Cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion (CCDEI) standards

Members of the Professional Educator Standards Board unanimously approved to adopt the newest set of cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion (CCDEI) standards (2021) for Washington educators. Additional resources and implementation information will be coming soon.

Purpose

A major component of advancing equity in education is ensuring that each and every student learns from well-prepared educators. As such, a critical step in an educator’s preparation journey is their ability to demonstrate cultural responsiveness, and center diversity, equity, and inclusion in the ways they support their students. Statewide standards equip educators with the tools they need to do this.

Through ESSB 5044, a bill passed by the Legislature in April 2021, Washington has the opportunity to ensure every educator in our state is prepared, trained, and equipped with the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to create stronger, more supportive student-centered learning environments.

To do this, the bill requires PESB to review and revise Washington’s current educator standards, and ensure the alignment of those standards with cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion (CCDEI) practices. The revised standards will apply to all educator roles and will be used in the preparation of educator candidates and in professional learning opportunities throughout an educator’s career. The original cultural competency standards (2009) are now out of date.

PESB began the multi-phased review process in Spring 2021.

Phase 1: Technical advisory workgroup

The technical advisory group will convene to recommend competencies for the new CCDEI standards and will develop a rubric to assess quality professional learning offerings. View a list of workgroup members.

Engagement information and materials

Engagement	Date and location	Materials and information
Community listening sessions	Virtual meetings via Zoom: Wednesday, June 16, 2021 Friday, June 25, 2021	Equity in education coalition (EEC), an outside consultant, convened community listening sessions to collect feedback on the current PESB cultural competency standards. The results will help inform the work in phase 1. View a report to learn about session findings.
Survey on current cultural competency standards	June 2021	A public survey was available in June to collect feedback from families, community members, students, and educators on the current cultural competency standards. The results of the survey will help inform the work in phase 1. View a report to learn about survey findings.
Technical advisory workgroup meeting	Friday, July 2, 2021 Virtual meeting via Zoom	Slides
Technical advisory workgroup meeting	Friday, July 9, 2021 Virtual meeting via Zoom	Agenda Slides
Technical advisory workgroup meeting	Friday, July 23, 2021 Virtual meeting via Zoom	Agenda Slides
Technical advisory workgroup meeting	Friday, August 6, 2021 Virtual meeting via Zoom	Agenda Slides
Technical advisory workgroup meeting	Friday, August 20, 2021 Virtual meeting via Zoom	Agenda Slides
Technical advisory workgroup meeting	Friday, November 12, 2021 Virtual meeting via Zoom	Slides
Role alike sessions	December – January 2021 Virtual meetings via Zoom	Role alike sessions were held to gain insight from the various role alike groups as to what the standards would look like in action and how would we know if the educator is successful in their use of the standards.

Recommendations and products

Phase 2: Collect feedback on draft standards

Community engagement is vitally important to inform the future of equity in educator standards. To ensure that every voice is heard, we are prioritizing opportunities for the public to engage and provide feedback throughout all phases of the initiative. Beginning in September 2021, PESB convened a series of public and private listening sessions, as well as published an online survey, to hear feedback and insight on the first draft of the revised standards and training rubric. The input we collected was shared with our technical advisory workgroup and used as a resource for how the standards can continue to be strengthened to better support community and student needs.

Role alike sessions

After carefully reviewing the input received from our survey and feedback sessions, the technical advisory workgroup made informed revisions to our first draft to ensure the public’s interests and concerns were captured. We held “role alike” meetings with various role alike groups, such as teachers, paraeducators, principals, and preparation programs. Through these sessions, we gained insight from the different educator groups on what the standards would look like in action and how we would know if the educator is successful in using the standards. The input received from these sessions was used as a resource in our final draft of the standards to be shared with our board for initial consideration in March 2022.

Phase 3: Board consideration of new CCDEI standards

In March 2022, the PESB board will consider approval of the new draft standards and the rules developed for implementation. View March meeting information. Members of the public are invited to provide public comment during all board meetings. Learn how to submit public comment.

Final standards

On Friday, March 25, members of the Professional Educator Standards Board unanimously approved to adopt the newest set of cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion (CCDEI) standards for Washington educators. Additional resources and implementation information will be coming soon.