In 2019, the NYC Department of Education adopted the definition of culturally responsive-sustaining education (CRSE) as developed by the NYC Culturally Responsive Education Working Group. With several students, parents, activists, and other vested community members' input, the coalition used this definition as a launching point for the work we must do for our schools and communities.

One such effort is the CRSE Facilitators Guide, a ten-session collection meant for a variety of situations. Even though it was initially conceived as a tool for schools, we recognize that this can (and should) be used in other spaces, including community-based organizations or auto-didactically for better information about the work we're doing.

From the guide:

When we first endeavored on creating this guide, we had two important and interwoven questions to answer:

• What can we do to hold our schools and institutions accountable to the CRSE definition?
• What will we do if our schools and institutions don’t respond in kind to our efforts?

This guide ... attempts to answer these critical questions. We envisioned this as veteran educators continually seeking community with colleagues, parents, students, and communities ready to see education justice come to the fore in our policies and practice. This isn’t just a guide, but a documentation of the connective tissue between those of us who speak a similar language about the work.

We do this by laying out resources that helped form our zeitgeist, supporting people who want to do this work, and creating a cohesive professional development experience that’s both scalable and malleable to the local contexts of our schools.

The team of writers includes: Jodi Friedman, Joyce Smith, José Vilson and Huiying B. Chan, with support from Leah Q. Peoples, Matt Gonzales, Megan Hester and the NYC Culturally Responsive Education Working Group.

Without further adieu, please get your copy of the guide by providing your e-mail below.

A special thank you to NYU Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools for their partnership. For more information on this project and others, please go to their page on our project.