This glossary is composed of terms and concepts that appear in the rubrics. The definitions and clarifications herein represent the opinions, experience, and discourse of the authors about what these terms mean within the context of the rubrics.
Culturally Responsive Concepts
- Accessibility - access to facilities, materials, and resources.
- Culturally responsive practices/culturally responsive schools/cultural responsiveness - culturally responsive practices are those that uplift multiple cultures as valuable and do not prioritize one culture, set of values, or beliefs as superior to others. Culturally responsive schools are those who use these kinds of practices. Cultural responsiveness is the intentional inclusion of the practices, resources, and ideas of the cultures of as many school education partners as possible.
- Culture - the beliefs, practices, actions, and values of a particular group of people that make them distinctive. Features may include appearance, manner of speaking (sometimes language), place of origin, and religion..
- Equity - A state of individual and social systems wherein opportunity and experience of individuals are similar no matter their identity(ies).
- Identity - race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, physical attributes and ability levels, and communities of belonging.
- Justice - when people are treated fairly by systems and institutions and when steps are taken to fix unfair things that have transpired.
- Marginalized groups/students/communities/perspectives - cultures, ideas, identities, ability status, and races that are outside of a white heteronormative lens.
- Privilege - the power held by individuals as a result of their identity(ies).
Terms used in the Rubrics
- Action - anything that produces results or products.
- Advocate - speak out and/or take actions that are designed to shift practice or policy.
- Classroom and school culture - the manner in which students and adults work together, learn, and interact in the school building as well as the values they share.
- Classroom assessments - assessments given to students during the course of ongoing instruction that can be written, oral, and of any length or format that allows teachers to evaluate student understanding and give feedback to students and parents.
- Co-create - joint responsibility and attribution for creating particular work products.
- Collaboration/collaborate - to work with others on an activity with high levels of exchange and reciprocity.
- Community partners - any person who resides in the local community and has a relationship or interest in the support and development of students and the school.
- Conceptual knowledge - understanding the meaning of specific concepts and engaging with them when they are present in reading, problem-solving, writing, or other curricular materials.
- Curricular planning - planning for the content that will be taught over a specific period of time.
- Curricular resources - anything whether print, video, audio, software, fabricated, or produced that is used to teach students.
- Education partners - any person with an interest in the support and development of students and the school.
- Effort vs. Intentional effort - “intentional effort” refers to premeditated and planned actions to achieve a particular outcome whereas “effort” is more spontaneous or contemporaneous actions to achieve a particular outcome.
- Encourage - using words that make desired outcomes more likely.
- Feedback - a response to the work or thoughts of others that is constructive, positive, or growth-oriented; as opposed to destructive feedback, which is harmful to the receiver either by intention or accident.
- Instructional planning - the plans for teachers’ delivery of the content of a lesson or unit.
- Instructional rigor - aligned with learning standards, appropriate for a group of students, and likely to engage students intellectually at a level that leads to critical thinking.
- Intentional effort vs. Effort - “intentional effort” refers to premeditated and planned actions to achieve a particular outcome whereas “effort” is more spontaneous or contemporaneous actions to achieve a particular outcome.
- Local community - the people, businesses, institutions, churches, and environmental and cultural components that make up the surrounding geographic region where a school or district is located.
- Ongoing training and support - training and support that occurs regularly over specific periods of time, e.g. weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly.
- Ownership - the individual responsible for achieving particular goals and outcomes.
- Professional learning - the development of school staff capacity to engage with their work more successfully and is a result of both formal and informal efforts at developing that capacity.
- Resources of the community - any person, place, or thing that exists in the local community and can be used as a positive source of knowledge or experience for the school or district’s students.
- Respond - addressing a question, issue, or need.
- Rubric – guiding questions that can help you think about experiences in your school.
- Skill development/mastery - skill development is when students learn new skills that they can use in limited situations and mastery is when students can apply those concepts in a variety of situations.
- Social Emotional learning (SEL) - the development of knowledge and skills for navigating our internal and external emotions; also a set of skills that govern our interpersonal interactions with peers, adults, and people we encounter.
- Support - concrete actions beyond words to bring about desired outcomes.
- Training - information, resources, discussions, experiences, and practice that develop individuals and/or teams.
- “Work with” - taking actions alongside an individual or team (a lower level of exchange than collaboration).