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A teacher greeting every student in her class’s with a smile, creating a welcoming atmosphere.

Edutopia )n.d.). Welcoming students with a smile

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Greeting each student at the door with a positive message brings benefits for both students and teacher, according to a study.

A widely cited 2007 study claimed that teachers greeting students at the classroom door led to a 27 percentage point increase in academic engagement. The problem? It included just three students.

Now a new, much larger and more credible study -comprising 203 students in 10 classrooms-validates that claim: Greeting students at the door sets a positive tone and can increase engagement and reduce disruptive behavior. Spending a few moments welcoming students promotes a sense of belonging, giving them social and emotional support that helps them feel invested in their learning.

The first few minutes of class are often the most chaotic, as students transition from busy areas such as the hallway or playground. Left unchecked, disruptions can become difficult to manage, but a proactive approach to classroom management can help students get focused and ready to learn. Rather than address disruptive behavior as it happens, proactive techniques-like greeting students at the door and modeling good behavior-reduce the occurrence of such behavior as teachers and students build a positive classroom culture together.

In the study, when teachers started class by welcoming students at the door, academic engagement increased by 20 percentage points and disruptive behavior decreased by 9 percentage points-potentially adding "an additional hour of engagement over the course of a five-hour instructional day," according to the researchers.

Ten middle school teachers were randomly assigned by the researchers to one of two groups. The first group started class by greeting their students at the door, saying each student's name while using a nonverbal greeting such as a handshake or nod. The teachers also used precorrective statements -reminders of what to do at the start of class like, "Spend the next few minutes reviewing what we covered yesterday." If a student had struggled with their behavior the previous day, the teachers often gave a positive message to encourage them to improve.

Teachers in the second group attended classroom management training sessions offered by their schools, but they weren't given any specific instructions on how to start class.

Researchers observed classrooms in the fall and spring, looking at academic engagement-how attentive students were to their teacher or classwork-and disruptive behavior, including speaking out of turn, leaving one's seat, and distracting classmates. Both measures improved in classrooms where teachers greeted their students, confirming what many teachers already know: Meeting students' emotional needs is just as important as meeting their academic needs.

"The results from this study suggest that teachers who spend time on the front end to implement strategies such as the PGD [positive greetings at the door] will eventually save more time on the back end by spending less time reacting to problem behavior and more time on instruction," the study authors write.

Building Community

Why do positive greetings work? When teachers use strategies like this, they help "establish a positive classroom climate in which students feel a sense of connection and belonging," the study authors write. "This is particularly important considering the research demonstrating that achievement motivation is often a by-product of social belonging." In other words, when students feel welcome in the classroom, they're more willing to put time and effort into learning.

Nonverbal interpersonal interactions, such as a friendly handshake or a thumbs-up, can help make greetings feel authentic and build trust -as long as students feel comfortable with physical contact.

Say the student's name

Make eye contact

Use a friendly nonverbal greeting, such as a handshake, high five, or thumbs-up

Give a few words of encouragement

Ask how their day is going

When greeting students at your door:

Addressing Underlying Causes of Misbehavior

Disruptive behavior is contagious-if one student misbehaves, it can quickly spread to other students. And while most teachers try to respond immediately, punishment often backfires. Research shows that trying to fix student misbehavior may be futile because doing so can spur resistance and more misbehavior instead of compliance.

"Despite overwhelming evidence that such strategies are ineffective, many teachers rely on reactive methods for classroom behavior management," explain the study authors.

So instead of asking, "How can I fix misbehavior?" teachers could ask, "How can I create a classroom environment that discourages misbehavior in the first place?" In many cases, low-level disruptions and disengagement have less to do with the student and more to do with factors that the teacher can control, such as teaching style and use of stimulating activities. For example, a study found that when teachers encouraged students to participate in classroom activities rather than lecturing to them, students were more likely to stay on task.

Another recent study provides additional insights: When teachers focused their attention on students' positive conduct and avoided rushing to correct minor disruptions, students had better behavior, and their mental health and ability to concentrate also improved.

Benefits for Teachers, Too

A welcoming classroom environment doesn't benefit students alone-it can improve the teacher's mental health as well. Slightly more than half of teachers- 53 percent-feel stressed by student disengagement or disruptions. The consequences can be serious: A 2014 study found that "teachers report classroom management to be one of the greatest concerns in their teaching, often leading to burnout, job dissatisfaction, and early exit from the profession."

