Cultural competence requires all of us to be cultured and competent

If we all dig deep. If we all search our souls for the true deficits that lead to the achievement gaps in our schools, we may find that race and poverty are only the physical manifests of what is actually at play here: low expectations. The psychology of all of this is as fascinating and compelling as it is sad and tragic. Since there are lives at stake here, let us keep our focus on solving problems and not just theorizing about them. Still, solving the true, discriminatory practices that lead to achievement gaps does require our school leaders to understand why and how these gaps reveal themselves daily in our classrooms. Let me be clear that I am true believer in teachers and schools…

Cultural competence training among teachers and leaders and its related pedagogy have arrived with such bombast that one might think the system we now have is outmoded (which it is), uninspiring (which it is) and that there are scads of children tuned out (which they are) because we have somehow failed (which we have) to connect with them in any relevant way. Of course, it is not true that cultural competence has only recently arrived on the scene but it is true that our industry is finally catching up with what the kids have been telling us for years, that learning is about them and their needs, that we have got to meet them where they are before we can expect them to go where…