THE RESPONSIBILITY OF CULTURAL RESPONSIVENESS 1

The Responsibility of Cultural Responsiveness

Katherine Speicher

EDUA 557: Human Resources

08 November 2020

Dr. Deborah Collins

Concordia University Irvine

School of Education
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The Responsibility of Cultural Responsiveness

In May 2020 the death of George Floyd ignited a flame that highlighted the racial

injustices across the United States. In a battle between what is considered a political issue versus

a human rights issue, districts across the country began to stand firm in their beliefs; Irvine

Unified School District stood among them, stating its promise to remain an organization that

continually prioritizes cultural responsiveness.

Irvine Unified School District is a district in Southern California that serves over 36,000

students from Kindergarten to 12th grade. Woodbridge High School resides within IUSD and

serves 22.7% of low-income families and another 8.6% of English Learners (IUSD, 2018). The

Woodbridge Warriors serve a diverse population of 2,427 students and 108 educators. School

demographics show that the majority of enrolled students are White (40.7%) and Asian (36.1%).

The Latinx population has increased over the past couple of years, reaching 11.4%. The

remaining population is made up of Black Americans (2.6%), Native Americans (.3%), and

Filipino students (3.9%). There is a huge emphasis in the participation of extra curricular

activities at its school site, with over 75% of the student population involved in athletics and/or

the performing arts (IUSD, 2018). Woodbridge also prides itself in its highly

academically-motivated students, with over half of its student body enrolled in at least an Honors

or Advanced Placement course (IUSD, 2018).

Apparent Inequities

Some of the obvious inequities found at Woodbridge High School would be the lack of

representation of marginalized groups in academic curriculum. This is due in part to the fact that

Woodbridge High School is located in an area of Orange County that is predominantly white.
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Children of color that reside in areas that are abundantly white suffer from the effects of white

privilege. This can be detrimental due to their lack of exposure to experiences that echo their

own since “having white skin privilege has generally meant that one does not have to think about

one’s own racial identity: race and culture are things other people have as departures from the

norm” (Schick & St. Denis, p. 299). As a result of this, decades-long unawareness for

marginalized people, most humanities courses at Irvine Unified School District have taught a

curriculum that is centered around white culture. This deficiency has inadvertently silenced the

diverse voices of others. Schick and St. Denis (2005) argue that “curriculum is one of the

significant discourses through which white privilege and ‘difference’ are normalized” (p. 298).

By not equally representing non-white experiences in school curriculum, the act of being

culturally responsive lacks credibility.

Another issue that attacks the district’s efforts toward cultural responsiveness is the lack

of support provided to marginalized groups that seek to enter the Honors and Advanced

Placement course tract. As mentioned previously, Woodbridge High School has over half of its

student body enrolled in at least an Honors or Advanced Placement course (IUSD, 2018).

However, only a small percentage of this population is made up of Black and Latinx students. A

part of being culturally responsive is to allow for opportunities to engage with other cultural

groups; and yet, this is not being achieved in the Honors and AP tract. This is not solely an

Irvine Unified issue; in fact, “researchers have known for decades that Black and Latino students

are assigned to advanced courses at much lower rates than their peers. In 2013, the Education

Trust...found that hundreds of thousands of students of color and students from low-income

backgrounds were missing out on these opportunities” (Patrick & Socol & Morgan, p. 4). At
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Woodbridge High School about 11% of the student population is Latinx, yet enrollment for these

students are disportionately misrepresented in advanced courses. It is evident that Irvine Unified

is not adequately set up to support students of color and low-income students to engage in more

rigorous courses. In a study published in Inequities in Advanced Courses, researchers found that

Black and Latino students “are more likely to have disparities in access to advanced coursework

opportunities. That is, schools in which 10%-50% of the students are Black and Latino are

among the least likely to fairly enroll those students in advanced courses” (Patrick & Socol &

Morgan, p. 14). Not giving students of color the appropriate level of support to pursue more

advanced courses prohibits the ability to secure the district’s promise of cultural responsiveness.

