The Culturally Proficient School

Randall B. Lindsey is Emeritus Professor at California State University, Los Angeles. He has served as a teacher, an administrator, executive director of a non-profit corporation, as Interim Dean at California Lutheran University, as Distinguished Educator in Residence at Pepperdine University, and as Chair of the Education Department at the University of Redlands. All of Randy's experiences have been in working with diverse populations and his area of study is the behavior of white people in multicultural settings. His Ph.D. is in Educational Leadership from Georgia State University, his Master of Arts in Teaching is in History Education from the University of Illinois, and his B.S. in Social Science Education is from Western Illinois University. He has served as a junior high school and high school teacher and as an administrator in charge of school desegregation efforts. At Cal State, L.A. he served as Chair of the Division of Administration and Counseling and as Director of the Regional Assistance Centers for Educational Equity, a regional race desegregation assistance center. With co-authors he has written several books and articles on applying the Cultural Proficiency Framework in various contexts.

Email - randallblindsey@gmail.com
Website - CCPEP.org
Twitter - @RBLindsey41Laraine M. Roberts, EdD, is Senior Research Associate at WestEd in San Francisco. Her work centers on educational leadership, organizational culture, and school and district development and im-provement. In addition to leading educational research projects, she designs and facilitates leadership development programs for superintendents, district administrators, and school principals. In all her work, her goal is to influence changes within the structures of schools and the practices of educators that result in meaningful learning experiences and academic success for all students. Her experiences as an educator include classroom teaching, school and district administration, professional development, curriculum development, and university teaching.Franklin CampbellJones is associate professor of education leadership at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. He completed six years as a tenured faculty member of education leadership at California State University, Los Angeles. He is a national and international facilitator of organization learning and diversity. His 30-year service in education includes tenure as a high school social science teacher, school administrator, and project director for the State of California.

This book provides the practical strategies, tools, and resources school leaders need to fully implement cultural proficiency throughout the organization. Cultural Proficiency enables educators to value diversity, honour it with integrity, and preserve the cultural dignity of their students. Failing this places many of our students at risk of being excluded from the benefits and opportunities of being well educated. Culturally Proficient leaders embrace diversity and respond to it in ways that acknowledge and esteem cultural differences while simultaneously valuing and supporting similarities. Cultural Proficiency enables educators the knowledge and understanding of how to interact effectively with people in their environment who differ from them. Educators have a choice-they can either contribute to the academic achievement gap or challenge and change the conditions that support the inequities that created and perpetuate the gap. This book offers leadership strategies that are sensitive to how and why some children and youth fail in our schools and why others succeed. The authors also address accountability and data-based decision making.

The five principles of cultural proficiency are:

} culture is a predominant force in people's lives

} the dominant culture serves people in varying degrees

} people have both personal identities and group identities

}diversity within cultures is vast and significant

}each individual and each group has unique cultural values and needs.

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Features and benefits:

}reflective activities for individuals or groups

}examples of typical conversations that arise around the issues of diversity, multiculturalism, equity, entitlement, and racism

} typical behaviors associated with culturally proficient leadership organized around the responsibilities of school leaders

}a rich and detailed case study of a fictionalized school district interwoven throughout the book, providing opportunities for discussion and reflection

} professional development activities.

Foreword - by Flora Ida Ortiz
Introduction
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Part I: Cultural Proficiency and the Achievement Gap
1. Why is Culturally Proficient Leadership Important?
Part II: The Tools of Cultural Proficiency
2. What Does Cultural Proficiency Look Like in Practice? The Guiding Principles
3. The Inside-Out Process to Becoming Culturally Proficient: The Cultural Proficiency Continuum
4. Standards for Leadership Behavior: The Five Essential Elements
5. Overcoming Self-Imposed Barriers to Moral Leadership
Part III: Professional Development for Organizational Change
6. The Art and Science of Conversation: A Crucial Skill for the Culturally Competent Leader
7. Leading in a Culture of Learning And Transformative Change
Resource: List of Maple View Case Study Characters
Bibliography
Index