Culturally Responsive Standards-Based Teaching: Classroom to Community and Back

About Amy StuczynskiDebbie EllisKeisha EdwardsLena KoSteffen Saifer

Steffen Saifer has served as director of the Child and Family Program at Education Northwest since 2000 and as an adjunct faculty member at Portland State University since 1996 where he has taught graduate courses in education. His areas of work and expertise include cultural-historical activity theory the role of play in human development and school-family partnerships. Saifer has worked extensively in Russia and Eastern Europe assisting in education curricula reform. He helped implement a graduate program in early childhood development at BRAC University in Dhaka Bangladesh (co-funded by the Open Society Foundation). He is the author or co-author of numerous publications including Practical Solutions to Practically Every Problem: The Early Childhood Teachers Manual (2003 Redleaf Press) and Education and the Culture of Democracy: Early Childhood Practice (1996 Open Society Institute). Keisha Edwards is a trainer for the Oregon Parent Information & Resource Center (OR-PIRC) at Education Northwest. Her primary work is to design and deliver meaningful learning for educators and families on educational equity cultural competence and engaging diverse families as allies in the school change process. In this role over the past 5 years Edwards has facilitated over 300 workshops trainings and coaching sessions with diverse audiences. As a result she strongly believes that a new discourse personal reflection and deep dialogue across difference will soon be the most powerful and preferred strategies to transform school culture. Edwards is the author or co-author of several publications including: Everyones Guide to Successful Project Planning: Tool for Youth (NWREL 2000); Beyond the Oregon Trail: Oregons Untold Racial History (Oregon Uniting 2003). Debbie Ellis is the project director for the Oregon State Parental Information and Resource Center (Oregon PIRC) at Education Northwest. Her area of work and expertise focuses on school/family partnerships educational equity and early childhood parent education. Ellis coordinates a statewide conference for educators and parents focusing on school-family partnerships educational equity and academic achievement. She assisted in the development of a statewide parent leadership curriculum to help under-represented parents and developed a multi-media training for families. She has worked as a teacher and family advocate/parent educator and is the author or co-author of numerous publications including See Poverty Be the Difference: Discovering the Missing Pieces for Working with People in Poverty (Communication Across Barriers 2007) and Partnerships by Design: Cultivating Effective and Meaningful School-Family Partnerships (Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory 2002). Lena Ko is an advisor in early childhood education and school-family-community partnerships at Education Northwest. She has over 20 years experience training and coaching educators coordinating professional development and technical assistance in model early childhood teaching centers and consulting and technical writing for various education agencies. She has worked to help develop a state-wide family resource center project as well as several federal grant initiatives to help communities improve outcomes for children and families. She has experience working with culturally diverse populations in unique settings including children with special needs at a therapeutic preschool. In addition to this book she has co-authored an Education Northwest publication on a school process called The School PASS (Practices for All Students Success) that focuses on assessing and preparing for the needs of new and diverse students. Amy Stuczynski is currently working with the Human Services Research Institute evaluating the use of family team meetings by public child welfare agencies. She began her career as a social worker for a community-based service organization for African American youth and families in Madison Wisconsin. She later joined Education Northwest where she wrote about language literacy and culture for six years. Amy holds a masters in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.