Council for At Risk Student Education
and Professional Standards

To create an environment that welcomes all learners, CASEPS looks at course design and teacher development through a cultural lens. With CASEPS, educators learn about the societal differences that affect how learners experience school, and how a cultural lens approach enhances the curriculum development process. The result is a more versatile teaching approach that empowers educators to present their content in different ways, depending on the cultural needs of students.

Traditional learning assessments, particularly standardized testing, tend to be grounded in the values and norms of majority groups. Students from minority cultural groups are likely to have different experiences that lead them to different answers than the ones that seem intuitive to educational leaders. CASEPS develops and seeks out assessment methods that are fair and accessible to all learners.

CASEPS also helps educators to create a sense of community in both online and in-person courses. This is especially important for online learning, where community is typically built through real-time and consistent interaction between teacher and student, and among the students themselves. By teaching educators how different cultures define community, CASEPS lets faculty incorporate cultural values when creating an online learning experience.