All too often, teachers spend time and energy responding to misbehavior with corrective discipline, such as telling students to stop talking or giving them a time-out. These may work in the short term, but they can damage teacher-student relationships while doing little to prevent future misbehavior. Research shows that it can be beneficial for student and teacher well-being to instead focus on creating a positive classroom environment.

The takeaway: Starting class by greeting your students at the door helps set a positive tone for the rest of the day, promoting their sense of belonging, boosting their academic engagement, and reducing disruptive behavior.

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Greeting each student at the door with a positive message brings benefits for both students and teacher.

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Advancing Effective Interactions & Instruction. (n.d.). Measuring quality: Teacher-child interactions [Photograph]. AEII. Retrieved from https://aeiionline.org/advancing-effective-interactions-and-instruction-2/how-does-it-work/measuring-quality-of-teacher-child-interactions/

Edutopia. (n.d.). Welcoming students with a smile [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/article/welcoming-students-smile

SeekTeachers. (n.d.). Teacher giving feedback to a student in class [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.seekteachers.com/blog/the-art-of-helpful-feedback-supporting-students-improvement/

Turnbull, A., Turnbull, R., Wehmeyer, M. L., & Shogren, K. A. (2024). Exceptional lives: Practice, progress, & dignity in today’s schools (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.  [Chapters 9, 10.]

Will, M., & Najarro, I. (2022, April 18). What is culturally responsive teaching? [Illustration]. Education Week. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/culturally-responsive-teaching-culturally-responsive-pedagogy/2022/04

Wood, C. L., Kisinger, K. W., Brosh, C. R., Fisher, L. B., & Muharib, R. (2018). Stopping behavior before it starts: Antecedent interventions for challenging behavior. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 50(6), 356-363.https://doi.org/10.1177/0040059918775052

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Introduction: What did I choose to write about?

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Introduction: What did I choose to write about?

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To begin, the article by Wood et al. (2018) explains how teachers can prevent challenging behaviors through proactive strategies known as antecedent interventions. These include presession attention, high-probability request sequences, and functional communication training, each designed to stop behavior problems before they start by meeting students’ needs in positive ways.

Next, McLeskey et al. (2017) focus on High-Leverage Practices (HLPs) that promote emotional, behavioral, and social success for all students. They emphasize the importance of creating respectful, culturally responsive classrooms (HLP7) and providing students with positive, constructive feedback that guides their learning (HLP8).

In practice, these ideas can be applied by greeting students at the door, engaging them in short personal check-ins before lessons, and using visual tools such as the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) or speech-generating devices to help students communicate effectively. Teachers can also model and explicitly teach social skills while giving feedback that is timely, specific, and affirming.

Furthermore, these strategies foster inclusion by ensuring that every student—regardless of ability, language, or background—feels supported and valued in the classroom. By combining antecedent interventions from Wood et al. (2018) with the HLP framework from McLeskey et al. (2017), educators can create learning environments that are structured, caring, and equitable for all learners.

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McLeskey et al. (2017) emphasize that effective special education teachers create organize and respectful learning environment to foster students’ social, emotional, and behavioral development. Teachers are encouraged to establish culturally responsive expectations, routines, and positive feedback systems that build mutual respect and engagement among students (p. 1).

The authors identify four high-leverage practices (HLPs) that promote student success. For example, HLP7 focuses on creating structured, inclusive, and culturally aware classrooms where expectations are explicitly taught and reinforced (p. 1).

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Wood eat al. (2018) discusses evidence-based antecedent interventions that help educators prevent challenging student behaviors before they occur. Wood et al. (2018) describe how functional behavior assessments (FBA) and preference assume to can guide teachers in selecting appropriate interventions tailored to the functions of behavior (Wood et al., 2018, p.357) The three main antecedent strategies are precession attention, high-probability request sequences (HPRS), and functional communication training (FCT).

Precession attention involves providing attention to students before instruction to reduce attention-seeking disruptions (Wood et al., 2018, p.357-358). HPRS uses a sequence of easy requests to build student appropriate communication methods to replace b=problem behaviors, especially for those with limited verbal skills (Wood et al., 2018, p.359). FCT focuses on teaching students appropriate communication methods to replace problem behaviors, especially for those limited verbal skills (Wood et al., 2018, p.360-361). Wood et al. (2018) emphasizes the importance of consistent data collection, reinforcement and intervention directly to ensure success. Overall, Wood et al. (2018) highlights how a proactive, preventive approaches can create positive inclusive learning environments and reduce reliance on punitive discipline.

