CREATES: How New York City (NYC) is Building and Sustaining Culturally Responsive School Environments

Format

Individual Presentation

Presenters

Paul Forbes, NYC Department of EducationFollow
Camille Kinlock, NYC Department of EducationFollow

First Presenter's Institution

NYC Department of Education

Second Presenter's Institution

NYC Department of Education

Third Presenter's Institution

NA

Fourth Presenter's Institution

NA

Fifth Presenter's Institution

NA

Location

Session 4 (Vernon)

Strand #1

Social & Emotional Skills

Strand #2

Academic Achievement & School Leadership

Relevance

Culturally responsive education (CRE) has come to focus on the classroom and the teacher's curriculum and pedagogy. While it's great to have one or two teachers in a school building who are deemed culturally responsive it is more important that we focus on creating culturally responsive environments that attend to the needs of all students, especially for the most vulnerable within the community.

The "Heart" strand resonates the most with the work that is happening within the CREATES schools. School leaders are ensuring that students are exposed to rigorous academics but intentional efforts are made to ensure that the school culture is one that is welcoming and inclusive and that the young people are immersed in an environment that promotes positive youth develop. An environment where their voices are heard and magnified.

Brief Program Description

Participants will learn how a cohort of schools are developing spaces where:

1. The school culture attends to race, culture, and gender identity of each school community member.
2. The school fosters conditions for promoting academic achievement in practices that responds to the needs of the most vulnerable student populations.
3. The school provides youth development through curriculum, pedagogy, and relational trust centered in positive racial identity development while promoting student voice and agency.

Summary

The Office of Equity and Access, within the NYC Department of Education, is working with school communities to bring a culturally responsive lens not only to the classroom but also to discipline, family and community engagement, social-emotional learning, recruitment and onboarding of staff, professional development and critically conscious curriculum. We are seeing systemic and transformative changes within a school community as fundamental and operational shifts occur in three interrelated areas: School Culture, Academics and Youth Development.

This has led to CREATES – Culturally Responsive Environments Attaining Transformative Equitable Solutions. Learn how 14 schools in NYC in partnership with New York University's Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of School are using the CRE Framework to ensure that policies, practices and procedures that exist, and those that are created, are filtered through a culturally responsive and equity lens. Using this framework, learn how these schools are supported on their collective journey towards equitable outcomes for all students particularly for some of our most vulnerable, our young men of color.

Evidence

In New York City and nationwide, Black and Latino males are more likely than their peers to experience numerous negative educational outcomes, such as being suspended or expelled from school, being held back a grade, or dropping out. They are also less likely gain admission into academic honors programs, to graduate from high school, or to enroll in college.

In August 2011, New York City launched the Young Men’s Initiative, a combination of new programs and policy reforms designed to mitigate higher rates of poverty, incarceration, and unemployment among young Black and Latino men. Of the $127 million being invested in this effort, $24 million was dedicated to the Expanded Success Initiative (ESI), which aimed to increase college readiness and other key outcomes for Black and Latino male students in the City. A substantial part of that funding supported the development and expansion of programming in 40 NYC high schools, with the ultimate goal of identifying and disseminating successful practices that might be scaled up to other schools across the district.

Based on what has learned from these 40 schools, a new cohort of schools were convened to serve as exemplars for promoting educational equity for all students. This has led to CREATES (Culturally Responsive Environments Attaining Transformative Equitable Solutions) ESI in partnership with New York University's Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of School are working with these school communities to identify emerging and promising practices that are leading to more equitable and culturally responsive school environments. Participants will receive a manual of these emerging and promising practices.

Biographical Sketch

Paul Forbes is the Senior Director of the Expanded Success Initiative (ESI). A native New Yorker who was born, raised, and still lives in Brooklyn, he has dedicated his professional life to working with students and families from historically underrepresented neighborhoods and communities. After three years in Harlem as a Dean of Discipline, Paul has spent 15 years as a central administrator in various roles; Community Based Organization (CBO) Coordinator, Youth Development Director, Safety Director and Suspension Director.

In his current role, Paul works with and supports NYC high schools that are researching and developing strategies, activities and ideas that will increase the number of Black and Latino young men who graduate from high school prepared to enter, persist and succeed in college and career pathways.

Camille Kinlock

A native New Yorker, Camille was born and raised in the Bronx. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education and Psychology and her master’s degree in Education Leadership from New York University. She has proudly served the young people in New York City’s public schools for 15 years. Prior to joining the Expanded Success Initiative (ESI), she worked as an educator and college advisor.

In her current capacity as the ESI Director, she works to close the achievement and opportunity gap for historically underserved student populations, advocates for culturally responsive school environments, and strives to ensure that more black and Latino young men graduate high school prepared to enter, persist, and succeed in their postsecondary lives. She has a passion for supporting college access for low-income first generation students, her large “Jamerican” family, and traveling to warm places.

Keyword Descriptors

CRE, social justice, student voice, equity, access, culturally responsive

Presentation Year

2019

Start Date

3-5-2019 8:30 AM

End Date

3-5-2019 9:45 AM

Recommended Citation

Forbes, Paul and Kinlock, Camille, "CREATES: How New York City (NYC) is Building and Sustaining Culturally Responsive School Environments" (2019). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 145.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2019/2019/145