Student Measure of Culturally Responsive Teaching (SMCRT)

Abstract

The Student Measure of Culturally Responsive Teaching (SMCRT) is a specialized psychological scale developed by Dickson, Chun, and Fernandez in 2016. Its primary function is to assess the extent to which students perceive their teachers employing Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) practices within the classroom environment. Unlike traditional measures that rely on teacher self-report, the SMCRT captures the observable behaviors and pedagogical strategies from the perspective of the learner, offering a unique and valuable insight into the effectiveness of diverse instructional methods. The instrument is grounded in established theoretical frameworks of CRT, notably the work of Geneva Gay, and is structured around three empirically derived factors.

Keywords

Culturally Responsive Teaching, Student Perception, Educational Measurement, Diverse Teaching Practice, Cultural Engagement, Diverse Language Affirmation, Teacher Practice, Validation, Assessment.

Authors

Dickson, Ginger L., Chun, Heejung, Fernandez, Ivelisse Torres

Purpose

The core purpose of the SMCRT is to provide researchers and educators with a psychometrically sound instrument capable of measuring students’ direct experiences with culturally affirming instruction. By focusing on student perspective, the scale helps identify specific teaching behaviors—ranging from instructional differentiation to cultural affirmation—that contribute to an inclusive and effective learning environment. This measure is crucial for evaluating teacher training programs and for providing targeted feedback on the implementation of Culturally Responsive Teaching strategies in diverse school settings.

Construct

The SMCRT is designed to measure the multi-dimensional construct of Culturally Responsive Teaching as experienced by the student. This construct encompasses a teacher’s ability to use students’ cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and performance styles to make learning more relevant and effective. The scale operationalizes this construct through three distinct, yet related, subscales:

• Diverse Teaching Practice: Focuses on pedagogical flexibility and the use of varied instructional materials (e.g., visual examples, real-life scenarios, differentiated explanations).
• Cultural Engagement: Measures the teacher’s effort to incorporate students’ cultural backgrounds into the curriculum and classroom dialogue, showing interest in student home-life and culture.
• Diverse Language Affirmation: Assesses the recognition and validation of students’ native or home languages (specifically Spanish, based on the original item set) within the classroom setting.

Validity

Initial validation for the SMCRT was established through the study published in 2016 by Dickson, Chun, and Fernandez. The validation process, which included rigorous statistical analysis, aimed to confirm that the scale accurately measures the intended construct of culturally responsive teaching from the student viewpoint. Evidence of construct validity was established through Factor Analysis, supporting the theoretical separation of the three proposed factors. Furthermore, the items were developed based on extensive literature review, ensuring strong content validity aligned with established CRT theories.

Reliability

The reliability of the SMCRT was assessed during its development phase to ensure internal consistency and stability across the items and subscales. The authors reported strong psychometric properties, including high internal consistency coefficients (e.g., Cronbach’s alpha) for the overall scale and for each of the three identified factors (Diverse Teaching Practice, Cultural Engagement, and Diverse Language Affirmation). These results confirm that the items within each subscale reliably measure their respective facets of culturally responsive teaching.

Factor Analysis

The development of the SMCRT utilized exploratory and confirmatory Factor Analysis (FA) to determine its underlying structure. The FA confirmed a robust three-factor model, which aligns with the theoretical conceptualization of CRT encompassing pedagogy, culture, and language affirmation. The factors identified were:

1. Diverse Teaching Practice
2. Cultural Engagement
3. Diverse Language Affirmation

This factor structure provides empirical evidence that culturally responsive teaching, as perceived by students, is not a monolithic construct but rather a compilation of distinct instructional and relational behaviors.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report student measure (Perception of teacher behavior)

Format: Likely a Likert-type scale, where students rate the frequency or accuracy of the statements regarding their teacher(s).

Language Available: English (Original), Spanish items mentioned within the scale context.

Population Group: K-12 Students (Specifically those whose teachers are being evaluated for CRT practices).

Age Group: Not explicitly specified, but typically middle to high school students due to the complexity of the self-report items.

Population Details: Developed and validated using student populations, often within ethnically and linguistically diverse school districts.

Test Methodology: Quantitative assessment of student attitudes and perceptions regarding specific teacher behaviors related to instructional equity and cultural validation.

Keywords

Culturally Responsive Teaching, Student Assessment, Teacher Evaluation, Educational Psychology, Multicultural Education, Psychometrics, Pedagogy, Cultural Competence.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not Specified

Affiliation Email addresses: Not Specified

Correspondence Address: Not Specified

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The SMCRT was initially published and validated in 2016. Details regarding current permissions, licensing fees, and full usage rights should be directed to the corresponding author, Ginger L. Dickson, or the publisher of the journal Assessment for Effective Intervention (SAGE Journals).

The original PDF of a sample article under review can be downloaded here: http://edci6300introresearch.pbworks.com/f/sample+article+under+review.pdf

Reference’s

• Dickson, Ginger L., Chun, Heejung., & Fernandez, Ivelisse Torres. (2016). The Development and Initial Validation of the Student Measure of Culturally Responsive Teaching. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 41(3), 1-14. DOI: 10.1177/1534508415604879
• Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
• Gay, G. (2002). Culturally responsive teaching in special education for ethnically diverse students: Setting the stage. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 15, 613–629.
• Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
• Siwatu, K. O. (2006, March). The development of the culturally responsive teaching standards: Implications for teacher education. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Texas National Association of Multicultural Education, Lubbock, TX.
• Siwatu, K. O. (2007). Preservice teachers’ culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 1086-1101.

Items of the Student Measure of Culturally Responsive Teaching (SMCRT)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

My teacher(s) …

• explain what we are learning in different ways to help students learn.
• want parents to be involved in student learning.
• provide visual examples when explaining things.
• use things like videos, pictures, and guests to help students learn.
• want students from different cultures to respect one another.
• use what I already know to help me understand new ideas.
• try to communicate with my parents about my grades and what I am learning.
• treat all students like they are important members of the classroom.
• try to find out what interests me.
• use real-life examples to help explain things.
• use examples that are interesting to help students learn.
• use examples from my culture when teaching.
• ask about students’ home-life.
• are interested in my culture.
• ask about ways that students’ culture may be different from others.
• speak about contributions that my culture has made to science.
• help students learn about other students and their cultures.
• have talked about the ways that people from different cultures are not understood.
• have spoken in Spanish to me or to other students who speak Spanish.
• my teachers speak in Spanish.
• I have heard my teachers allow students to speak in Spanish at times in class.