Statement of Inequities

In a search to unveil opinions about the absence of people of color in Woodbridge High

School’s curriculum, various stakeholders were interviewed. Ruth Alix, an English teacher, talks

about the lack of representation in the freshmen curriculum by stating, “it’s always been obvious

to me that we mostly read white voices. Look at To Kill a Mockingbird, for example. It’s written

by a white woman about a white man who saves Tom, a black man. It’s used as a text to

represent the wrongs of racism but the only black man in the novel doesn’t speak at all” (R. Alix,

personal communication, November 4, 2020). Educators are cognizant of the impact that

curriculum has on their students. Students are also aware, especially after the spark of the Black

Lives Matter movement that ignited passionate feelings over the past seven months. Shannon

Satriawan, a twelfth grader of Filipino descent, reflects in hindsight her inexposure to cultural

texts during her past four years at Woodbridge as a student. She states, “I guess I never realized

that we don’t really read a lot of books about non-white people. I remember reading about Jews
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during my sophomore year for Maus. But I don’t even think I’ve ever read a story in class about

a Latino person, which is weird because we live in California” (S. Satriawan, personal

communication, November 1, 2020). Shannon’s words exemplify her awareness of the area she

lives in. California is home to over 15.2 million Latinx people — that is about 39% of the state’s

population — yet Woodbridge’s English curriculum does not appropriately address this

marginalized group (California Senate Office of Research, 2017). This discrepancy between

what is taught and what children are exposed to highlights the value of ensuring that teachers are

more culturally responsive in the classroom.

It is also vital for the district’s mission to uphold culturally responsive traditions by

providing underserved students the support that they need. School data shows that only a small

percentage of students enrolled in advanced courses at Woodbridge are students of color.

Administrators at Woodbridge High School have been savvy about this phenomenon since 2017,

citing the racial history of segregated swimming pools as their push for change. Historically,

people of color are more likely to drown than white groups due to their inexposure to swimming

pools growing up (Cook, n.d.). “We have to think of our Honors and AP courses like swimming

pools,” Christopher Krebs, Principal of Woodbridge High School, states. “Minority students

should have access to our courses without fear of drowning. We need to provide them the

support to ensure they are successful” (C. Krebs, personal communication, October 30, 2020).

However, despite teacher, student, and administrator support for cultural responsiveness, not all

stakeholders feel the same way. Crystal Bakker, a mother of five — two of which have attended

Woodbridge High School — believes that “Woodbridge is too invested in the issue of cultural

responsiveness. I feel like we have become too politically correct and my sons don’t always feel
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comfortable expressing a view that is not mainstream liberal” (C. Bakker, personal

communication, November 2, 2020). Bakker’s response echoes the concerns of many parent

communities in Irvine. Her insight brings to light the result of what is to become of the children

if they continue to be sheltered from strategies moving toward cultural responsiveness.

Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures. As a response to the Black

Lives Matter movement that inspired a jolt of change in the country, Irvine Unified School

District Board of Education released a pledge “to educate our students and community about

racism and racial injustice” and to continue to “examine curriculum, staffing and professional

trainings in the spirit of continuous improvement and that this work must be done not just in

times of acute awareness” (IUSD, 2020). This promise of change is a start in keeping teachers

accountable for “not acknowledging their students of color or not questioning their own racial

privilege” (Schick & St. Denis, p. 305). Irvine Unified understands that cultural responsiveness

must be quick and it must start in the classroom. The Woodbridge High School English

department acknowledged this immediately by releasing a statement to all their students on the

first day of the 2020-21 school year:

The Woodbridge High School English Language Arts department commits to recognizing

and uplifting the inherent value of human life. We commit to an ongoing state of internal

reflection and external action, by examining our curricular choices and department

policies and practices to ensure that racially diverse, and historically underrepresented,

voices are heard and learned from (WHS English Department, 2020).

In addition to this, teachers across campus are reevaluating their curriculum by implementing a

process of investigating, planning, and acting on theories surrounding cultural responsiveness.

