Students, caregivers, community members, and advocates play pivotal roles in ensuring cultural and linguistic responsiveness in curriculum and instruction, as they represent the community their schools serve and should meet the needs. By actively engaging in understanding and pushing forward curriculum and instruction aligned to the Design Principles, they can advocate for curriculum that reflects the diversity, strengths, and needs of their communities, advancing a sense of belonging and engagement. Collaborating with educators and administrators, students, caregivers, community members, and advocates can help shape classrooms that are more aligned with their cultural backgrounds, interests, and learning preferences and needs, ultimately fostering greater engagement, understanding, and academic success for all learners.

Advocacy & Policy Development Action Steps

• Ask to shadow students or teachers in their classrooms for an hour or a day, to better understand the current state of culturally and linguistically responsive curriculum and instruction.

• Sign up to speak at Board meetings or write letters to the Board advocating for alignment with the Design Principles and sharing examples of what you have experienced related to them. 

• When appropriate or necessary, write letters to local newspapers to raise awareness about the impact of cultural and linguistic responsiveness in curriculum and instruction and the next steps needed to elevate it.

• Ask for meetings with teachers and/or school leaders to share perspectives on culturally and linguistically responsive curriculum and instruction and potential next steps.

• Spearhead or co-host events in collaboration with the school or community where guest speakers, educators, or community leaders can facilitate discussions on the importance of the Design Principles.

• Support or lead the convening of students and caregivers through focus groups and/or surveys to surface perspectives and experiences related to cultural and linguistic responsiveness in their curricula and classrooms.

Review & Selection Action Steps

• Ask district and school leaders and/or board members, what initiatives are taking place related to cultural and linguistic responsiveness and express a desire to lead or be involved in these efforts.

• Identify which curricula are being used in your school or district community and access online resources to explore and better understand the alignment of those curricula to the Design Principles.

• Consider areas in currently used curricula where cultural perspectives, histories, and contributions – particularly those most important to your community - are underrepresented or misrepresented – and highlight these for school and district leadership.

Implementation & Adaptation Action Steps

• Routinely ask teachers and school and district leaders what knowledge and skills are being developed through curriculum and what students, caregivers, and community can do to reinforce these topics and skills. Stay abreast of curriculum arcs and school and classroom priorities for learning.

• Offer the knowledge and experiences you, your students, and/or your community could bring to studied topics and skills and recommend guest speakers, supplemental material, and first-hand stories or experiences you, your students, and your community may be able to contribute to further and deepen these studies.

Regardless of what phases of the curriculum lifecycle you are engaging in, you should stay informed and persist in your efforts by attending meetings and events within your community, sharing your perspectives and evidence of impact and challenge, and empowering your students and other caregivers and community members to share their perspectives and experiences to inform next steps.

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Teachers play a critical role in ensuring cultural and linguistic responsiveness in curriculum and instruction as they are integral in shaping students' daily educational experiences. By actively engaging in advocacy for enhancing the experiences of diverse learners, curriculum selection and adaptation, and professional learning and collaborative planning related to the Design Principles, teachers can promote inclusivity and equity in their classrooms, and those of others in their school community and beyond.

Advocacy & Policy Development Action Steps

• Collaborate with instructional leaders and other teachers to convene students through focus groups and/or surveys to build a common understanding of the Design Principles and surface their perspectives on the school’s and curricula’s current state in relation to the Design Principles.

• Collaborate with instructional leaders to request meetings with relevant district leaders and your broader school community to share your school’s and classroom’s current state, your goals for cultural and linguistic responsiveness, and any action steps needed to adopt policies and practices that support these goals.

• Engage in committees and participate in public meetings regarding state and district curriculum policies and processes to ensure they are furthering your and your school’s goals.

• Spearhead, support, and or participate in events in collaboration with the community around the importance of the Design Principles and how they can be lived into. Highlight components of your classroom instruction that bring the Design Principles to life through videos and testimonials and areas where you are challenged and require support to improve students’ experiences.

Review & Selection Action Steps

• Construct and consistently share clear messaging to students and their caregivers about the importance of culturally and linguistically responsive instruction and your desire to hear their continuous feedback on their experiences in your classroom.

• Engage in opportunities to inform your state, district, or school curriculum selection processes, and share the specific needs of your students and community. Consider and share areas where the Design Principles are underrepresented in curriculum and instruction and elevate these throughout your engagement.