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1. Presession Attention: Teachers can provide students with positive attention before a lesson begins to reduce the student’s attention span. This proactive approach lessens the motivation for students to act out to gain attention and has been shown to decrease disruptive behavior (Wood tel., 2018, p.358).

2. High-Probability Request Sequences (HPRS): This strategy involves giving students several easy-to-follow requests, reinforcing compliance with each, and introducing a more diffusing or less preferred task. The momentum created by repeated success increases compliance and reduces noncompliance (Wood et al., 2018, p. 359).

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Both readings empathize proactive, relationship-centered teaching that prevents probable behavior before it starts. For instance, Wood et al. (2018) discusses presession attention; this practices involved teachers intentionally giving students attention before lessons to reduce attention-seeking or disruptive behavior (p.358). On a similar note, McLeskey et al. (2017) emphasizes establishing consistent, respectful learning environments (HLP7), where expectations are always explicitly taught and reinforced (p.1). These practices remind me of classrooms I’ve substituted at where the teachers greet students personally at the door, play with the students during recess, and allowing students to draw quietly if they are having a hard time napping. These are all simple, but powerful strange toys that builds trust in the classroom, the strong the trust is between students and teachers, the easier it is to minimize disruptions.

In reality, many classrooms still reply heavily on reactive discipline then antecedent-based strategies. Wood et al. (2018) argues that prompting prevention through under standing behavioral triggers and providing presession attention, high-probability request sequences, and functional communication training (pp. 358-361). McLeskey et al. (2017) aligns with Wood et al. (2018)‘s approach with strategies like: encouraging positive, structured environments and feedback that promote emotional regulation and engagement (pp. 1-2). While both highlight evidence-based strategies, finding the administrative staff, classroom size, and trained teachers can potentially make all of this implementation impossible. There need to be consistent support between the teacher, administrative staff, and even parents to build positive, structured environments students can feel safe and eager to learn in.

During my internship, I observed my mentor teacher talking to students at the start of class and during independent work time. My mentor teacher asked about their interests, wrote notes about the music they liked to listen to at home, and asked what kind of school were they were doing (if they were doing another class’s work). All of these interactions my mentor teacher has are a direct examples of presession attention (Wood et al., 2018, p. 358). My mentor teacher’s practice also mirror HLP7’s recommendation to build mutually respectful relationships and culturally responsive expectations (McLeskey et al., 2017, p. 1). Another thing I noticed that when mentor teacher gave positive feedback was consistent and specific, (which is on of HLP8’s practices that focus on constructive feedback to guide learning, p. 2), the students were more willing to follow directions and less likely to act out.

Both sources acknowledge the role inclusion begins with relations and respect. Wood et al. (2018) notes functional communication training (FCT) gives students with limited verbal abilities access to resources like visual supports like speech-generating devices on iPads to request help or express needs, instead of using problem behaviors (Wood et al., 2018, p.361). Teachers may also implant visual schedules, choice boards, or nonverbal sign cards to give students predictable routine while still giving students autonomy. In comparison, High-Levrage Practices (HLPs) emphasize instructional tools that encourage equity. McLeskey et al. (2017) recommend explicit teaching of social behaviors (HLP9) through role-playing, modeling, and guided practice, along with positive and constructive feedback (HlP8_ to reinforce culturally appropriate communication and cooperation (pp.2-3). These tools prevent challenging behavior, building an environment where all students of all backgrounds and disabilities can engage in meaningful, inclusive learning.

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Wood et al., (2018) reminds me of teachers I have met as a student and as a day care assistant subsisted. For instance as a student I remember my 3rd grade elementary teacher would stand by her door, greeting students individually by their name. She would try to make conversation or at least give them a high five. My old third grade elementary teacher gave us presession attention (Wood et al., 2018, p.358). This small intentional routine helped the entire classroom feel seen, and reduced attention-seeking behaviors when class started.

