Culturally Responsive Education at Dilworth PreK-5
Rising up: Dilworth PreK-5
Culturally Responsive Education at Dilworth:
“You can’t be afraid”
2019 | Written by Faith Schantz, Report Editor
At Pittsburgh Dilworth PreK-5, a “traditional academy” magnet school in Highland Park, the day begins with the joyous and powerful sound of drumming. Lined up on the stage in the 105-year-old school’s auditorium, students play African and Brazilian drums and other percussive instruments. It’s “morning meeting,” a time for music, other performances, recognition of birthdays, and celebrations of accomplishments. Parents and guardians linger at the back, some holding younger children, to be part of a daily ritual that unites the school community.
After morning meeting one day last spring, Principal Monica Lamar clasped the hand of a frustrated child and took him into her office. Dr. Lamar had two jobs—Dilworth’s longtime principal and assistant superintendent—but the student had spoken disrespectfully to his teacher, and her focus was on him. “‘Excuse me, sir!’” she later reports saying. “‘That’s not what we do. That’s not how you talk to your teacher.’ And he had to apologize, and do it sincerely so that we can start our day,” she says, “because everyone wants to have forgiveness when we make a mistake, and oftentimes, kids don’t know how to fix it.”
The whole-school celebration of morning meeting and a disciplinary incident with one boy may seem like opposite events, but both reflect a view of children Lamar has upheld at the school. She notes that she uses morning meeting not only to affirm students, but also to model the behavior she wants to see. During the meeting, students sometimes show surprise when she calls on them by name. “Yeah, you can’t hide,” she says. “I know who you guys are.” When it comes to discipline, “They would much rather do anything than come down here and get fussed at by me.” But the boy left her office with the forgiveness she felt he needed to start his day.
Knowing your students—their names and their needs—is the foundation of Culturally Responsive Education (CRE), a set of principles and strategies practiced at Dilworth and other city schools. CRE involves creating conditions for learning that include all students, such as offering multiple entry points into a lesson, recognizing and validating different communication styles, and ensuring that classroom and curriculum materials represent a range of racial and ethnic groups without stereotyping them. On the national level, CRE was developed to address inequities in schools and systems for students of color and students whose first language isn’t English. However, its principles and strategies reflect effective teaching in general.
Dilworth is an example. Regardless of their race or background, most students do better at Dilworth compared to district averages for their peer groups. White students, students who receive special education services, students whose families are economically disadvantaged—all score higher on average on state tests of reading and math than their counterparts districtwide. Black students at Dilworth do much better, scoring many points higher, on average, than black students in other district schools. In 2019, 70% of Dilworth’s black students scored in the Proficient or Advanced ranges on the PSSA in reading. In 3rd grade, where the district saw a dip in reading scores, Dilworth’s black students scored 20 points higher than the average for black 3rd graders, and seven points higher than the district average for 3rd graders overall.
Sources: PPS and PDE
In her 13 years at Dilworth, Lamar has focused on deepening teachers’ content knowledge and on “reflective practice”—the habit of thinking through what worked or didn’t work in the classroom and continuously refining lessons. At a summer retreat, teachers study data from the previous school year in order to create a plan that will “set the path and the direction” of the school. That plan isn’t one of the formal plans schools are required to make, Lamar says, but simply “what you need to know.” For example, a teacher may realize he or she needs to know more about teaching reading. “What are you going to do?” Lamar says. “The district offers things. You can go to your team leaders to get information and knowledge. You can read books… I’m going to offer workshops and use my meeting time to help you.” To meet teachers’ needs, she looks for resources that are cost-effective and won’t waste teachers’ time. Opportunities have ranged from science workshops at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit; to conferences on educating gifted students hosted by the Renzulli Center for Creativity, Gifted Education, and Talent Development in Connecticut; to offerings from YouTube University.
To promote reflective practice, she gives each teacher a journal, and she herself writes every day, because “It shows up when you write what’s happening.” Looking back at her notes might reveal, for example, that parents needed support around a particular issue. A shelf of journals in her office testifies to the power of recording and reflecting on experience rather than letting the potential learning wash away at the end of the day.
