Letter to:

                      
Ms. Tardola,

Please pardon the interruption, but I need some information, and you may have an idea of where to find it.

I am working on a master's degree and am writing about multuculturalism and education in a class on instructional evaluation in a democratic society.

My search for book, reports, websites, etc. has come up empty. I can find loads of information about multiculturalism, but nothing on evaluating the effectiveness of any plan. The concept of our class projects are: if ideas (like writing, math, history of the US, reading skills, athletics, etc) are supported by schools in a democratic society, then we must see how effective we are in teaching these skills. Some schools do this by competitions, standardized testing or other assessments. Although many companies say they support multiculturalism and many schools call themselves "multicultural," I can find no way to evaluate how effective they think they are.

Any information you can give me or any direction would be appreciated.

                      
Ms. Ardoin, 

Your work in progress sounds rather interesting. The reason that you have found little information on the evaluation of effective plans is because there are not many, if any. The issue evolves around the controversy as to the meaning of the term, multiculturalism. Universities and programs, including educators in these programs are still grappling with their definitions of the term and this relationship to the populations they serve. If you decide, ad we at Carter/Tardola do, that multicultural includes all cultures, then the issue become one of finding methods to assist students to be able to translate the system of critical thinking within one culture to that of another culture so that educational processes, even as articulated and practices within dominant American society, can be successful for all. As you certainly know, part of the controversy centers around the belief that certain cultural groups cannot think critically. As language specialists, most of our work has centered around language and literature and their effect upon students' development of critical thinking skills, but not in multicultural programs, as such. If you would have any interest in language and systematic thinking, I would be able to provide you with some titles.

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Last updated: November 24, 2000.