration among WestEd; UCLA; California State University, Northridge; and bilingual public school teachers in three districts). Two adjunct books of supporting research, theories, background information, and teaching modules are also available. Please visit Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module and Readings for Bridging Cultures for more information. Bridging Cultures in Our Schools: New Approaches That Work This knowledge brief provides a framework for understanding how teachers' culturally driven — and often unconsciously held — values influence classroom practice and expectations, and, when in conflict with the values of immigrant and other parents from more collectivistic societies, can interfere with parent-teacher communication. The brief looks at some specific sources of cross-culture conflicts and illustrates some strategies for resolving them. Building a Smokehouse In this module, students learn properties of three-dimentional shapes by building smokehouse models. As students construct their models they develop an understanding of mathematical concepts related to three-dimenional geometry. For example, by framing the smokehouse walls, students learn about the edges and faces of rectanguoar prisms. They identify congruent faces, describe the angles between faces, and determine the number of faces in the three-dimensional shape. By framing their model smokehouse roofs, they explore the properties of triangular prisms. As they cover their smokehouse models with "siding," students learn to calculate surface area. Students generalize and make conjectures using knowledge of properties of rectangles and triangles and then prove or disprove their ideas through hands-on activities. They generalize by making conjectures about properties of three-dimensional shapes and explore ways of proving or disproving their conjectures. Changing the Faces of Mathematics: Perspectives on Indigenous People of North America This edited volume is one in a series of six focused on teaching mathematics in ways that are culturally responsive. The 25 chapters address those teachers, administrators and principals, curriculum supervisors and program developers, and ethnomathematicians and researchers who are concerned with the theory and practice of mathematics instruction for the indigenous peoples of North America. WestEd authors Elise Trumbull and Sharon Nelson-Barber and their coauthor Jean Mitchell contribute the opening chapter to this volume, updating their ongoing learning about the education of indigenous students in the continental United States, Alaska, and numerous Pacific islands. They discuss similarities between reform and indigenous pedagogies, provide examples of ethnomathematics in indigenous cultures, and describe the development of instructional examples that draw on ethnomathematical knowledge from three groups: Iñupiaq, Yup’ik, and Navajo. Several other chapters also address the theoretical undergirding of ethnomathematics; another group of chapters include classroom lessons and activities that elementary and middle school teachers will find useful; and a final group of chapters focus on middle school and high school topics. Charting the Course Toward Instructionally Sound Assessment Drawing on the experience of 22 pilot projects, this California Assessment Collaborative report lays out a powerful conceptual map to guide assessment reform. It focuses not only on the tasks of creating alternative measures, but also on schoolwide strategies for using them to improve student performance. Culturally Responsive Mathematics and Science Education for Native Students This publication reviews theory and research on approaches to mathematics and science education for Native students in the context of national standards-based reform. Ethnomathematics and ethnoscience as a basis for instruction are discussed, and examples of culturally responsive pedagogy are cited. Designing Patterns Curriculum Kit Needed Designing Patterns: Exploring Shapes and Area Needed Directory of Indigenous Education Resources in the WestEd Region The Directory of Indigenous Education Resources in the WestEd Region is an updated version of the 1993 publication, the Directory of Native Education Resources in the Far West Region. It also has been expanded to include listings of Head Start, Child Care, Title IX programs, and Johnson O'Malley contractors in Arizona, California, Utah, and Nevada. This directory is intended to be a catalyst for the exchange of first-hand information among individual users and listed organizations. To add or update information in the directory, please e-mail snelson@wested.org. Diversity in the Classroom: A Casebook for Teachers and Teacher Educators This casebook includes 13 compelling first-person accounts of inner-city teaching dilemmas, focusing on the teacher-student relationship in multilingual, multicultural, and multi-ethnic classrooms. Each case is followed by commentaries by scholars and practitioners, which add multiple perspectives to each account. The narratives provide stimulation for group discussion by both teachers and professional developers. A companion facilitator's guide is available. Diversity in the Classroom: Casebook and Facilitator's Guide Set The casebook includes 13 compelling first-person accounts of inner-city teaching dilemmas, focusing on the teacher-student relationship in multilingual, multicultural, and multi-ethnic classrooms. The narratives provide stimulation for group discussion by both teachers and professional developers. The facilitator's guide examines relevant facilitation strategies and provides discussion notes for each case. The set of casebook and facilitator's guide is available at a discount. Save $4.00 from the individual prices. Diversity in the Classroom: Facilitator's Guide The facilitator's guide companion to the Diversity in the Classroom casebook examines relevant facilitation strategies and provides teaching notes for each case. Drying Salmon Curriculum Kit Needed Educating Limited-English Proficient Students: A Review of the Research on School Programs and Classroom Practices Research shows that children not only can learn more than one language at a time, they thrive by doing so; bilingualism spurs conceptual growth. Yet limited-English proficient (LEP) students typically learn English only at a cost to native language development. This report weighs a range of program options for providing more effective instruction to LEP students, examining such questions as: What level of English fluency is needed for academic success? What assessment tools should be used? What are the best English as a second language (ESL) teaching strategies? Effective Assessments: Making Use of Local Context This videotape offers practical strategies for creating culturally relevant student assessments for teachers and staff who work with students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. In a Navajo school district, teachers take existing mathematics and language arts assessments and make them more useful and appropriate for their students. For example, teachers modify a state math assessment task that calls for designing and costing out a tile floor, asking students instead to do the same for a Navajo rug. Effects of the Implementation of Proposition 227 on the Education of English Learners, K-12: 2002 Report This ongoing evaluation, conducted by WestEd and the American Institutes for Research, is the largest and most comprehensive study of Proposition 227. This five-year, legislatively mandated study focuses on the effects of Proposition 227, which requires that English learners be taught overwhelmingly in English through immersion programs not normally expected to exceed one year, and permits bilingual instruction only through the granting of a special waiver. This Year 2 report analyzes the academic achievement of over 1 million of California's English learner students and another 3 million English-fluent students—utilizing for the first time individual student data. It also analyzes surveys of hundreds of California teachers and school and district administrators. Fostering Academic Success for English Language Learners: What Do We Know? The number of English language learners (ELLs) has grown exponentially in California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada region. Fostering these students' academic success has never been more urgent. Yet a contentious, politically charged debate over program models perennially displaces some important questions: Which kinds of language-minority students, instructional methods, and program models are we talking about? Are we using the same terms to refer to the same things? What instructional practices and programs work best for which students? When are they appropriately used? What's needed to successfully implement them? What are the advantages and risks of different approaches? What do the most rigorous and reliable research reviews tell us about English language acquisition? About the role of students' native language in teaching reading, learning academic English, and succeeding academically? What are some pervasive misconceptions that continually cloud the discussion? This publication synthesizes information from several authoritative sources in order to begin answering these questions in ways that can foster better educational practice and accountability for the success of ELLs. Groupwork in Diverse Classrooms: A Casebook for Educators These compelling stories are excellent discussion catalysts that will lead teachers to examine their own views, prejudices, and attitudes toward typical dilemmas in groupwork in their classrooms. Sixteen teachers describe in vivid detail their experiences with groupwork, focusing on both their successes and failures. A companion facilitator's guide is available. Sample Case: "When Do You Intervene?" Table of Contents Groupwork in Diverse Classrooms: Casebook and Facilitator's Guide Set Compelling stories in the casebook are excellent discussion catalysts that will lead teachers to examine their own views, prejudices, and attitudes toward typical dilemmas in groupwork in their classrooms. Sixteen teachers describe in vivid detail their experiences with groupwork, focusing on both their successes and failures. The facilitator's guide provides teaching notes for each case and information needed to use the cases in structured professional development experiences. This combined set of casebook and facilitator's guide is offered at a discount. Save more than $5.00 off the individual prices. Groupwork in Diverse Classrooms: Facilitator's Guide This facilitator's guide and companion to the casebook, Groupwork in Diverse Classrooms, provides an introduction to case-based teaching and teaching notes for each case. Guide to Developing Equitable Performance Assessments Oftentimes, poor performance represents a gap between a student's frame of reference and the task being evaluated, rather than what a student has actually learned. Since the goal of assessment is to determine what a student knows, it is important that assessment reflect a student's particular culture. This guide includes principles for developing performance assessments that are in tune with students' particular cultures, materials for a professional development workshop, and a selection of assessment tasks for grades 4-8. Iluvaktuq Needed Iluvaktuq and Paluqtalek Needed Issues in Cross-Cultural Assessment: American Indian and Alaska Native Students This Knowledge Brief explores some of the historical and sociocultural factors that have affected the schooling of American Indians and Alaska Natives, with a view to identifying broad strategies for improving educational outcomes for these students. Making Assessment Work for Everyone: How to Build on Student Strengths Making Assessment Workrepresents the best understanding, derived from research and practice, of how to select, modify, or create assessments that allow all students, irrespective of cultural or linguistic background, gender, or ethnicity, to accurately demonstrate what they know and can do. The results from such assessments can then be used to target both student learning efforts and teacher instructional practice. The book is intended to help readers: better understand the essential characteristics of good assessment; uncover and account for the strengths and cultural perspectives of diverse learners; create or select classroom assessments that support and reveal the learning of every child, while also meeting high standards; increase awareness of potential sources of bias and inequity in assessments; and use strategies to modify and improve inequitable assessments. Making Assessment Workexplains relevant research findings both about assessment and about cultural, linguistic, and other types of diversity. More importantly, it links these findings directly to classroom practice. To that end, it includes thought-provoking vignettes of how biased assessments can yield misleading data about student learning, "things to consider" in analyzing these vignettes, and "things to try," which are short activities designed to help readers develop deeper understanding. Patterns and Parkas Needed Patterns and Parkas Curriculum Kit Needed Picking Berries Curriculum Kit Picking Berries curriculum