Evaluating multicultural curricula in the community college: A sociocultural framework

This paper addresses the need for models for assessing multicultural programs in the community college, the most culturally and socioeconomically diverse educational institutions in the country. A three-dimensional framework presents faculty, student, and curriculum variables critical to the implementation and outcomes of multicultural programs. The framework emerged from the formative evaluation of a new interdisciplinary social science curriculum and guided the design of the national field test of that curriculum in 30 community college classrooms. Three kinds of results are reported: implementation patterns; appropriateness to faculty members' teaching goals; and impact on reading behavior, interest, overall learning, and political efficacy of students with diverse ages, ethnic and sociocultural backgrounds, and political positions. Political efficacy gains of older students and students with lower socioeconomic backgrounds are discussed. The importance of such a framework in documenting the interaction between a curriculum and its sociocultural context is stressed.