OAR 584-410-0070: Culturally Sustaining Practices to Promote Equity

(1) Across curriculum, experiences, and assessments, the EPP integrates and models culturally sustaining practices to facilitate meaningful and equitable learning opportunities for all. (2) EPPs actively recruit and identify strategies to retain faculty, staff, and educator candidates who: (a) Understand, through direct knowledge or lived experience, the unique assets and needs of the students and communities that they serve; and (b) Have backgrounds and experiences that represent the increasingly diverse student population. (3) EPP faculty, staff and educator candidate recruiting strategies considers the growth of BIPOC and multilingual student demographics throughout the state. (4) EPPs provide opportunities for candidates to work with diverse individuals (EPP staff and faculty, PreK-12 staff, students, and families, other candidates) in order to: (a) Recognize and reflect on the multiple and critical perspectives of PreK-12 students, staff and families; (b) Develop an asset-based framework for approaching instruction including resources to sustain principles of equity, fairness, and inclusion in learning environments; (c) Reflect on their scope of influence in ways that acknowledge and respect the multiple identities students hold; and (d) Understand how their classroom practices contribute to school climate and student sense of belonging. (5) EPPs ensure that their program curriculum, pedagogy, course content, assessment and field experience are designed, evaluated, and reviewed with: (a) A group of faculty that represent the candidate population across the EPP relative to background characteristics and experiences; (b) A lens of cultural sustainability and with unique needs of the local community and its students in mind; (c) An understanding of the initiatives and programs within the Oregon Department of Education that focus on improving successful outcomes for all students, including African American/Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, English Language and Multilingual Learners, Latino/a/x and Indigenous, LGBTQ2SIA+, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and other programs aimed at supporting historically underserved groups as identified by the Statewide Education Initiatives Account; and (d) Demonstrates, through action, removal of barriers and promotion of access for individuals who have been historically excluded from education opportunities (e.g., program accessibility, class model, mentorship). (6) EPPs create opportunities for faculty, staff and candidates to critically discuss: (a) The foundational understanding that Native Americans have lived in Oregon since time immemorial, and that an understanding of the diversity of Oregon Native American history is critical for understanding the history of Oregon and United States education and its systems; (b) Differing, non-dominant, and multicultural perspectives on teaching and learning and their influences on intentional and ongoing personal and professional growth; (c) The integration of underrepresented worldviews that expand beyond mainstream and local culture and dominant discourse; (d) Education equity, accessibility, and justice within a local context; and (e) Disproportionality within education systems including structured opportunities to analyze disaggregated data for the purpose of mitigating disparity of academic outcomes, and reducing overidentification of students of color within absenteeism, discipline, special education, and other forms of school exclusion.