However, I understand this personal situation and reflection of a teacher in my life is idealistic. In many classrooms, behavior managements often focuses on enacting to misbehavior, such as using: time-outs warnings, or loss of privileges. Wood et al. (2018) contrasts this reactive approach by emphasizing antecedent interventions preventing issues before they occur. In practice this is quite hard to implement, due to time constraints, lack of training, and staff shortages. In a day care I have subsisted for, the classroom had almost 16 students with an eighth of them at least having some accommodations or an IEP. This made it exhausting for the staff, none of the staff wanted to work in the preschool room. There were simply too many behavior problems and instances of aggressive behaviors. As on of the substitutes at the daycare I wanted to investigate why the students reacted so negatively and aggressive when they did not get their way. The teachers and substitutes used reward systems, only used warnings to pressure students, time-outs, and the loss of privileges of going outside to tell students with behavior challenges to stop them from misbehaving. After reading Wood et al. (2018) antecedent interventions is extremely hard to do without consistent, trained teachers. The difference between theory and practice highlights the importance of professional development in the proactive classroom management.

Looking back at my internship experience the other day, many students in the 4th period class disrupted my mentor teacher as she tried to demo watercolor techniques. My mentor teacher unknowingly used a high-probability request sequence by asking the student first to face her, and asking the student politely to wait to talk until she is finished demonstrating her watercolor painting techniques (Wood el al., 2018, p.359). This approach built compliance momentum as my mentor teacher progressed and finished her demonstration. Students worked on their watercolor drawings following my mentor teacher, and then talked while she went around the room to check up on them.

After reading Wood et al. (2018). there are many ways inclusion and culturally responsive practices become the forefront of teaching. Wood et al. (2018) Uses antecedents interventions like functional communication training, allowing students with disabilities, especially students with limited verbal skills to communicate their needs in socially appropriate ways (p.361). This directly supports inclusion by ensuring all students have equitable access to communication and participation. Implementing these strategies in a culturally responsive manner builds trust and fosters a positive classroom culture all students can thrive in.

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After reading these articles, I feel humbled and deeply reflective about my own practice. Although my current role as a daycare assistant substitute differs from that of a K–12 educator, the readings helped me recognize the importance of maintaining faith in every student’s potential. I’ve realized that when educators lose belief in their students, it becomes nearly impossible to support their growth. Building trust and forming meaningful relationships with students are essential, and doing so requires collaboration with families, paraprofessionals, and administrators. Teachers must not only guide students but also show them that they are valued, supported, and needed members of the classroom community.

I can be more inclusive and culturally responsive by taking time to learn about my students as individuals. This includes asking paraprofessionals about students’ interests, observing how students interact in different classroom settings, and providing positive, specific feedback whenever possible. Greeting students by name and acknowledging them each day fosters belonging and trust. I also plan to continue learning about students’ cultural backgrounds so I can create a classroom environment that reflects respect, diversity, and empathy.

From these readings, I’ve learned that teachers play a central role in shaping safe, supportive, and socially healthy learning environments. Effective classroom management does not rely on confrontation or punishment but instead focuses on proactive strategies that minimize distractions and promote engagement. Allowing students to interact, play, and communicate is an essential part of developing empathy, cooperation, and inclusive classroom communities. Teachers have access to a wide range of tools and approaches that foster both academic success and emotional growth—and it begins with understanding, patience, and connection.

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Teacher-child interactions (n.d.).

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Advancing Effective Interactions & Instruction

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Measuring Quality: Teacher-Child Interactions - Advancing Effective Interactions & Instruction

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Measuring Quality: Interactions At the heart of every classroom lies the strength of a teacher’s interactions with students. Measuring the Quality of Teacher-Child Interactions Children who experience high-quality teacher-child interactions show higher levels of social-emotional and academic development. With this in mind, AEII aims to observe and understand the effectiveness of interactions in each publicly […]

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HLP 8: Providing Positive and Constructive Feedback in the Classroom 

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HLP 8: Providing Positive and Constructive Feedback in the Classroom 

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Teacher giving feedback to a student in class (n.d.).

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The Art of Helpful Feedback: Supporting Students’ Improvement - SeekTeachers

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Providing effective feedback is a fundamental aspect of teaching and plays a crucial role in supporting student’s growth and improvement. In this bl

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HLP7: Setting Up Respectful Culturally Responsive, Classroom Enviroments with High Expectations & Inclusive Practices 

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HLP7: Setting Up Respectful Culturally Responsive, Classroom Enviroments with High Expectations & Inclusive Practices 

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Will, M., & Najarro, I. (2022, April 18). What is culturally responsive teaching?

