(NAME-MCE) Meetings embrace diversity in classes

[Bill Howe]

[image: deseretnews.com]

Deseret Morning News, Saturday, March 03, 2007

*Meetings embrace diversity in classes*

*By Tiffany Erickson<http://deseretnews.com/dn/staff/card/1,1228,1754,00.html>
*
Deseret Morning News

Around 250 Utah educators, community leaders, college students and even
parents will gather this weekend to share notes and learn more about
including students from different, cultures, races and religions both inside
and outside of the classroom.

The seventh annual Utah Chapter of the National Association of Multicultural
Education, Utah NAME, conference is being held this weekend in Logan and
aims at creating dialogue and practices to capitalize on what leaders say is
the "opportunity of diversity."

"Students are marginalized because of many attributions — race, class,
religion, gender, sexual orientation— and they find themselves not fitting
with the mainstream of schools," said Martha Whitaker, president of Utah
chapter of NAME. "The achievement gap is bottom-line evidences of that."

She said the achievement gap, the gap in proficiency between whites and
minority and low-income students, is about students' test scores. But the
larger issue is, 'why does it exist?"' she said.

"It's not just about how can we get test scores up but how can we create an
environment where students can be included and academically successful,"
Whitaker said.

She said research suggests there are plenty of ways to do it, but teachers
have been slow to be provided with background and information and best
practices. That's where NAME comes in.

She said the conference provides a space for important, complicated,
challenging, supportive conversations about the opportunities that exist as
a result of our responsibility to provide equitable educational opportunity
to increasingly diverse groups of students.

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 *E-mail: terickson at desnews.com*
------------------------------


-- 
Bill Howe
http://www.billhowe.org

JoIn me this summer in China - Multicultural Educators to China Summer 2007
Trip - http://billhowe.org/China2007.htm

Past-President
National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME)
http://www.nameorg.org