Preparing Personnel to Meet the Needs of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families

Position Statements, Papers and Reports

Assessment of Diversity in America's Teaching Force: A Call to Action (PDF: 515kb) , October 2004 Report by the National Collaborative on Diversity in the Teaching Force

CLAS Technical Report #3, October 2000 Moving Towards Cross-Cultural Competence in Lifelong Personnel Development: A Review of the Literature

Division for Early Childhood (DEC) Position Statement on Responsiveness to Family Cultures, Values and Languages (PDF: 146kb)

National Association for the Education of Young Children position statement summary for Responding to Cultural and Linguistic Diversity, Recommendations for Effective Early Childhood Education (PDF: 55kb)

National Center for Early Development and Learning Spotlights Issue on Early Childhood Teacher Preparation and Diversity (PDF: 56kb)

Special Projects and Models

Crosswalks: Outreach to Infuse Diversity in Preservice Education designed to develop, test, evaluate, and disseminate a framework and companion toolbox to support early childhood and early intervention faculty and preservice

The Early Childhood Research Institute on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS), previously funded by OSEP collects culturally appropriate materials and maintains an on-line resource library.

The Multicultural Early Childhood Team Training (MECTT) is a project previously funded by OSEP designed to prepare parent and professional teams to improve services to diverse families of young children with special needs by infusing cultural competence in early childhood programs.

New Voices/Nuevas Voces is an OSEP-funded training and technical assistance model for service providers and preschool teachers working with young children from culturally, linguistically, and ability diverse backgrounds, with a special focus on Latino children and their families.

Walking the Walk is project a previously designed by OSEP to improve the recruitment, preparation, and support of culturally and linguistically diverse individuals working with young children in North Carolina. Systems change in early intervention is highlighted, as is diversity. Materials from Walking the Walk are available online.

Training and Technical Assistance Resources

Building Culturally and Linguistically Competent services to support young children, their families and school readiness

A Guide to Diversity Resources for Trainers (PDF: 658kb) developed by the Walking the Walk Project

The Monarch Center (The National Technical Assistance Center for Personnel Preparation in Special Education at Minority Institutions of Higher Education) located at the University of Illinois at Chicago, promotes the participation of minority institutions of higher education (MIHEs) in personnel preparation grant competitions in special education and related services. Monarch sponsors grant writing workshops, provides technical assistance, information services and products for the purpose of assisting MIHEs in recruiting, retaining, and preparing highly qualified personnel.

The National Clearinghouse for Paraeducator Resources, located at the Center for Multilingual, Multicultural Research at the University of Southern California, offers a variety of resources including a focus on supporting paraeducators of culturally diverse backgrounds. Resources include state and local program examples and links to the ERIC Clearinghouse.

The Multicultural Early Childhood Team Training project has developed a training package consisting of a Participant Manual and Trainer's Guide.

The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education is involved in a number of projects and activities that have a multicultural component.

Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Personnel