Educators say they are feeling the impacts of deep ideological divides around issues of diversity and equity in schools
Alexis Knox-Miller, equity director for the Colorado Springs, Colo., school system, poses on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022 in the boardroom in the district's main office in Colorado Springs, Colo. race and social injustice in many classrooms
But in December, Knox-Miller reluctantly disbanded the equity leadership team after more than a year of meetings. New conservative members had won a majority on the school board after voicing doubts about the work, and she worried the efforts might not lead anywhere.“Around the time that the equity audit was being released, I realized that the tide had changed around diversity, equity and inclusion efforts,” Knox-Miller said.
In a fraught political climate that already had escalated fights about pandemic mask and vaccine requirements, divisions are taking a toll, said Dan Domenech, executive director of the School Superintendents Association. Part of Knox-Miller’s work involved commissioning an audit by the American Institutes for Research. It found that schools with high concentrations of special education students, English language learners, students living in poverty and students of color were scoring measurably below other schools.
In Pennridge, Pennsylvania, the school district's diversity, equity and inclusion initiative was put on hold last year after it became a flashpoint in debates that touched also on COVID-19 safety protocols, including mask mandates. “In a second grade mind, it was just, 'Oh, I learned this new fact. You’re Black, Frederick Douglass was Black. You must be a slave,’” she said.The Arlington, Virginia-based group Parents Defending Education is critical of diversity, equity and inclusion programming, citing on its website a goal of “fighting indoctrination in the classroom.
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