The ACSES Measure: A Classroom Assessment Model Designed to Measure Cultural Responsiveness and Anti-Bias in Early Childhood and Elementary Education Systems
Racially and culturally marginalized learners (Black or African American, Latine, Native American, or Asian American students) currently make up the majority of US public school students (Statista, 2022). Traditional early childhood and elementary learning environments, however, continue to follow antiquated models and processes designed to uphold the systems of white supremacy under which American society was founded and largely continues to operate. As a result, racially and culturally marginalized learners (RMLs) often do not see their realities reflected in their learning environments. Their cultural backgrounds, learning styles, and communication styles are frequently silenced, and they may experience racism in the form of microaggressions, inequitable disciplinary actions, and disparities in opportunities (Camera, 2019; Hill & Torres, 2010; Humphries & Iruka, 2017). The traditional public education environment is not racially or culturally neutral. Its processes and practices are designed to prioritize and uphold the dominance of White, Christian, non-immigrant, American culture (Hammond, 2015).
To address this injustice and build a more equitable education system, our teachers and school leaders must not be neutral either. We need them to be actively anti-racist and to work toward breaking down systems of oppression that [RW1] manifest in the classroom. A critical part of teachers’ work must be incorporating the cultural knowledge, communication styles, and lived experiences of marginalized students into the classroom environment and the curriculum. When teachers and school leaders create more equitable interactions and learning opportunities for all students, we see marginalized students’ outcomes improve because students feel more valued, safer, and freer to explore and grow academically and socially (Curenton, 2022).
This theory of teaching that places emphasis on the inclusion of marginalized learners’ diverse communication styles and cultural backgrounds into the learning environment is commonly referred to as culturally responsive pedagogy (Hammond, 2015; Ladson-Billings, 1995). Research on the subject has demonstrated that culturally responsive teaching, along with anti-bias work and social justice-oriented curriculum, is critical to breaking down systems of oppression and creating equitable learning opportunities for racially and culturally marginalized learners (Hammond, 2015). What has been missing from the research, however, is a tool to measure the degree of success with which teachers are carrying the model into practice.
Currently, there are two primary systems used to assess teacher performance in early childhood public education: the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008) and the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R; Harms, Clifford, & Cryer, 1998). Both measures assess key aspects of early education teaching and learning, including instructional support, classroom organization, and emotional support. While the CLASS 2nd Edition has been revised to better address issues of bias in rater scoring, these measures were not designed to address the systems of oppression and racism impacting over half of all public school students and whether teachers and school leaders are actively operating anti-bias classrooms.
Dr. Stephanie M. Curenton and several of her colleagues at the BU Center on the Ecology of Early Development, Georgia State University, and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill have been working [RW2] to address this missing step on the path to anti-bias, culturally responsive classrooms through the development of an observational measure called the Assessing Classroom Sociocultural Equity Scale (ACSES).
The ACSES measure is a reliable and valid assessment designed to help early childhood and elementary education programs examine bidirectional interactions between teachers and children, as well as children’s peer-to-peer interactions within early childhood and elementary learning environments. The goal of this model is to move anti-bias, culturally responsive pedagogy from theory to practice by assessing classroom interactions and helping teachers better incorporate the cultural knowledge, experiences, and diverse learning styles of racially and culturally marginalized learners into their teaching.
Implementing the ACSES Measure:
The ACSES measure is an effective and accessible tool that can be implemented at both the classroom and the institution levels. The measure is organized into six observational dimensions, each of which assesses a specific key behavior. The dimensions are as follows:
Challenging status quo knowledge: Whether the teacher is intentionally challenging dominant male-oriented, Eurocentric history, knowledge, and social hierarchy that pervade education institutions, curricula, and instructional practices.
Equitable learning opportunities for RMLs: How teachers communicate to racially marginalized learners that they believe in their capability to succeed and set a tone in the classroom that demonstrates these beliefs.
Inequitable discipline: Measures disciplinary practices that are unfair, biased, or harsh, especially for children who might have difficulties managing their behavior.
Connection to home life: How teachers intentionally and routinely incorporate racially marginalized learners’ home lives into the classroom by creating opportunities for dialogue about their family and/or identity
Personalized learning opportunities: How a teacher tailors the lesson or activity to individual children’s needs, preferences, and abilities to promote critical thinking, creativity, and expressive language skills.
RMLs’ participation and engagement: How racially marginalized learners show their participation and engagement, their emotional connection during the classroom interaction, and their relationship with peers.
If a program elects to utilize the ACSES tool as a part of their teacher assessment model, assessors will be trained on how to code observed teacher–student interactions based on the above-mentioned categories and how to calculate scores based on the results of that coding. These scores can be used to provide feedback to educators on how they can move toward an equitable distribution of power and participation between themselves and all learners in their classrooms.
Ideally, the ACSES measure is used alone in order to keep the focus on equity while gaining a sense of high-quality teaching in PreK through Grade 5 classrooms. However, it can be used in conjunction with other classroom assessment metrics to enrich the quality of early childhood and elementary classroom environments and bring anti-bias practices into our education system. Currently, we are seeking partners to join us in the effort to scale this measure nationwide.
If you are an educator, a school leader, a data administrator, a policy maker, or an otherwise advocate interested in integrating racial justice into public education, please reach out to us at ceed@bu.edu for more information on ACSES.
References:
Camera, L. (2019, February 29). White students get more K-12 Funding than students of color: Report. U.S. News and World Report. https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2019-02-26/white-students-get-more-k-12-funding-than-students-of-color-report.
Curenton, S. M., Rochester, S. E., Sims, J., Ibekwe-Okafor, N., Iruka, I. U., Garcia-Miranda, A. G., & Whittaker, J. (2022). Antiracism defined as equitable sociocultural interactions in prekindergarten: Classroom racial composition makes a difference. Child Development, 00, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13779
Hammond, Z., & Jackson, Y. (2015). Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. Corwin.
Harms, T., Clifford, R.M., & Cryer, Debby (1998). Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale. Revised Edition. Teachers College Press, Columbia University
Hill, N. E., & Torres, K. (2010). Negotiating the American dream: The paradox of aspirations and achievement among Latino students and engagement between their families and schools. Journal of Social Issues, 66, 95–112. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2009.01635.x
Humphries, M., & Iruka, I. U. (2017). Ring the alarm: Moving from educational gaps to educational opportunities for Black students. In I. U. Iruka, S. M. Curenton, & T. R. Durden (Eds.), African American children in early childhood education (advances in race and ethnicity in education) (Vol. 5, pp. 15–34). Emerald Publishing.
Ladson-Billings, Gloria. (1995). Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, vol. 32, 3, 465–491. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312032003465.
Pianta, R. C., La Paro, K. M., & Hamre, B. K. (2008). The Classroom Assessment Scoring System manual, K-3. Brookes.
US Census Bureau, NCES. (2022, February 21) “Share of Students Enrolled in U.S. Public Schools, by Ethnicity and State 2020.” Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/236244/enrollment-in-public-schools-by-ethnicity-and-us-state/.