nccrest.org

The website reviewed was [|www.nccrest.org], the official site of the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems. This organization is affiliated with Arizona State University, the United States Department of Education office of Special Education and the National Institute for Urban School Improvement. The “about us” link directs the reader to a page titled “A Note from Principal Investigators”. This page consists of a letter explaining the motivation behind the organization, the credentials of the writers and the reasons the website was written, which was to provide resources to help schools and families become culturally responsive. This website has accurate information, as it consists of a page documenting federal reports of project activities which are sent directly to the United States Department of Education and the office of Special Education. All documents are considered public record and are submitted on a regular basis. The four principal investigators for this organization are educators who saw a need concerning culturally diverse students in the United States. Two are affiliated with Arizona State University, one with the University of Colorado (Boulder) and one with Washington State University. As they state, “NCCRESt is dedicated to helping the education community develop a deeper and more thorough understanding of the intersection of ethnicity, disability and education.” The goals include closing the gap between students from different cultures and their peers. According to the views expressed in this website, many students are given special education services unnecessarily, when what they need is a school that will embrace multi-cultural diversity. The website was originally written in 2006 and updated for the last time in 2008. On the homepage, the reader is asked to visit the new location at [|www.equityallianceatasu.org]. This site was updated in 2011. Equity Alliance, also affiliated with Arizona State University, is an organization that represents many funded programs, including NCCRESt. Both websites are easy to follow. There is a clear understanding of the missions and goals of the organization and the writing is clear and concise. Typing “collaboration” in the search box at __nccrest.org __ brought up many links from articles about collaborative leadership teams to ideas about how to build collaboration between teachers and ESL students and parents. There seem to be a lot of resources, including three academies that deal with leadership skills and team collaboration. At the homepage there is a link to “professional learning” which will then lead to “collaborative leadership teams”. The reader will find different power point presentations offered as tutorials that can help in understanding successful collaboration. I would recommend this website to any professional who wants a more profound understanding of how to collaborate with multicultural students and parents. An administrator searching for staff development training or a teacher with an ESL student would find great success with this website. It has several resources related to making a school more aware of the different cultures that exist within its walls.