Closing the Achievement Gap: Profoundly Multicultural Questions
Focus Group – May 29
At Freedman Elementary School, Springfield, MA

Equity, access, adapting curriculum, learning academic language---What does it all look like in practice?

Dr. Sonia Nieto will serve as knowledgeable other, sharing her depth of expertise on the subjects of multicultural education and culturally responsive pedagogy.  She will speak about how educators can make a commitment to social justice and equal access so that there is genuine movement toward closing the achievement gap.

Dr. Nieto is Professor Emerita of Language, Literacy and Culture at the School of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  Her writing has appears in The New Educator, The Harvard Educational Review, and Multicultural Education.  Her first book, Affirming Diversity:  The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education (1992), is soon to be in its fifth edition (2008) and is used widely in multicultural education and professional development courses.  Other books include The Light in Their Eyes:  Creating Multicultural Learning Communities (1999), and What Keeps Teachers Going (2003), both from Teachers College Press.