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However, though educators may begin their work in “validating and affirming students through

instruction,” researchers warn that teachers might focus on “racial identity rather than the myriad

cultural identities in our collective diversity” (Hollie, 2018, pp. 22-25). Because of this, it will

be critical that administrators create follow-up procedures to assess the effectiveness of the

change in curriculum. For the 2020-21 school year, administration has begun the follow-up

process by having staff create measurable goals to determine their progress at the end of the

academic year. Though it is a slow and steady process, it is evident that Woodbridge High

School has begun to take the right steps toward culturally responsiveness in its school

curriculum.

The next step is to validate the lack of students of color in advanced courses and affirm

ways to support these students in more rigorous studies. In a move to address this growing issue,

the Irvine Unified School District partnered with Equal Opportunity Schools, a research

organization that works to “ensure that students, and particularly students of color and

low-income students, have access to and are successful in academically intense high school

programs” (Equal Opportunity Schools, n.d.). Equal Opportunity Schools (otherwise known as

EOS) works with students by having them complete a survey to find out more about each

student’s experiences, beliefs, and reasoning behind the courses they are taking. Researchers

then compile the results to create an individual profile that highlights the student’s cultural

background, ambitions, current course load, GPA, state test scores, and an adult on campus they

trust (Equal Opportunity Schools, n.d.). Identified staff members are given the profiles of

students who selected them as Trusted Adults so that they can begin to support these underserved

students as they work toward their ambitions. Trusted Adults meet with these students to review
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and encourage them to pursue appropriate advanced courses. EOS’ use of data makes progress

assessments easier to tract. Since partnering with EOS in 2017, Woodbridge High School has

seen an increase in enrollment of students of color and low-income students in advanced courses.

Based on the data at the end of every school year, Woodbridge High administrators will follow

up with staff and work to develop more effective strategies to support these students. The use of

EOS data analysis, tools, and reports are pivotal in making the change toward becoming a school

district that is more culturally responsive.

Conclusion

Time will tell how effective Irvine Unified School District will be in keeping their

promise to be more culturally responsive. Students and teachers alike benefit from the ability to

learn from and relate respectfully with people from other cultures. Despite the hurdles that may

arise, learning and growing to become a better organization for students will always be a

worthwhile process.
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References

California Senate Office of Research. (July 2017). A statistical picture of Latinos in California.

California Latino Legislative Caucus.

https://latinocaucus.legislature.ca.gov/sites/latinocaucus.legislature.ca.gov/files/forms/Sta

tistical%20Picture%20of%20Latinos%20in%20California%20-%202017%20Update.pdf

Cook, Wendy. (n.d.). Racial disparities in swimming and drowning: History matters. University

of Washington.

https://www.lib.washington.edu/commons/events/scholarsstudio/past/water/cook-slides

Equal Opportunity Schools. (n.d.). Action for equity. Equal Opportunity Schools.

https://eoschools.org/approach/action-for-equity/

Hollie, Sharroky. (2018). Culturally and linguistically responsive teaching and learning. Shell

Educational Publishing, Inc.

Irvine Unified School District (Ed.). (2020). IUSD Board adopts resolution proclaiming that

Black lives matter and calling for an unbiased and inclusive society.

https://iusd.org/resolution19-20-48

Irvine Unified School District (Ed.). (2018). Woodbridge High School accountability report

card. IUSD.

https://iusd.org/sites/default/files/reports/2018_school_accountability_report_card_cde_w

oodbridge_high_school_20190117.pdf

Patrick, Kayla and Socol, Allison and Morgan, Ivy. (January 9, 2020). Inequities in advanced

coursework. The Education Trust.

https://edtrustmain.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/08183916/I
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nequities-in-Advanced-Coursework-Whats-Driving-Them-and-What-Leaders-Can-Do-Ja

nuary-2019.pdf

Schick, Carol and St. Denis, Verna. (2005). Troubling national discourses in anti-racist

curricular planning. Canadian Society for the Study of Education.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4126472

Woodbridge High School English Department. (2020). Social equity commitment. Woodbridge

High School.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wRS28Vg4zF4atf2zFZaaJA4W7QQq0uvxHp9D2

NckdME/edit?usp=sharing