kit includes teacher’s text, two storybooks, CD-ROM, coloring book, and two posters. The Picking Berries curriculum emphasizes both conceptual and applied understanding of measuring, data, and representation by engaging students in a series of activities that connect to everyday life. This kit, designed for second and third graders, is part of the Math in a Cultural Context: Lessons Learned from Yup'ik Eskimo Elders series. Repeated research trials of the Math in a Cultural Context series have shown improved students' math performance when compared to similar groups of students who have used the school’s regular curriculum. Picking Berries can be purchased as a full kit or as separate items. Please click below for the individual items available. Picking Berries: Connections Between Data Collection, Graphing, and Measuring Berry Picking Storybook Big John and Little Henry Storybook Picking Berries: Connections Between Data Collection, Graphing, and Measuring Picking Berries: Connections Between Data Collection, Graphing, and Measuring is part of the Math in a Cultural Context series, an integrated supplemental math curriculum that connects aspects of Yup'ik culture to school mathematics and engages students in a series of hands-on activities that help them explore weather and seasonally related factors through math. This approach has been shown, statistically, to be effective in urban and rural Alaska and with various ethnic groups. Designed for second graders, this teacher's module emphasizes both conceptual and applied understanding of measuring, data, and representation by engaging students in activities that connect to everyday life. Here, growing berries are used as an opportunity to teach mathematical concepts. Each activity in this book contains a clear list of goals, materials list, duration, preparation required, detailed instructions, vocabulary list, illustrations, and black line masters. Teacher notes, math notes, and cultural notes appear throughout. Proposition 227 and Instruction of English Learners in California: Evaluation Update (2002) This update briefly summarizes the first two years of the evaluation study on Proposition 227 being conducted by WestEd and the American Institutes for Research. (The full Year 2 report is available at: http://www.wested.org/cs/we/view/rs/661). This five-year, legislatively mandated evaluation is studying the effects of the Proposition – which requires that English Learners (ELs) be taught overwhelmingly in English through immersion programs not normally expected to exceed one year, and permits bilingual instruction only through the granting of a special waiver. The update reports on the academic achievement of over 1 million of California's EL students and another 3 million English-fluent students, and also analyzes surveys of hundreds of California teachers and school and district administrators. It includes policy recommendations. R&D Alert® Vol. 3, No. 2 Contents Low-Performing Schools Begin Turning the Corner From the CEO: Increasing Education Opportunities for All Children Bridging Cultural Differences Offers Key to Student Success Providing Needed Support for Reform to Northern California, Southwest, and New England Schools Leadership Program's Approach Credited for Higher Achievement Data-tracking Pilot Provides Focus for Comprehensive Reform Success Removing Barriers to Learning Leveling the Playing Field for Students with Special Needs WestEd Resources for Low-Performing Schools Single copies are available free of charge. All current and past issues of R&D Alert are available online. Salmon Fishing Curriculum Kit Needed Star Navigation Curriculum Kit Needed Star Navigation Reader Needed Star Navigation: Explorations into Angles and Measurement Needed Testing English Language Learners: A Sampler of Student Responses to Science and Mathematics Test Items State and district officials are working to obtain valid measures of academic achievement in English learners and thus insure their inclusion in programs for the assessment of content knowledge. This sampler is a resource for these efforts. It analyzes the responses of elementary school native speakers of Spanish, Haitian-Creole, and Chinese who were given open-ended science and mathematics items in both English and their native languages. This comparison of student responses across languages is intended to enhance educators’ understanding of English learners and the interpretation of their responses to test items. The document also includes a series of exercises designed to promote the use of the sampler as a tool for professional development in the area of assessment. The Redesignation Dilemma: Challenges and Choices in Fostering Meaningful Accountability for English Learners This policy report focuses on the tensions and dilemmas surrounding one of the most common milestones used for defining and measuring English Learners’ progress: their redesignation or reclassification from limited to fluent English proficient. The report recommends a number of strategies to improve the current situation. Its ultimate aim is to stimulate reflection and discussion about options for building a more coherent system to better ensure academic success for English learners and accountability for the programs that serve them. Title IX Indian Education Toolkit This toolkit is designed to help both new applicants and continuing grantees complete the federally funded Title IX Indian Education Formula Grant. These formula grants help local education agencies and Indian and Alaska Native tribes provide sound educational programs and opportunities for American Indian and Alaska Native students. However, grantees indicated in a survey by WestEd’s Indigenous Education Collaborative that the grant forms can be difficult to complete. This Title IX Education Toolkitresponds to that need. Specifically, it takes users through the grant application with step-by-step tools and tips. We Make the Road by Walking... Together: The Story of the Model Support System for Paraprofessionals The Model Support System for Paraprofessionals (MSSP), an educational partnership in Tulare County, California, expands and diversifies the teaching profession by supporting promising bilingual paraprofessionals who will, in turn, improve the quality of instruction offered to today's language minority students. In this video, participants describe the development of the model and their success completing both bachelor's degrees and teaching credentials. The model builds on community funds of knowledge and local talent, and can be used successfully to expand and diversify the teaching profession in many other settings.