The development of an observation instrument to assess culturally responsive teaching

This study is concerned with developing an instrument to assess Culturally Responsive Teaching. In this dissertation the process of developing a valid and reliable observation instrument is explored. Teaching behaviors widely accepted to indicate culturally responsive teaching are operationalized and an observation instrument is developed to assess teachers' use of culturally responsive teaching in applied classroom settings. Teachers were observed with the instrument and it was evaluated for its reliability and validity. Results of the study indicate that the instrument was found to have partial reliability and content validity but was lacking in construct validity. Through this research, it was discovered that indicators for CRT observation must be descriptive and physically based to obtain reliable and quantitative data.