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For decades, researchers have found that teachers in public schools have undervalued the potential for academic success among students of color, setting low expectations for them and thinking of cultural differences as barriers rather than assets to learning.

In response, scholars developed teaching methods and practices-broadly known as asset-based pedagogies-that incorporate students' cultural identities and lived experiences into the classroom as tools for effective instruction. The terms for these approaches to teaching vary, from culturally responsive teaching and culturally sustaining pedagogy to the more foundational culturally relevant pedagogy. Though each term has its own components defined by different researchers over time, all these approaches to teaching center the knowledge of traditionally marginalized communities in classroom instruction. As a result, all students, and in particular students of color, are empowered to become lifelong learners and critical thinkers.

This explainer unpacks what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher, how all these research terms are related, and where other academic concepts such as critical race theory tie in-or not.

What is the definition of culturally responsive teaching?

Culturally responsive teaching means using students' customs, characteristics, experience, and perspectives as tools for better classroom instruction.

The term was coined by researcher Geneva Gay in 2000, who wrote that "when academic knowledge and skills are situated within the lived experiences and frames of reference for students, they are more personally meaningful, have higher interest appeal, and are learned more easily and thoroughly."

It's the kind of teaching that helps students of color see themselves and their communities as belonging in schools and other academic spaces, leading to more engagement and success.

What is culture, and why is it relevant to student learning?

Culture refers to the customs, languages, values, beliefs, and achievements of a group of people. Students' culture and lived experiences that influence how they understand and make sense of the world or themselves are an integral part of who they are as learners. As Emily Style, the former founding co-director of the National SEED Project (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity), once wrote, "Half the curriculum walks in the door with the students."

While more than half of public school students are students of color, most schools are organized around the mainstream culture of white Americans. The culture that many students experience at home and in their communities is not always represented at school-or is represented in a stereotypical way.

Also, 80 percent of teachers are white. Research has found that teachers are just as likely to have racial biases as non-teachers, and those biases tend to influence the expectations they have for their students and their ways of managing their classrooms. For example, past research has found that white teachers have lower expectations for Black students than they do for white students, and those can turn into "self-fulfilling prophecies" when students internalize them or when teachers change their approach to students as a result of their mindsets.

One study found that white teachers were more likely to praise a poorly written essay if they thought it was written by a student of color than if they thought the essay was by a white student. Teachers' racial biases can also result in decreased access to advanced coursework and higher rates of suspensions.

When did culturally responsive teaching start?

Culturally responsive teaching stems from the framework of culturally relevant pedagogy, which was introduced by scholar Gloria Ladson-Billings in the 1990s. Ladson-Billings was tired of the commonly held narrative that Black children were deficient and deviant, and that there was something wrong with them. Instead, she wanted to find out what was right with Black children, their families, and their communities. To do so, she researched the practices of effective teachers of Black students.

For about two years, Ladson-Billings observed teachers who were identified by both principals and Black parents as being excellent. The teachers had different ways of teaching, but they all had high expectations for their students and fostered academic success. They also all valued and integrated themselves in the community from which their students came.

Ladson-Billings distilled the commonalities in those teachers' beliefs and practices into the framework of culturally relevant pedagogy, which she defined as a model that "not only addresses student achievement but also helps students to accept and affirm their cultural identity while developing critical perspectives that challenge inequities that schools (and other institutions) perpetuate."

There are three components of culturally relevant pedagogy:

student learning-prioritizing students' intellectual growth, including their ability to problem-solve;

cultural competence-creating an environment where students affirm and appreciate their culture of origin while also developing fluency in at least one other culture; and

critical consciousness-teaching students how to identify, analyze, and solve real-world problems, especially those that result in societal inequities against marginalized groups.

So, what are the characteristics of culturally responsive teaching?

Gay's research shows five essential components of culturally responsive teaching:

A strong knowledge base about cultural diversity. Teachers should understand different racial and ethnic groups' cultural values, traditions, and contributions to society, and incorporate that knowledge into their instruction.

Culturally relevant curricula. Teachers should include multiple perspectives in their instruction and make sure the images displayed in classrooms-such as on bulletin boards-represent a wide range of diversity. Teachers should also contextualize issues within race, class, ethnicity, and gender.

High expectations for all students. Teachers should help students achieve academic success while still validating their cultural identities.

