John Marshall keeps a picture of Breonna Taylor in his office at the headquarters of Kentucky’s largest school district, a visual reminder, he says, of the need for curriculum changes that better honor and focus on Black stories. Taylor, a Black emergency medical technician, spent her senior year of high school at Kentucky’s Jefferson County Public Schools, where Marshall, the district’s chief diversity officer, has been leading a system-wide revamp of teaching materials and practices.
No criminal charges have been filed against the officers involved in Taylor’s death, infuriating many in the school district, where a majority of the nearly 100,000 students are students of color. For educators in Jefferson County and across the United States, the deaths have jump-started demands for teaching materials and practices that help Black students better understand their history and place in the country.
After a summer of teacher workshops focused on updating curricula, millions of students will return to U.S. classrooms in coming weeks – virtually or in person – that focus more on Black history and experiences, according to interviews with teachers, officials, publishers and others. A June survey by the EdWeek Research Center, which is affiliated with the prominent trade publication Education Week, found that 81% of U.S. teachers support the Black Lives Matter movement.
Some of the changes don’t necessarily involve new material, but rather teaching the same material from a new perspective.In the Jefferson County schools, for instance, teachers discussing the Space Race of the 1960s plan now to focus on the Black women mathematicians whose computations underpin modern rocket science.In Houston, teachers at YES Prep public charter schools will dissect James Baldwin’s iconic book of essays “The Fire Next Time” less as a history of racial struggle and more as a guide for Black students to overcome injustice.
These and other recommendations came after school districts spent summer months updating educational materials because most public school textbooks are only updated by publishers on a fixed schedule. How and what U.S. students learn about American history depends on the school. The country’s public K-12 education system is run by more than 98,000 local and state school board members, who nearly always have the final say on which textbooks are bought for classrooms.
The National School Boards Association, which advises school districts on curriculum changes, said requests for advice on crafting racially diverse educational material doubled this summer from the same period last year. Scholastic Corp, which publishes educational material to supplement textbooks, said it has seen a surge in demand for books that focus on diversity and equity.
Source: Reuters
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