Our Framework.
What is CIE?
Culturally Intentional Education (CIE) is an interdisciplinary approach to teaching reading, writing, and literature through deep literary study. It integrates the Science of Reading, the Science of Writing, and Culturally Intentional literary praxis to create classrooms where students experience both rigor and affirmation.
CIE is not an add-on nor a supplement, it is a way of designing curriculum and instruction so that literacy growth, critical inquiry, and cultural validation happen together.
Why “Culturally Intentional” and Not Just “Responsive”?
CIE and CI work extend beyond traditional Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP). Responsiveness often stops at what is taught, such as adding diverse texts to a reading list. Culturally Intentional Education goes further: it is about how teachers are trained to design curriculum, engage with literature, and assess student learning.
To be Culturally Intentional means:
Teaching literature with awareness of how authors write in conversation with their time, place, and community.
Designing instruction where reading, writing, and speaking are integrated, not siloed.
Assessing students in ways that both validate identity and strengthen advanced literacy skills.
In short, cultural intentionality is a deeper relationship with the written and spoken word, where text, author, teacher, and student exist in dialogue.
The CIE Framework.
The CIE Framework is our three-part approach to secondary English instruction. It brings together the Science of Reading, the Science of Writing, and deep literary study to create classrooms where rigor and Cultural Intentionality work hand in hand.
Our three tenets.
-
Know Thyself
Instruction begins with identity. Teachers and students locate themselves as readers, writers, and thinkers, considering how who they are shapes how they learn and teach.
For Teachers: Reflection on praxis and purpose.
For Students: Literature that affirms and expands voice and perspective.
-
Make Meaning
Literature is a process of knowledge-making. Teachers deepen themselves as literary practitioners — engaging in interpretation, connection, and critical analysis alongside their students. In doing so, they design curriculum that fosters authentic meaning-making in the classroom.
For Teachers: Praxis rooted in ongoing literary study and professional growth.
For Students: Instruction that moves beyond surface comprehension into advanced literacy and critical thinking.
-
Make Space
Rigorous classrooms are also dialogic classrooms. Teachers design environments where students learn to question, listen, and collaborate while developing confidence in academic discourse.
For Teachers: Strategies for building inquiry-rich, student-centered classrooms.
For Students: Opportunities to expand verbal literacy and collective meaning-making.
Our four literacies.
-
We cultivate analysis that moves beyond summary; reading for structure, argument, and the layered meanings that shape the human experience.
-
We nurture the imaginative act through writing, performance, and design that makes literature a living, breathing art.
-
We center, honor, and interrogate the socio - cultural contexts that shape the literature we read.
-
We strengthen the spoken word as a tool for persuasion, connection, and collective meaning-making.
The problem at hand.
Too often, students in Title I schools are denied access to the kind of advanced literacy instruction that opens doors , whether in AP, IB, or honors-level English, or simply in classrooms where reading, writing, and dialogue are treated as rigorous intellectual work.
National data shows persistent gaps in:
Access: Fewer students in under-resourced schools are enrolled in advanced English courses.
Achievement: Pass rates in AP and IB courses reveal inequities tied to school funding and support.
Preparation: Many students leave high school without the advanced literacy skills needed for college or career success.
At The CIE Teaching and Learning Lab, we address these gaps by equipping teachers with frameworks, literacies, and curriculum that make advanced instruction possible for all students, not just those already excelling.
AP Literature Exam Mastery Across Racial Demographics (2022)
69%
61%
Data Link.
90%
CIE Teaching and Learning Lab is working to close those gaps.
The CIE Teaching and Learning Lab exists to close achievement gaps in secondary English instruction by combining research, praxis, and Cultural Intentionality. We partner with schools to ensure that every student, from 9th grade to AP or IB, has access to advanced literacy instruction that is rigorous, affirming, and transformative.
How we put the framework into practice.
The CIE Framework and Four Literacies are not abstract ideas. They are woven into every offering we provide:
Professional Learning where teachers practice Know Thyself, Make Meaning, Make Space.
Curriculum Design rooted in the Four Literacies.
Instructional Tools aligned with the Science of Reading and Writing.
Our process ensures that schools don’t just talk about equity — they live it through curriculum, instruction, and classroom experience.