• Advocate to examine a sample of texts and tasks in the curriculum across grade levels, considering alignment to the Design Principles and the assets and needs of your students and community.

• Advocate to pilot one or more units to better understand the degree to which the curriculum supports you as a teacher in more explicitly attending to each of the Design Principles.

Implementation & Adaptation Action Steps

• Work with grade-level peers, including special education and multilingual learner (MLL) teachers, to examine unit and lesson materials before teaching them, aligning on where each of the Design Principles shows up in the curriculum and where the team may need to adapt curriculum to better live into the Design Principles.

• Work with grade-level peers, including special education and MLL teachers, to plan a targeted number of individual lessons with a focus on one or more of the Design Principles.

• Seek your students’ and caregivers’ input on priority texts, tasks, or learning experiences at the beginning of each unit by hosting unit preview events virtually and/or in person.

• Survey your students after each unit to get their perspectives on the texts, tasks, and engagement processes they experienced and their impact.

• Share feedback and data you gather from students and caregivers with your leaders at critical points during the year (i.e. end of a unit, end of a semester/trimester).

• Highlight examples from your classroom of positive changes and challenges/development areas related to the Design Principles to support other educators and leaders in learning and implementing, and to get the support you need to navigate challenges.

Regardless of what phases of the curriculum lifecycle you are engaging in, you should stay informed and persist in your efforts by attending meetings and events within and beyond your school community, sharing your perspectives and evidence from your classroom, and empowering your students and their caregivers to share their perspectives and experiences to inform next steps.

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School-based Instructional Leaders play a pivotal role in fostering a school culture that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive, making their engagement in advancing culturally responsive and linguistically affirming instruction essential. Instructional leaders should actively engage and collaborate with the school community to review and ensure curriculum is in place that is aligned with the Design Principles, that teachers have the learning, coaching, and follow-up that allows them to bring culturally and linguistically responsive curriculum and practices to life in the classroom, and that progress and celebrations are shared beyond the school walls to motivate and build knowledge about these practices across the broader community.

Advocacy & Policy Development Action Steps

• Convene students and teachers through focus groups and/or surveys to build common understanding about the Design Principles and surface student and teacher perspectives around the school’s and curricula’s current state in relation to the Design Principles.

• Request meetings with relevant district leaders and your broader school community to share your current state, goals for cultural and linguistic responsiveness, and any action steps needed to adopt policies and practices that support these goals.

• Engage in committees or discussions considering district policy development in support of cultural and linguistic responsiveness.

• Host events in collaboration with the community. Invite guest speakers, educators, and community leaders to facilitate discussions on the importance of the Design Principles and how they can be lived into. Highlight classrooms and school structures that bring the Design Principles to life through videos and testimonials.

Review & Selection Action Steps

• Construct and consistently share clear messaging about the importance of culturally and linguistically responsive instruction and the use of curriculum aligned with the Design Principles as a key lever for cultivating and deepening this type of instruction.

• Engage in opportunities to inform your state, district, or school curriculum selection processes, and share the specific needs of your students and community. Consider and share areas where cultural perspectives, histories, languages, and contributions may be under- or misrepresented in curriculum and instruction and elevate these throughout your engagement.

• Empower your teachers, students, and caregivers, especially those from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, to engage in the processes for reviewing and selecting new curriculum, particularly when key texts and tasks in the curricula are being reviewed.

• Advocate for and/or lead a reflection protocol during curriculum selection processes that includes teachers, students, and caregivers reflecting explicitly on each of the Design Principles to assess the curriculum’s strengths and gaps and to identify follow-up questions for publishers and/or adaptation needs.

Implementation & Adaptation Action Steps

• Consistently message the importance of the Design Principles and teachers’ roles in bringing these to life for students. Create and maintain open lines of communication between yourself and teachers for feedback and support needs. 

• Create and engage in consistent collaborative planning spaces to support teachers in doing the work of unit and lesson internalization and intellectual preparation, better equipping them to bring the Design Principles to life in their classrooms.

• Use student assessments (including student writing and other work), classroom observations, and student, caregiver, and teacher feedback to monitor experiences implementing and adapting the curriculum in alignment with the Design Principles. Determine next steps for celebration, continuation, and improvement.