An appreciation for different communication styles. Teachers should understand different communication styles and modify classroom interactions accordingly. For example, many communities of color have an active, participatory style of communication. A teacher who doesn't understand this cultural context might think a student is being rude and tell the student to be quiet. The student may then shut down.

The use of multicultural instructional examples. Teachers should connect students' prior knowledge and cultural experiences with new knowledge.

Doesn't that require teachers to reinforce stereotypes about students of color and even discriminate against white children?

In short, no. While the academic framework of culturally responsive teaching and other asset-based pedagogies emerged from how to best support students of color, it evolved into a teaching approach that serves all students, regardless of their racial background.

Sharroky Hollie, the director of the nonprofit Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning, works with teachers to practice what he calls cultural and linguistic responsiveness. In his work, he talks about the rings of culture, meaning the various aspects of students' identities that can impact how they interact with the world around them.

To Hollie, it's not just about thinking of ways to validate and incorporate a student's racial background into the classroom. It's not about thinking of students in a one-dimensional, stereotypical way. Culturally responsive teachers must also consider the student's gender, age, socio-economic status, whether they live in the suburbs or a rural area, and more.

"It's not as simplistic as we're trying to value our students of color," he said. "We're actually trying to value the rings of culture that they bring to our schools, regardless of their racial background."

For instance, in predominately white school districts, there are white students who, due to where they live or their family's socio-economic status, are underserved by their school district and could benefit from a culturally responsive approach to education, Hollie said.

What is culturally sustaining pedagogy, and how is it different than culturally relevant teaching?

Schools are still places where white norms are considered the default standard in the curricula, behavioral expectations, linguistic practices, and more. Culturally sustaining pedagogy says that students of color should not be expected to adhere to white middle-class norms, but their own cultural ways of being should be explored, honored, and nurtured by educators.

The framework builds on the work of Ladson-Billing and others but offers a "loving critique" that cultural relevance in the curriculum is not enough for students in today's world, given demographic shifts toward a more diverse society. Paris and Alim also argue that asset-based pedagogies, like culturally relevant teaching, traditionally haven't paid enough attention to young people's more fluid relationships with their identities.

Ladson-Billings has embraced the evolution of her foundational pedagogy, writing in 2014 that "culturally sustaining pedagogy uses culturally relevant pedagogy as the place where the beat drops." She also told Education Week that she is now paying close attention to how teenagers shape culture, an aspect that wasn't present in her original work.

It's important to remember that these asset-based pedagogies-culturally responsive, culturally relevant, and culturally sustainable, among others-are not in conflict with each other. While their frameworks vary, they all have the same goal of dismantling a deficit approach to educating students of color and focusing instead on their strengths, assets, and communities in the classroom.

What does the research say about the effectiveness of these teaching frameworks?

A 2016 synthesis of decades of research on culturally responsive teaching and related frameworks found that engaging in culturally affirming practices across subject matters, including mathematics and science, led to positive increases in students' understanding and engagement with academic skills and concepts.  For instance, students in high school math class could learn about statistics by assessing the probabilities of racial profiling cases in various neighborhoods or using other datasets applicable to their communities that bring up questions about justice and injustice.

Culturally responsive teaching and similar approaches to teaching also increased students' motivation, interest in content, and the perception of themselves as capable students, among other benefits, the study found. Brittany Aronson, an associate professor in educational leadership at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and a co-author of the study, said, whenever teachers drew direct connections between classroom lessons and students' experiences outside of school, students could see greater value in the academic content as it applies to the real world. Such work helps students see themselves as knowledge producers and researchers.

Overall, teaching that makes school relevant to students helps them succeed both in terms of quantitative measures such as high test scores, and more qualitative measures such as becoming life-long learners able to ask critical questions about the world around them, both in and out of school, Aronson said.

What are some examples of culturally responsive teaching?

Teachers who practice culturally responsive teaching have a classroom full of books featuring characters and images that represent a variety of ages, genders, ethnicities, and other types of diversity. They share the achievements and expertise of people from different ethnic groups in every subject area. They include multiple perspectives when discussing historical and contemporary events, including those from oppressed groups who are often left out of the narrative. And they encourage students to draw on their prior knowledge and cultural experiences to make connections to the academic content.

