WELCOME STUDENTS!
School offers you the opportunity to build the foundation for your future success. Connecting to your everyday experiences and family background is a way to give meaning to what your school has to offer.
Every student in your school deserves to feel heard and valued and the CRS Rubrics give you and your classmates the opportunity to provide anonymous feedback about your educational experiences to your teachers and school leaders that can help them make your learning experiences more valuable.
The CRS rubrics for students are available in English and Spanish. The rubrics are broken into three main areas, each with a set of topics on which you can share your experiences and provide feedback, including:
- A welcoming school environment, where:
- Your classrooms are places that celebrate your accomplishments
- Your teachers take time to know you and care about who you are
- You feel comfortable discussing personal and world issues with your teachers and classmates.
- Curriculum materials and assessments, which:
- Connect to your interests and culture
- Give you different ways to demonstrate your learning, beyond traditional tests
- Teach you life skills and healthy ways to relate to other students and adults.
- Rigorous instructional experiences, which:
- Have high expectations for all students, regardless of background and past performance
- Involve you in setting up the rules and expectations for your classes, so you feel ownership of your learning environment
- Expect and encourage you and all your classmates to participate during class.
These are just some of the examples of what makes up a Culturally Responsive School.
Here’s What Students Had to Say About their Experience with the CRS Rubrics:
- “Teachers advocate for students in a welcome environment to use Spanish as they come across that every day.” - Elijah, 9th grade student, New Mexico
- “Our school reinforces positive behavior by putting us in the shoes of our peers. We have a student-led group to ensure that student input is valued. The lessons used with this group makes students feel responsible for following the rules.” - Anya, 10th grade student, Pennsylvania
- “We take local field trips and during these field trips teachers help us understand more about our community. The field trips often connect to what we are learning about in school and teachers help us make connections by explaining different parts of the place.” - Sophia, 5th grade student, New York
- “In our classroom you can see many things that show our culture. We are expanding but certainly not at the highest point of exposing our diversity in this school.” - Terrance, 5th grade student, New Mexico
- “We had some good conversations in our class. It was good to hear other ideas on the different rubrics.” - Rose, 4th Grade Student, California
Ask your teacher or principal how you can learn more and enhance the cultural responsiveness in your school.
