WORCESTER—The School Committee on Thursday reviewed the district’s rollout of culturally responsive teaching practices and raised questions about how student data — including biometric information — is protected as artificial intelligence becomes more common in classrooms.
The Feb. 26 meeting focused on two evolving issues for the district: embedding Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, or CRP, into daily instruction, and strengthening transparency and consent around educational technology.
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy is an instructional approach designed to affirm students’ identities, cultures and lived experiences. It emphasizes diverse representation in classroom materials, lessons tied to students’ experiences and multiple perspectives within instruction.
Caleb Encarnacion-Rivera, the district’s director of Recruitment, Cultivation & Equity, joined Timmary Leary and Colleen Santon, supervisors of Teaching and Learning, to update the committee on the progress of CRP implementation, outline professional development plans and preview next steps.
By 2027, more than 200 school leaders, coaches and educators are expected to complete culturally responsive leadership training.
Superintendent Brian Allen stressed that the approach is meant to be lasting.
“This is not an add on,” Allen said. “This is being embedded into the work we do every single day.”
Committee member Maureen Binienda suggested ways the work could be incorporated into existing curriculum, pointing to changes in reading instruction.
“We used to always have to read ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ Now English teachers provide students with many different books with the same theme,” Binienda said.
Committee member Dianna Biancheria questioned how the approach would translate across schools with different cultures and student populations.
“That is the beauty of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy,” Encarnacion-Rivera responded. “It’s actually about identifying that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all, and that each of our schools come with a plethora of cultures, identities, experiences and knowledge.”
He said school leaders, coaches and educators will be trained to better understand and identify the distinct characteristics within their student communities.
The committee also turned its attention to data privacy, particularly as schools expand the use of artificial intelligence tools and digital applications.
Committee member Susan Mailman asked that the district create a clear, accessible list of apps required by the curriculum so parents can distinguish between mandatory and optional tools.
Mailman also recommended developing formal, recorded procedures for opting out of and deleting data connected to biometric authentication tools, including student photographs.
District officials said plans to increase consent measures for certain applications are in development. The Future Ready Technology Committee is scheduled to meet March 13, with artificial intelligence and biometric data on the agenda.
The school committee plans to review laws in other states that regulate biometric data and use those models to guide next steps locally.