Culturally responsive teaching also must have an element of critical consciousness, where students are empowered to critique and analyze societal inequities. For example, Teddi Beam-Conroy, an associate teaching professor at the University of Washington, was teaching the Declaration of Independence to a class of 5th graders. When they got to the line that said, "All men are created equal," Beam-Conroy asked her students, "Who were the men who were considered equal at that point?" To illustrate the point, she asked everyone to stand up-and then told them to sit down if they didn't identify as male, if they didn't identify as white, or if their parents rented instead of owned a home.

That exercise opened the door to a conversation about how Americans weren't all equal in the late 18th century. Beam-Conroy's students discussed when women and African Americans got the right to vote-and what implications that has had on the composition of U.S. Congress or the Supreme Court. The critical consciousness piece is "examining how historically, power has been distributed and guarded among particular folks who make the laws," Beam-Conroy said. "Fifth graders can understand that."

Culturally responsive teaching can also involve a deeper reimagining of classroom codes of conduct. For instance, in some students' culture, talking while someone else talks shows how invested and engaged they are in the conversation, said Hollie with the Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning. Culturally responsive teachers find ways to incorporate that verbal overlap into their lesson rather than seeing it as rude or worthy of discipline.

What isn't culturally responsive teaching?

Researchers note that some educators say they're practicing culturally responsive teaching, but it's an overly simplified version. For example, for some teachers, a multicultural school potluck meal or adding diverse books to their classroom library sufficiently counts as affirming students' culture in education. But culturally responsive teaching is deeper, more critical work.

"There's a tendency to truncate culturally responsive teaching to be about a whole myriad of things-it's about relationships, it's about anti-racist education, it's about diverse books," said Zaretta Hammond, the author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. "It's like that old parable of the king who asks nine blind men to describe an elephant. Each one grabs a different part of the elephant. 'Oh, it's flat and wide'-he's got the ear. 'No, it's like a rope'-he's got the tail. No one has the whole picture."

Too often, she said, white progressive educators view culturally responsive teaching as an add-on to their regular instruction instead of a fundamental shift in their pedagogy. For example, a teacher might think students of color just need to see themselves in order to feel motivated and do the work, so she'll incorporate diverse books into her classroom or syllabus-but not change anything to the content or her way of instruction.

Another common misconception is that culturally responsive teaching is a way of addressing student trauma, which is a deficit-based ideology that assumes the universal experience of people of color is one of trauma, Hammond said.

How widespread is culturally responsive teaching?

Most teacher-preparation programs have also incorporated culturally responsive teaching into their courses. And some school districts, including New York City and Baltimore City, have adopted a culturally responsive and/or sustaining approach to education.

Still, experts say it's difficult to pinpoint exactly how many teachers have adopted these asset-based pedagogies because some may use only certain tenets. For instance, helping students develop a critical consciousness is often ignored.

What does all of this have to do with critical race theory?

Critical race theory, broadly speaking, is an academic concept with the core idea that race is a social construct, and racism is not only the product of individual bias or prejudice but is also embedded in policies and systems, such as a legal system-or as some scholars such as Ladson-Billings propose, an educational system.

Aspiring K-12 teachers in graduate level courses may study aspects of critical race theory to better understand how school systems are designed in ways that don't serve the needs of students of color. But critical race theory is not taught as a guide for classroom instruction, nor is it typically used as a culturally relevant or culturally responsive lesson plan for kids and teens, said Aronson with Miami University.

Asset-based pedagogies, like culturally relevant or culturally responsive teaching, are not the same thing as critical race theory. They have different theoretical bases and different goals. However, there might be some commonalities-for example, the questions students are encouraged to ask about social systems, including education, may ring close to the consciousness critical race theory is meant to evoke.

In an interview with Education Week, Ladson-Billings stressed that culturally relevant teaching, as she defined it, has nothing to do with critical race theory. But opponents to critical race theory have glossed over those nuances, she said, adding that deliberative public debate is hard when people don't know what they're talking about.

"The attack on anything that allows more participation and moves us toward equity is going full force," she said.

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Here's what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher and where critical race theory ties in-or not.

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Functional Communication Training (FCT) 

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Functional Communication Training (FCT) 

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Franciscan Children’s. (n.d.). Student using AAC device with support

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Back-to-School Transition with Augmentative Communication and Assistive Technology

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Kennedy Day School staff identify areas in which augmentative communication and assistive technology can be used to ease the challenges of a new school year for many students who use…