Guides
Gathering feedback on engagement with cultural responsiveness is a crucial step for school improvement. Culturally responsive schools work with children, families, and their communities by understanding cultural distinctiveness, recognizing and addressing potential biases, and creating a nurturing and inclusive school environment for all education partners.
Below you will find links to guides for different community members and rubric types.
Rubric Facilitation Guides
For Students
If appropriate, a staff facilitator can be assigned to guide students through the process of rubric completion. If possible, the facilitator should be a school staff member who is not the primary teacher for the students in the group, since some of the questions are about their class experiences. There are four guides to support students, depending on their age and type of rubric they are completing:
- CRS Facilitation Guide for Student Group Rubrics: For adults to help students who cannot work independently to complete a group rubric
- CRS Facilitation Guide for Student Group Rubrics: For adults to help students who can work independently to complete a group rubric
- CRS Facilitation Guide for Student Individual Rubrics: For adults to help students who cannot work independently to complete an individual rubric
- CRS Facilitation Guide for Student Individual Rubrics: For adults to help students who can work independently to complete an individual rubric
For Adults
Professional Development Facilitation Guides
- Professional Development Activity: Introduction to the Principles of Cultural Responsive Schooling
- Professional Development Activity: Stories About Culturally Responsive Schools and Practices
- Professional Development Activity: Activities & Conversations About Culturally Responsive Schooling
Guide to Reviewing Results
Frequently Asked Questions
Culturally responsive schooling encompasses many aspects of the schooling experience, including the school's environment and culture, school leadership, teaching practices, and community relationships. Culturally responsive schools work productively with children, families, and communities from a wide range of backgrounds by understanding cultural distinctiveness, recognizing and addressing potential biases, and creating a nurturing and inclusive school environment for all education partners. Learn more about the promise of cultural responsiveness.
The CRS 360° Toolkit comprises a series of stories (short audio testimonies from a range of educational professionals), formative assessments (rubrics for reflection and progress), and resources (guidance, tools, and materials) to help schools learn about and deepen their engagement with culturally responsive practices.
It is free and publicly available!
The 360 Toolkit is designed for all members of the school community: parents/caregivers, teachers (including staff, faculty, and coaches), students, school leaders, and district leaders.
There are many ways in which you and your school or district may choose to use the CRS rubrics. For example, they can be used (1) as the basis for professional learning discussions, (2) for groups (e.g. teams or departments) to learn about and assess their current culturally responsive practices, and (3) for individuals to learn about and assess their current culturally responsive practices. Learn more about the ways your school or district can use the rubrics.
We suggest allotting approximately 40 minutes to complete each group rubric and approximately 20 minutes to complete each individual rubric. As much as possible, we recommend completing each rubric in one sitting.
To determine the pace of discussion, divide the total allotted meeting minutes by the number of items on the rubric(s) you aim to complete in your session. For group rubrics, appointing a time keeper can help keep the group on pace.
Entries made with a registered ID will be aggregated into anonymous reports that show the results for each item on the selected rubric(s).
All responses are anonymous. People will not be asked to include their name and the data they provide will be aggregated with others in reports prepared from the data.
We strongly advocate that the CRS rubric data only be used for learning and formative feedback, not for accountability. For this reason, the data shown on reports never identifies individuals and only shows results in aggregated form.
Check your email for information from your principal about your participant ID.
You should've received an email with an ID from the person who registered your school. If you have not, please contact a member of your school's leadership team.
Yes, you will need a new ID otherwise your responses will be added to the last year's data.
We strongly advocate that the CRS rubric data only be used for learning and formative feedback, not for evaluation. Therefore, the data shown on reports never identifies individuals and only shows results in aggregated form.
Check out our facilitation guides, to help assist you in the process of setting up students to complete the rubric and facilitating the conversation.
To continue your efforts to learn more about CRS please check out our resources for a curated set of guidance, tools, and materials that teachers, schools, and districts can use to learn more about different aspects of cultural responsiveness.
The CRS Stories are short audio testimonies from a range of education professionals. Each story has a set of discussion questions that you can use to explore your own experiences and stimulate discussions with colleagues.
Yes, student rubrics are also available in Spanish. Parent/Caregiver rubrics are available in Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, and Vietnamese.