A new parent group has organized to put pressure on school districts to embrace anti-racist curriculum and instruction. Its first action, which begins today, aims to inundate 10 school districts, from California to Connecticut, with emails demanding change.
is small: About 10 friends, all Black, white, Jewish or Asian parents of K-12 students, and connected through Facebook, put the group together earlier this month.
But it has big dreams. It wants students, parents, and community members to pile so many emails in the inboxes of key district leaders in 10 cities that they鈥檒l have to sit up and take notice.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e hearing tens of thousands of folks singing the same song, in chorus, saying the time for change is now, it鈥檚 harder to ignore鈥� than one petition that lands on a leader鈥檚 desk, said Gigi, who works in adult education in Seattle and is one of the group鈥檚 founders.
Gigi and the group鈥檚 other members insist that their last names be withheld for their safety. Where they live, in Milwaukee, Boston, Buffalo, N.Y., Seattle and other cities, they鈥檝e already seen violence and verbal abuse toward demonstrators protesting police shootings. And they鈥檝e had a couple of hateful comments posted in their , Gigi said. (The group moderators have since deleted them.)
Getting the Message Out
In its first wave of activism, Racial Equity Education is targeting the Seattle, Highline, and Puyallup districts in Washington state; East Baton Rouge, La.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Frederick County, Md.; Newtown, Conn.; and three districts in California: Oakland Unified, Glendale, and Placentia-Yorba Linda.
Racial Equity Education chose those 10 districts because it knew there were already students or community members lobbying for anti-racist curriculum there, so they could build on those efforts, Gigi said. The group included East Baton Rouge, La., because of a showing activist Gary Chambers Jr., accusing a local school board member of shopping online while he made an impassioned plea for the board to rename a high school that鈥檚 named after Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
The new group鈥檚 playbook is twofold: It will send demand letters to school board members, PTA presidents, and local teachers鈥� unions in 10 districts. But it鈥檚 also posted links to a and that people can use to lobby these鈥攐r any other鈥攕chool districts.
Their two-page letter demands that schools include 鈥淏lack experience, voices and history鈥� in their curricula. It argues for a well-rounded K-12 ethnic studies curriculum, citing a that argues that students of all races and ethnic backgrounds benefit from such study. And it asks board members and other leaders to engage in discussions about anti-bias training for teachers, ways to hire more Black and brown teachers, and other changes related to racial equity.
In many of the 10 districts that are the focus of Racial Equity鈥檚 new campaign, demanding that their districts do a better job of building a curriculum that includes examination of systemic racism.
Students Demanding Change
Laura Durante is one of those students. A brand-new graduate of Middletown High School South, in Middletown, N.J., the 18-year-old and a friend started an to ask their district to commit to expand the lens through which it teaches history to include more study of Black, indigenous and LGBTQ people.
鈥淭o continue to teach in a manner that blatantly ignores the histories and cultures of both Black and Indigenous people and their oppression is doing the next generation of leaders a grand disservice,鈥� the letter says.
It鈥檚 gathered more than 800 signatures since it was posted on June 13, Durante said. Five days later, District of his own, offering further conversation. 鈥淲e must ask ourselves if we can do better,鈥� he wrote.
Durante said she started the petition drive because she feels she missed important learning in her predominantly white school system.
鈥淲e get this starry, white-washed, colonialist version of history,鈥� she said. 鈥淏oth world and European history are taught through the eyes of white settlers, and that鈥檚 a very narrow view of how things are.鈥�
Seeing the pileup of signatures, and the district鈥檚 response, makes Durante feel hopeful. 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 usually felt I鈥檝e had a voice [in school decisions], but this letter showed me that maybe this is something we can change.鈥�
Signs of Momentum Nationwide
Activists who work with school districts on instruction about civics and race report that they鈥檙e seeing an uptick of interest in anti-bias training and anti-racist teaching.
Jill Bass, the chief education officer at the Mikva Challenge, a national organization that helps teachers learn to plan 鈥渁ction civics鈥� projects that engage students in the community, said she鈥檚 鈥済etting a lot of calls鈥� from teachers and district administrators about how those projects dovetail with anti-racist curriculum.
She鈥檚 also seeing administrators feeling readier than they were last year to take the risk to jump into controversial subject matter, Bass said. 鈥淚f the desire was there before, now there鈥檚 a huge fan on that fire, giving it oxygen,鈥� she said.
See Also:
鈥楢ction Civics鈥� Enlists Students in Hands-On Democracy
Seattle Schools Lead Controversial Push to 鈥楻ehumanize鈥� Math
Trudy Delhey sees that change from her post as the K-12 social studies supervisor for the Cobb County school district in Georgia. Teachers are increasingly asking for help with culturally responsive teaching, she said. And her district is moving full-force into training on an updated Mikva Challenge curriculum that dives deeply into how power and privilege shape social identity, she said.
鈥淲e鈥檙e maxing out with it, and we weren鈥檛 ready for that before,鈥� Delhey said. 鈥淐OVID and [concerns about] policing have exposed the inequities people experience. There鈥檚 this instant understanding that鈥檚 translated into teachers being more reflective about what they have to do to better serve students.鈥�
Gigi homeschools her two children because, as an Afro-Latina, she found the 鈥淓urocentric curriculum鈥� in the local schools unacceptable, and 鈥渉armful to the self-esteem of Black and brown children,鈥� she said. (Seattle, where she lives, is .)
She hand-picked a short that highlight the historic and cultural contributions of Black people. Her group recommends that districts work with consultants to build out a full curriculum.
Photo: Kayla Shannon, a recent graduate of Grand Blanc High School in Michigan, speaks at a peaceful protest against police violence and racial injustice on June 5. Protests across the United States were sparked by the death of George Floyd, who was restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. 鈥擩ake May/The Flint Journal via AP