Meeting
students where they are often requires knowing, celebrating, and incorporating
their cultural backgrounds.
By
Sophie Quinton
Arizona's attorney general called the
program "propagandizing and brainwashing." An
administrative law judge ruled
that it "promotes racial resentment against 'Whites,' and advocates ethnic
solidarity of Latinos."
With that, the Tucson Unified School District's
controversial Mexican-American studies courses shut down in 2011. Yet a University of
Arizona study found that the mostly Latino students who took the
courses were 46 percent to 150 percent more likely to graduate from high school
than those who did not. The study also determined positive effects on math and
reading test scores. An independent
audit of the curriculum confirmed that taking the courses helped
students succeed in school.
All good teachers build a bridge between what
students know and what they need to learn. Yet teaching that embraces students'
cultural backgrounds has largely been left out of current debates on what makes
teachers effective. The drama in Tucson helps explain why: Culturally
responsive teaching often requires confronting some of the most painful divides
in American life.