When it comes to the education of black students, Lamar and her staff have examined some of the underlying reasons for the racial achievement gap that go beyond the more technical skills of teaching. Lamar knows the research; her dissertation focused on a school that closed the gap. In Pittsburgh, where the gap is persistent and familiar, she has also needed the courage it takes to confront the status quo. She says she’s had to be brave enough to hold difficult conversations, to “interrupt the pattern” of adults’ inappropriate behavior, to advocate for students’ needs, and to admit what she doesn’t know.
For example, she provides time and a place for teachers to look at the beliefs and assumptions they (like all teachers) bring to school. One of the principles of CRE is that educators should be aware that their thoughts and behavior are influenced by race. Research shows that teachers communicate expectations for students through their attention, eye contact, and forms of praise, among other behaviors, and many unconsciously favor students who look like them. For students, teachers’ low expectations can become self-fulfilling prophecies. The cycle of low expectations leading to low achievement is not only devastating for individuals, but it also perpetuates inequities that exist in society as a whole.
In Pittsburgh, teachers don’t have to go through an uncomfortable process of awareness and change alone. To support teachers, the district’s Equity Office facilitates Courageous Conversation™, part of a program called Beyond Diversity™ developed by the Pacific Educational Group. The goal of the program is for participants to understand how racism operates within a system such as the district, and to help them learn to speak up when they see harmful practices. During “courageous conversations,” participants use protocols for sharing their perspectives and hearing each other’s stories, creating a safe venue for speaking from the heart.
Lamar embraced this form of professional development for her teachers. It “began the ability to have conversations around race,” she says, adding, “We have to have these conversations.” Her teachers also explore issues of race and achievement in book study groups, for example, through discussions of The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children, by Gloria Ladson-Billings.
Lamar says she’ll meet anyone halfway, but teachers and administrators who won’t change should “go do something else.” Throughout her career, she says, she hasn’t had a problem ushering out teachers who can’t or won’t see students’ potential—from her school and, she hopes, from the profession. Holding lower expectations for black students amounts to a refusal to teach them, she says, and that, in turn, “endangers their lives.” One way she sees educators across the district acting as gatekeepers rather than dreamkeepers is by refusing to recommend students for the gifted program because of problem behavior. Once, she says, a teacher from the Pittsburgh Gifted Center called to say a particular student could no longer attend because he couldn’t behave. She retorted, “Are you saying that you can’t teach?”
Dilworth is currently one of two district schools that serve students identified as gifted within the school instead of off-site. For the idea, Lamar credits a boy who said to her, “I’m just as smart as those other students. Why don’t I get to go?” Now, gifted students take classes with a “gifted facilitator” in the building, as well as receiving support in their regular classrooms. Students who are high achieving but don’t have the gifted label also have access to gifted programming. All students have enrichment periods in their areas of interest, in keeping with the school’s arts and humanities focus.
Eventually, Lamar will leave the principalship and fully take on the role of assistant superintendent. She says the principals she oversees need someone who will “champion for them, know what’s needed, know how to coach and talk them through what’s occurring, and to find the answer if [they] don’t have the answer.” One of her strengths is helping others believe in a vision for a school. Courage comes into play again—being strong enough to stand up for children even from a vulnerable place. “I’m not afraid to lead and to share. I also will advocate if there’s something I need or something that kids need or [a need] that my colleagues are sharing… You can’t be afraid,” she says, adding that you can’t educate effectively without the courage to advocate.
To improve all of the district’s schools, she believes educators must become more comfortable with stating what they don’t know and asking for help. “I find that that’s a challenge for a lot of educators. We’d rather say it’s [students] than to say it’s us. But there’s a power in knowing that it’s you, so you can fix it,” she says, in an echo of how she counseled the little boy in her office. “I think we have to get to that space.”
For more information: PPS Equity Office - 412-529-3726 | Culturally Responsive Education | CourageousConversation.com