Culturally Proficient Inclusive Schools: All Means ALL!

Create inclusive educational environments that benefit ALL learners!

As schools become more diverse with students of differing abilities and needs, this self-reflective and action-oriented guide helps you create and support more inclusive schools and classrooms that intentionally educate all students. Using the Five Essential Elements of Cultural Proficiency as a roadmap, this book presents: 

• Students’ learning differences as just that – differences rather than deficits
• Strategies that show you how to break though the common barriers to culturally proficient and inclusive schooling
• Assessments that gauge your awareness and show you how to best serve every student’s needs

Dr. Delores B. Lindsey served as assistant principal, principal, and county office administrator. She served as Executive Director of the regional school leadership center. Delores uses her skills as Cognitive Coach and Adaptive Schools trainer blended with her understanding and skills as a cultural proficiency trainer to design and implement the 10-Day Certification Program for Culturally Proficient Educational Practice. She served as assistant professor at California State University San Marcos for more than 10 years. She retired from the institution; however, she has not retired from the education profession. Her primary focus is developing culturally proficient leaders. She helps educational leaders examine their organizations’ policies and practices and their individual beliefs and values about cross-cultural communication. Her favorite reflective questions are, Who are we? and, Are we who we say we are? Delores and her husband, Randall (her favorite SAGE/Corwin author), continue to co-write about the application of the four tools of Cultural Proficiency. Her most recent publications which are on Corwin’s bestseller list are Leading While Female: A Culturally Proficient Response for Gender Equity, and My Leading While Female Journey: A Guided Reflective Journal with Trudy Arriaga and Stacie Stanley.

Jacqueline S. Thousand, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita at California State University San Marcos, where she designed and coordinated special education professional preparation and Master’s degree programs in the College of Education, Health, and Human Services. She previously taught at the University of Vermont, where she directed Inclusion Facilitator and Early Childhood Special Education graduate and postgraduate programs and coordinated federal grants, which, in the early 1980s, pioneered the inclusion of students with moderate and severe disabilities in general education classrooms of their local schools. Prior to university teacher, Dr. Thousand served as a special educator in Chicago area and Atlanta public schools and as the coordinator of early childhood special education services for children ages 3 through 6 in the Burlington, Vermont area. Dr. Thousand is a nationally known teacher, author, systems change consultant, and disability rights and inclusive education advocate. She is the author of 21 books and numerous research articles and chapters on issues related to inclusive education, organizational change strategies, differentiated instruction and universal design, co-teaching and collaborative teaming, cooperative group learning, creative problem solving, positive behavioral supports, and, now, culturally proficiency special education. Dr. Thousand is actively involved in international teacher education and inclusive education endeavors and serves on the editorial boards of several national and international journals.

Cynthia L. Jew, Ph.D. is a professor at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, CA. Dr. Jew teaches in the Counselor Education program focusing on Field Experiences and School Systems as she prepares School Counselors.  She is co-author of Culturally Proficient Inquiry: A Lens for Identifying and Examining Education Gaps (Corwin, 2008) and Culturally Proficient schools: All means All. (Corwin 2017) She also serves as a consultant to the Santa Clarita Valley International Charter schools focusing on the areas of Student Support and Inclusiveness.  She is a Licensed Psychologist and Certified School Psychologist.  She has two daughters, Kiera and Jordyn, who is Deaf and wears Cochlear Implants.

Lori R. Piowlski is an Assistant Professor in the Elementary Education Department at Minnesota State University, Mankato and is dedicated to advancing access and equity in teacher education.  She received her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in Educational Administration in Higher Education. Dr. Piowlski also consults with New Knowledge United as a Subject Matter Expert in the areas of special education, English language learners, literacy, elementary education and assessment; by developing, aligning and optimizing higher education eLearning courses. Her research interests are in the areas of: preparation of cultural proficient teachers, the national edTPA teacher performance assessment, parent engagement in schools, partnership development schools and mentoring/induction of new teachers.  She serves as an edTPA national consultant and presents frequently at national conferences.  Prior to her higher education faculty roles, she worked with diverse populations as a pre-K through grade 12 elementary and special education teacher, which ignited her passion to study culturally proficient teaching. She continues to empower future teachers to celebrate their ability to execute global cultural competence, allowing them to differentiate their instruction to meet the needs of all 21st century students.