50 INVITED CHAPTERS
- The third reason I am pleased to be here today is, as noted in the introduction, I
served on the Executive Board of NCPEA from 1992—1994. Appointment to the
Executive Board was facilitated by the fact that I was chair of the Division of
Educational Administration and Counseling at Cal State, LA and we had hosted a
highly successful NCPEA conference in 1990.
So, I find it a prestigious, yet humbling experience to come home:
- To Illinois where I learned and honed my values,
- To my education administration profession where we continue to be involved in
defining our role in educating all children and youth, and - To NCPEA, which I believe can be a major force in seeing that the democracy
formed in 1789, and the fruits of which were reserved initially for property-owning
white males, can finally be guaranteed to all demographic groups in our country.
OUR CHALLENGE AS A PROFESSION
This has been a most interesting and difficult presentation to construct. As I completed it,
I was intrigued to learn that my comments are:
- Partly reflective,
- Partly descriptive, and
- Partly future-focused.
My reflective comments are focused on our profession of Education Administration that
has provided inconsistent leadership in meeting the needs of all demographic groups of
students in our communities. With that said, however, individual professors, many of whom
are in this room today, have distinguished themselves in responding to the needs of
historically under-served communities. My descriptive comments are about the Cultural
Proficiency tools and how I see them related to our work, both in higher education and with
our P-12 schools. My future-focused comments are my belief that NCPEA has the potential to
become a true leader in responding to the needs of all sectors of our society.
One thing that is a given, we all know of the under performing schools in our country, and
one of the realities we must face is that those schools are led by people we trained and
educated. It is our future to construct. I wish and hope that, if my comments have value to
you today, they cause each of us to continue to examine our personal views and experiences
and to learn of the views and experiences of those who are different from us.
TERRY CROSS – DEVELOPER OF CULTURAL PROFICIENCY
Prior to discovering Mr. Cross’s monograph in 1991 I had identified my work as anti-
racism. I was clear within myself and with my colleagues about what I opposed. Mr. Cross
provided me with a template of things to be for. As a member of the Seneca Indian Nation,
Mr. Cross has a perspective on our society that is informed by his personal and professional
experiences. He is a social worker and founder and Executive Director of the National Indian
Child Welfare Center. My initial attraction to his work was the knowledge that he has helped
professionals in all fields to know that people of color need to be served differently and that
they are not ‘sick white people.’ I hasten to add that also we draw on the works of James