What leaders love most is the way Cultural Proficiency lays the groundwork for powerful organizational growth with resources to: Engage colleagues in collaborative dialogue about creating powerful teaching and learning environments Recognize and respond to both individual and group differences to break down barriers Use the Cultural Proficiency Continuum to assess the limitations of school practices and identify opportunities to shift the culture

Are you creating Fish Out of Water in your environment? Oftentimes a group demands compliance with cultural codes and behavioral expectations that are never taught. Instead, the standards of this hidden curriculum are used to justify punishing, marginalizing, and excluding children and adults from the dominant culture. This book focuses on the need for and the strategies to create inclusive classrooms and organizations. What do you do when you are the one who doesn't fit in? Fish Out of Water are those who don't fit in the mainstream culture because they are too different from the dominant groups. This book offers tools for decoding cultures-moving from code switching to code sharing. Included are: Compelling portraits of fish out of water who have learned to survive and thrive in schools and other organizations Strategies for working with children who are targeted and bullied because they are different For every one who has been or knows how it feels to be a Fish Out of Water, this book will help you to flourish where you are, mentor others who are different, and manage the dynamics of difference as you create a culturally proficient organization. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: "Fish Out of Water is a great resource for navigating ponds that suffocate the marginalized with dominant norms and values. Linking Cultural Proficiency to decoding an environment provides more tools for code switching, code sharing, and conversations about making students and families feel welcomed, included, and safe in our schools." -Angela Ward, Office of Cultural Proficiency & Inclusion Austin Independent Schools, TX "This book made me think. It is a courageous attempt at the difficult subject of who 'doesn't fit' into the spaces and places we inhabit-and why. But the most valuable part of this book is that it describes what we can do about making our schools, workplaces, and communities more inclusive, and ultimately more effective." -Nicki King, Reducing Mental Health Disparities Project University of California, Davis

In this third edition, the authors invite you to reflect on how you influence what goes on in your classroom and how you engage with your colleagues as a community of learners. Each chapter contains reflective activities and group work to guide readers. A well-documented case study provides an opportunity for readers to experience cultural proficiency in practice. This best-seller has been extensively revised to include:New case stories and references Updated discussion of standards-based education Conceptual framework chart Expanded discussion of barriers and the microagression concept

An introspective response with LGBT communities for positive change A Culturally Proficient Response to LGBT Communities is a guide for educators to collaboratively combat issues of discrimination, inequity, and bullying through the review of current policies, practices, and deeply held assumptions about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered (LGBT) communities. This inside-out approach carries readers through a personal journey of reflection to action by using the Tools of Cultural Proficiency to examine their values, beliefs, and assumptions about how LGBT communities are served educationally. Creating safe and welcoming schools includes both setting effective and appropriate policies and the inside-out analyses of one's own beliefs and values. Resulting cultural proficiencies, steeped in self-reflection, boost empathy and improve learning environments. On this simple, powerful premise, readers will find: Inside-out growth through personal stories and case-studies Reflection through activities and prompts appropriate for individuals and teams Insight into current responses to bullying Using this first step for positive systemic change, school leaders can elevate understanding and propel schools toward safe and diverse-friendly environments