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In Brighton, we define diversity as race, gender, sexuality, ability, socioeconomic status, and cultural identity in all forms overt and hidden. We believe that these differences are what make us each unique, special, and important as human beings and prepare each individual to be a good citizen in a multicultural world. Why do we do this? Because all students and staff should be an equal member of a school environment that honors and respects the individuality of one another.
Our goal to break down the inequities that are inherent in our system by closing the gap on opportunities for all of our students requires that we respond to the diversities within our learning community in multifaceted ways. This quest starts with mindsets; informed by our beliefs, biases, and own cultural identities in an effort to ultimately change our practices. The environment we create to foster our growing competency supports this growth. The coherence between these three bodies of work serves as the base to guide our decision making and actions. Our work, represented in the links below, is ongoing as we continue to find the best ways to build the intellective capacity of all students so that they may become the independent learners we strive for them to be.
Mindsets
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nounplural noun: mindsets
- the established set of attitudes held by someone.
Mindsets are formed from one's beliefs and experiences. Mindsets can be shifted through education and practice by building the cultural competence of our staff in an attempt to dismantle educational practices that perpetuate inequity. Cultural competence is built through professional learning, reflection and a conscious effort on one's part to change.
- Professional Learning Opportunities that Influence Cultural Responsiveness
Practices
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To be culturally responsive, learning opportunities must go beyond simply providing students with multicultural representations in the content, but also include specific strategies for learning how to learn based upon one’s individual need. In Brighton, we help learners to become independent through our instructional practices as well as by providing culturally relevant curriculum and resources.
Areas we focus on to ensure that all of our students are included and reaching their true potential include:
- Instructional Practices:
- Promoting a culture of thinking
- Using Project Based Learning strategies
- Developing our Habits of Mind
- Curriculum
- Creating and modifying units of study
- Special Events
- Equitable assessment and grading practices
- Providing culturally relevant resources
- Increased Access to Enrichment/Advanced Programming
- Instructional Practices:
Environment
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A supportive learning environment includes the physical classroom and resources as well as the values and relationships fostered there. In a culturally responsive learning environment, every student feels valued, included, and empowered. We create safe environments by attending to a student's social/emotional self, by ensuring that the staff who work with our students are culturally competent and represent our student population and by the spaces we maintain for maximizing one's learning potential. In doing so, we attend to:
- Building learning partnerships
- Social/emotional learning
- K-5 Second Steps and Teaching Tolerance lessons
- Restorative practices
- Families as partners in the learning process
- Social/emotional learning
- Hiring and retaining culturally competent staff
- Hiring practices
- Teacher induction
- Creating safe and effective learning environments
- Learning spaces
- Access to technology
- Building learning partnerships
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- Timeline for Building Culturally Responsive Practices in Brighton
- Dr. McGowan's communications/commitments to the community:
- New York State Board of Regents Call to Action
- Resources we've accessed
