Amplify and Deepen Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Education

Pennsylvania's classrooms are increasingly diverse, yet many students continue to experience inequitable educational opportunities, disparities in academic outcomes, exclusionary disciplinary practices, and limited access to learning environments that fully affirm and sustain their identities, cultures, languages, and lived experiences. Simultaneously, educators and educational leaders consistently report a need for greater support, resources, and practical guidance to effectively implement culturally relevant and sustaining education within their classrooms, schools, districts, and institutions.

Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Education (CRSE) provides a powerful framework for addressing these challenges. Grounded in research and informed by the experiences and assets of diverse communities, CRSE creates learning environments that affirm student identities, cultivate critical consciousness, foster belonging, and promote academic excellence. CRSE moves beyond inclusion to actively sustain the cultural, linguistic, intellectual, and community wealth that students bring to educational spaces.

Pennsylvania has emerged as a national leader in CRSE through the development and adoption of the Pennsylvania CRSE Competencies and the integration of these competencies into educator preparation and professional practice. However, while awareness of CRSE has grown significantly, implementation remains uneven. Many educators, leaders, and institutions continue to seek practical examples, implementation tools, professional learning opportunities, and systems-level supports that move CRSE from theory to sustainable practice.

As a statewide collective impact organization, PEDC has played a critical role in advancing CRSE through leadership development, professional learning, statewide convenings, Communities of Practice, research, publications, toolkits, and collaborative partnerships. Initiatives such as the CRSE Leadership Institute have demonstrated the power of collective learning and systems-level transformation to create more equitable and affirming educational environments.

Moving forward, PEDC seeks to deepen implementation, strengthen institutional capacity, and expand access to CRSE supports across Pennsylvania and beyond. This work requires sustained investment in educator learning, leadership development, implementation science, organizational change, resource development, and collaborative action. It also requires elevating practitioner voices, documenting promising practices, and creating structures that support long-term institutional transformation.

By 2030, PEDC envisions a Commonwealth where culturally relevant and sustaining education is not viewed as an initiative, but as a foundational expectation embedded within policies, practices, curriculum, instruction, leadership, and organizational culture. Through collective action and systems change, PEDC will help ensure that all learners experience educational environments where they are affirmed, challenged, empowered, and prepared to thrive.