The recommendations provided in this report are based on evidence collected during an evaluation of EFA implementation. These recommendations support ways EFA can best serve BPS students through a culturally responsive and sustaining lens. We understand culturally responsive and sustaining schooling as practices that are intended to cultivate equitable learning environments that are inclusive of the realities and lived experiences of students, especially students from diverse racial, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds (Ladson-Billings,
1995; Paris, 2012). Culturally responsive and sustaining schooling practices can also be used as a tool to disrupt forms of inequities and acts of injustice against historically marginalized populations. Below, we outline these recommendations.
Center the Needs of Historically Marginalized Students
It is important to acknowledge the need for schooling cultures that are culturally responsive and sustaining due to the systematic ways race/ethnicity and class impact the lives of vulnerable children and their families Ladson-Billings, 1995; Paris, 2012). EFA can better serve historically marginalized students when there is a more nuanced approach to understand the lived experiences of students and their families, honoring their culture and background. Culture itself is multi-faceted, and doesn’t include only acknowledging students’ racial, language, or religious differences (Ishimaru, 2019). In order to be culturally responsive and sustaining, EFA as an equity-based initiative should foster ways to support students by acknowledging their differing learning styles, approaches to problem solving, values, norms, and thought processes. Increasing teacher diversity across EFA schools and offering additional teacher training on cultural competency can aid in addressing this.
Additionally, there needs to be more resources and supports built into the school structure for emergent bilingual students, immigrant families, and families of color struggling with broader societal conflicts (e.g. national rebellions, immigration challenges, etc.) Students need to see their experiences represented in their schools and be able to have authentic conversations about them.
Focus on Family Engagement to Best Reach Historically Marginalized Families
The findings presented in this report demonstrate a need for increased family engagement models that are culturally responsive and sustaining. Culturally responsive and sustaining family engagement is understood as a partnership between schools and families to develop programs, policies, and practices that empower students’ learning (Doucet & Tudge, 2007). This family engagement model can be useful to incorporate into the EFA model because families and schools are equal partners in decision making, curriculum planning, policy and resource development. Through this model, EFA teachers and school leaders can learn more about what assets and possibilities exist for students’ academic and socioemotional learning through collaboration (Mapp and Kuttner, 2013). Families are the experts on their lives, their children’s lives, and their children’s needs. However, many families interviewed in this study were not fully aware of EFA, what offerings were included in the initiative, and how it could benefit their children. While many parents supported an equity-based model, bringing families to the table to collaborate on the design and implementation of EFA will ensure that parents are equal partners in developing a vision and plan for student success.
Increase Coaching Support
Increasing coaching support to full-time could help mitigate challenges around being responsive to students’ and families’ needs. Full-time EFA coaches could assist in brokering relationships between school leaders, teachers, families, and community members. EFA coaches interviewed for this report were well aware of the systemic challenges impeding on student experiences in EFA schools as well as the broader societal conflicts students were also facing, and noted this missing narrative from their classroom experience. Coaches could use this knowledge to partner with other school staff and families to discover ways to best support student learning and encourage student voice, such as increased support for capstone and similar projects, differentiated classroom learning, and cultural representation in curriculum.
Better Collaboration Between BPS Offices and Schools
There is a need for improved communication across stakeholder groups as demonstrated in this report. When interviewed, some principals, instructional coaches, and teachers expressed a need for greater coherence between regular academic offerings and EFA offerings. Because curriculum is determined by academic superintendents, not EFA staff, each EFA school can essentially offer different material. In order to ensure students have equal access to material, there should be uniformity in core academic and EFA offerings. BPS units should collaborate with families to determine what these offerings are. Having a standard across all EFA schools can aid in creating vertical alignment between grade levels. This uniformity will not only help teachers better serve students, but it can also aid in measuring EFA implementation and fidelity.
