About Us
How We Serve
The Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning (CCRTL) is a non-profit organization that aims to serve teachers in an affordable way so that the work of Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness is within reach to everyone.
Who We Are
Cultural Responsive Influencers
The Center has existed as a non-profit organization since January 2004. Prior to that, the consultancy was conducted informally through the Culture and Language Academy of Success charter school (CLAS) and the work of Sharroky Hollie and Carlos Barron.
19 years later, the Center has provided professional development to over 200,000 educators from Seattle to Nova Scotia.
CCRTL exists to make cultural responsiveness a meaningful aspect of education and everyday life.
Our organization has transformed the mindset and skillset of thousands of teachers, administrators, and informal educators into practitioners of culturally and linguistically responsive teaching and learning.
200K
Teachers trained in CLR
20+
Years in ISD
4000+
Classrooms we’ve been in
300K
Students impacted
The Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning has found success through its approach of using culturally responsive solutions in schools that have only seen persistent underachievement in the past. Through culturally responsive practices, CCRTL informs the community, influences institutional policies in districts, and inspires academic progress in schools.
At the Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning, we educate parents, teachers, school-site administrators, as well as central office leadership in what it means to be culturally responsive in meaningful ways, not just in namesake in district documents. Nearly100,000 educators have been trained through the Center where we focus on changing mindsets, developing skillsets, and implementing systemsets.
We have developed a framework for thought and engagement for anyone who has a stake in the cause of urban school reclamation through progressive, innovative transformation. CCRTL shifts the community’s thoughts and actions on traditional perspectives and educational policies from stagnation to innovation by supporting culturally responsive schools, influencing educational policies and laws, engaging parents to be empowered partners, and galvanizing communities around progressive change.
Through our network of schools, we have demonstrated that responsive education works. Our flagship schools and districts have made consistent and steady progress with a population of students who have been underserved by traditional schooling.
How We Do
Instructional Support and Development
We provide resources and instructional support and development (ISD) to support your school or district through systemic CLR implementation.
Online Learning
In-Person Learning
Voices of Our CLR Educators
“Your messages were highly captivating. Your discourse on linguistics taken from a cultural perspective was refreshing, I have not heard topic discussion on language presented in such a manner before that resonated well. Mr Hollie, thank you for your mind and your steadfast insights to reshaping and refocusing our lens when addressing culture. I am inspired.”
— Philestena McLeod, AGATA Resource Centre , Scarborough, Canada
"I saw students come alive, smile, laugh, and enjoy my math class. Before using these strategies, I felt like I was teaching/talking to myself. Class was long, boring and I (and the students) were frustrated. I know where my students are academically because I am listening to them talk, think, collaborate, and create more."
- Elementary School Teacher
“This day could not have been possible without your dedication and commitment to the important work around equity and I can not thank you enough for sharing your time during such a busy time of year in our field.”
— Cheryl-Marie A. Manson, Van Buren Intermediate School District, Lawrence, MI
See More from Our CLR + Community
Join our growing community filled with like-minded individuals dedicated to becoming CLR.
Meet Our Team
Our advisers have helped train staff all across the nation. They are our secret weapon and seasoned professionals, who have been working in the area of cultural responsiveness from first-hand experience, in the classroom, and have shaped the way many teachers teach CLR in their classrooms.
Executive Director
Your CLR Guide
Dr. Sharroky Hollie
Dr. Sharroky Hollie is a national educator who provides professional development to thousands of educators in the area of cultural responsiveness.
In 2003, he and two colleagues founded the Culture and Language Academy of Success, a laboratory school that demonstrated the principles of cultural responsiveness in an exemplary school-wide model, which operated until 2013.