The Illinois State Board of Education is working on a new set of teaching standards for what it calls ‘culturally sensitive and responsive teaching’, with the goal of creating a learning environment where students from different backgrounds feel engaged in the classroom. Critics say the standards could politicize the classroom, but professionals such as Dr. Jennifer Kirmes (executive director of teaching and learning with the Illinois State Board of Education) highlights how the standards are aimed to “invite educators to be reflective of how their own viewpoints and experiences might impact their teaching, either in positive ways or in ways that they might need to really think about and make some intentional choices about how to best reach students that could be different from them.”
Published on: February 10, 2021
By: Blair Paddock