This booklet is one in a series of "hot topics" reports produced by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. This particular issue is a joint publication of NWREL's Equity Center and the Office of Planning and Service Coordination. These reports briefly address current educational concerns and issues as indicated by requests for information that come to the Laboratory from the Northwest region and beyond. Each booklet contains a discussion of research and literature pertinent to the issue, how Northwest schools and programs are addressing the issue, selected resources, and contact information.

One objective of the series is to foster a sense of community and connection among educators. Another is to increase awareness of current education-related themes and concerns. Each booklet gives practitioners a glimpse of how fellow educators from around the Northwest are addressing issues, overcoming obstacles, and attaining success. The goal of the series is to give educators current, reliable, and useful information on topics that are important to them.

The purpose of this issue of By Request is to introduce pre-K–12 educators to the topic of culturally responsive educational practices—practices that can be defined as "using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning more relevant and effective for them" (Gay, 2000, p. 29). The booklet pertains to the unique experiences of teachers and school administrators in the Northwest and Pacific regions, and provides a starting place for educators to consider as they develop culturally responsive practices in their schools and districts.

We briefly review practices that research indicates can contribute to the academic success of students from diverse racial, cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Then we take a closer look at how Pacific Northwest and Hawaiian state organizations, districts, school leaders, and school staff are responding to the needs of their diverse student populations. We describe the challenges and successes of these educators and provide examples of their culturally responsive strategies. Finally, we identify some resources for further reading on the subject. In addition, an annotated bibliography of research studies [pdf] is available on our Web site.

This booklet was peer reviewed by internal and external reviewers. The external reviewers met qualifications for technical, content, and practitioner reviewers. Those reviewers are listed in the acknowledgments section.

Another NWREL publication, Classroom to Community and Back: Using Culturally Responsive Standards-Based Teaching To Strengthen Family and Community Partnerships and Increase Student Achievement will be published online in December 2005.