• Transparently share progress and updates with the school and district communities and create opportunities to celebrate and showcase the work your school is doing through videos, testimonials, newsletters, etc.

Regardless of what phases of the curriculum lifecycle you are engaged in, stay informed and persist in your efforts by being present at engagement meetings and professional learning events and encouraging teachers, students, and caregivers to share their perspectives and experiences to continue improving student access to culturally and linguistically responsive instruction. Consider engaging translation services for meetings so that all community members can meaningfully participate.

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District and state education leaders and board members play a crucial role in guiding district and state-wide initiatives, including those surrounding curriculum and culturally and linguistically responsive practices. In all initiatives, they should collaborate with school and district leaders, curriculum coordinators, teachers, caregivers, community stakeholders, and students to lead in a way responsive to community dynamics and expertise. District and state leaders can play an essential role in championing and leading curriculum review and selection that aligns with the Design Principles, professional learning that provides processing and practice with culturally and linguistically responsive practices, and policies and systems that support strong adoption and implementation of culturally and linguistically responsive curriculum. Through their leadership, district and state leaders can drive meaningful change and create a more equitable and inclusive educational experience for all students.

Advocacy & Policy Development Action Steps

• Establish a diverse task force comprised of school and district leaders, educators, caregivers, students, and community members to ensure diverse representation from cultural and linguistic backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. 

• Audit current policies, practices, and laws that impact curriculum, professional learning, instructional time, etc. to identify areas for celebration and improvement in alignment with the Design Principles.

• Determine whether and where there is need for new policy development to support initiatives aligned to The Design Principles.

• Collaborate with the task force to draft any necessary policy language to ensure that the Design Principles can be brought to life through curriculum and the supports and practices that surround them in all content areas. This should include curriculum review and selection processes, professional learning and collaboration content and structures, and progress monitoring.

• Consult with legal experts to ensure policy compliance with state and federal laws, and impartial cultural competency and curriculum experts to elicit feedback on policy language.

• Establish routine structures for monitoring policy implementation using data, including student reported engagement, worth, and belonging.

Review & Selection Action Steps

• Design or build upon a curriculum review process that allows for authentic engagement of all stakeholders.

• Establish a diverse task force to guide the review process that is composed of school and district leaders, educators, caregivers, students, and community members and ensure representation from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds and perspectives.

• Establish measurable goals for increasing cultural and linguistic responsiveness within the curriculum.

• Draft or adapt a Request For Proposal (RFP) that calls for curriculum to attend to the Design Principles and requires publishers to provide an inventory of texts, completed Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education (CRSE) scorecard self-assessment, and an ELSF (English Learners Success Forum) Content Developers Guidelines Inventory.

• Establish a process for engagement and selection of reviewers who are content area experts with a commitment to improving cultural and linguistic responsiveness.

• Train selected reviewers on culturally and linguistically responsive curriculum look fors, using the Design Principles and Partner Resources.

• Provide concrete ways (surveys, engagement sessions, etc.) for teacher, students, and caregivers not serving on the task force or as reviewers to engage in the curriculum review process and share their perspectives and experiences.

Implementation & Adaptation Action Steps

• Allocate funding and promote systems and structures that allow for collaborative planning times to support teachers in doing the work of unit and lesson internalization and intellectual preparation to ensure the elevation of culturally and linguistically responsive practices.

• Allocate funding and promote systems and structures for using data to monitor experiences with and outcomes from implementation and adaptation of the curriculum.

• Use student assessments (including student writing and other work), classroom observations, and student, caregiver, and teacher feedback to monitor experiences implementing and adapting the curriculum. Determine the next steps for celebration, continuation, and improvement.

• Share feedback with publishers to inform their continued development of curriculum and prioritization of cultural and linguistic responsiveness.

• Champion and make funds available to highlight changes in classroom practices and teacher and student experiences through video, testimonials, and events.

• Transparently share regular celebrations, progress, development areas, and next steps with the community.

Regardless of what phases of the curriculum lifecycle you are engaged in, stay informed and persist in your efforts by being present at engagement meetings and professional learning events and encouraging teachers, students, and caregivers to share their perspectives and experiences to continue improving student access to culturally and linguistically responsive instruction. Consider engaging translation services for meetings so that all community members can meaningfully participate.

Partner Resources

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