Welcome

We appreciate your continued feedback on our newsletter. This month, you will notice some changes in the section titles and lay-out. Our aim is to make this the most resourceful, usable tool possible. In the spirit of sharing and communication, we urge you to forward this newsletter to all of your colleagues and team members. This month, try viewing the article Class Pictures - Photo Essays - TIME to discover 18 of the students from the new book Class Pictures. The essay and book depict teenagers from diverse cultural, linguistic, and economic backgrounds. The article may prompt some productive dialogue among the members of your organization!

Promising Practices in the Field

Yvette Plummer is the Executive Director of the Denver Metro Community Parent Resource Center (CPRC). She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of Colorado and a Master’s degree in Communications from Regent University. Yvette has taken a break from her passion of making films to pursue her other passion, being a mother and advocate for her six-year-old son. Yvette proudly serves on the Colorado Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC), the Colorado Developmental Disabilities Council’s Multi-Cultural Committee and on the advisory board of Parent to Parent. Recently, she has joined the Civil Rights Leaders’ Coalition. The Denver Metro CPRC provides many different trainings and personal advisory meetings via phone and e-mail at no charge to parents and families. Informational e-mails and mailings are sent out periodically, on subjects pertinent to individual families’ needs. Information and resources are also provided to professionals and organizations at no charge. Over the last year, the Denver Metro CPRC has assisted over 2,000 families. Currently funded in whole by the Department of Education, they are looking to expand their partnerships and funding sources throughout the Denver area.

One important service provided by the Denver Metro CPRC is the African American Parent Leadership Project. They started the training last year in collaboration with Parent to Parent in order to assist African American parents in becoming informed leaders in their community. Each cohort of parents, in groups of no more than15 to maintain intimacy, meet monthly over five sessions to learn advocacy skills, how to navigate municipal and educational systems, and where to gain support within their community. Participants feel empowered to make a difference in their own children’s lives as well as the lives of others’. They often accompany each other to their children’s IEP meetings for support and encouragement. The culmination of the program includes awarding a desktop computer to each parent in need. Yvette believes that being “wired” is of great importance to staying informed and retrieving resources on IEP plans, community resources, and current practices. To learn more about the Denver Metro Community Parent Resource Center, please visit their website at: http://www.denvermetrocprc.org. You can contact Yvette at Yvettep@denvermetrocprc.org for more information as well.

Contents:

Promising Practices

CRUE News

Did You Know

In the News

Featured Article

Watercooler

What’s new at CRUE?

Last chance to save $75.00 on registration for the April Institute!

Race, Class, and Culture in School: Impact on Education and Achievement
April 22-23, 2008, 8:30am-4:30pm, University of Colorado Denver

Effective school personnel are equipped to understand and to teach ALL students. This material assists school personnel to explore how race, class, and culture impact students’ experiences in school, as well as how to develop effective school cultures that ensure success for all students. Participants will engage in both personal and professional exploration of issues of culture, power and privilege. They will identify the commonalities and differences present in their schools and think critically about the impact of race, class, and culture in their schools and communities. This is the foundational training of the CRUE Center for developing culturally responsive schools and classrooms. $350 early registration; $425 after April 1st

Culturally Responsive Literacy Practices
June 16-17, 2008, 8:30am-4:30pm, University of Colorado Denver

Literacy for what? This question provides the framework for this module. Participants explore the evolution of literacy in the United States and learn how teachers can create a “literate” classroom environment. This training identifies the elements of culturally responsive literacy instruction and provides participants with a framework to analyze their current classroom practices and explore ideas for implementing culturally responsive literacy practices. Participants will identify and develop embedded literacy strategies for content-area teachers to increase student engagement in the four language modes – reading, writing, speaking, and listening. $350 early registration; $425 after May 23rd

Please note that each institute is eligible for 1 hour of graduate student credit. To register, please visit http://www.cruecenter.org/institutes.html

Enrollment has started for our second CRUE Certificate course.

• Working with Communities and Families - This class focuses on the importance of understanding and connecting with the community and families of the students in a school, with practical strategies and activities designed to uncover the rich resources that diverse students and families bring to schools. Participants will learn to connect and collaborate with community organizations and activities to increase student engagement and cultural relevance in the classroom. The class meets Thursday April 3rd from 4:30pm-6:30pm and Saturday April 19th, May 17th, and June 14th from 8:30am-4:30pm.

A great option for a stand-alone class as well!

For more information or to register, please visit: http://www.cruecenter.org/certification.html

Did You Know?

Children are more engaged in literacy when the content reflects their own lives. One way to expand your library of culturally and linguistically diverse stories for use in early childhood and primary grade classrooms is through Winnco. They have assembled more than 2300 fairy tales, fables, and proverbs on CD-Rom; selections are in English, Spanish, German, and French - many in side-by-side translations for easy comparison. Works are from: Aesop, Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Andersen, Andrew Lang, Jean De La Fontaine and Mother Goose. The disc also includes: African American Tales, Native American Tales, Mexican Fairy Tales, Mayan Tales, Japanese Fairy Tales & Poems, Proverbs in English, Spanish, French, Japanese and German, Norwegian Tales, and Tales from around the World.

For more information, please visit: http://peoplescom.net/~winnco/winnco/

In the News

Please visit our site at: www.cruecenter.org/news.php for Local News as well as National News. We add articles on a regular basis, so it is your one stop shop for equity issues and legislation as it happens! Please know that our articles are collected from a variety of sources and are in no way the views held by the CRUE Center. Our goal is to keep you informed on the latest happenings in our field and give you something to discuss with your teams. This month, be sure to check out The New York Times, “Free lunch isn’t cool, so some students go hungry”, the Denver Post’s “ADL unveils no-hate plan for schools”, and EGP’s “Walkouts: 40 years later, not much has changed, students say”.

Featured Research Article

Do you work in a district with a disproportionate amount of hard-to staff schools? Are you an administrator working to staff your district and/or school? Then this article is for you…

Meeting the Challenge:
Recruiting and Retaining Teachers in Hard-to-Staff Schools

American Federation of Teachers

June 2007

Teacher turnover can be extremely high in hard-to-staff schools. Billions of dollars are spent each year to recruit and train new teachers, and the discontinuity and lack of consistently qualified teachers puts students at a serious disadvantage after graduation. This article provides examples of issues in hard-to staff schools, as well as offers practical solutions and strategies that have been proven effective in solving many of these problems.

Click here for access to the full-text article:
Meeting the Challenge: Recruiting and Retaining Teachers in Hard-to-Staff Schools

Around the Watercooler…

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts about this month’s content as well as equity issues affecting your schools. Do you have any ideas to share with other CRUE members? Best Practices that are working in your classroom, school, or district? Please click here to tell us more: contact.