White authors and characters remain far more present in K12 curriculum than authors and characters of any other race or ethnicity, according to the “The Search for More Complex Racial and Ethnic Representation” study by The Education Trust, the nonprofit that advocates for equity in K12 instruction.

The authors acknowledge the hard work districts and educators have done in recent years to diversify curriculum. But in a review of 300 English language arts texts, for example, the organization’s researchers found plenty of stereotypes and that “people of color centered in these books were one-dimensional, portrayed negatively, or did not have agency.”

More from DA: Quick glance: These are the top 10 topics at school board meetings right now

And many historical events and social topics were sanitized and not put into context for students to find meaning in the texts. “Despite an extremely narrow representation of people of color, the nation is witnessing a well-funded political strategy to erase the very few books schools have to prepare students to compete in a global economy by learning about people of different races and ethnicities,” Tanji Reed Marshall, a co-author of the report, warns.

“While fighting to stop book bans, advocates must also push for including books with characters of color who are fully realized and positively represented,” adds Marshall, Ed Trust’s director of P-12 practice.

How to have more comprehensive classroom discussions

Ed Trust offers six recommendations to create more representational curricula:

• Challenge dominant norms and singular perspectives
• Expand publisher and educator definitions of cultural relevance
• Ask a new set of questions about representation
• Consider how texts sit in conversation with one another
• Expand educator choice in curated materials
• Provide professional learning to all curriculum decision-makers, including authors and developers

“We are witnessing a literacy crisis and historic drops in student achievement, and better representation in our classroom books will help all students achieve,” says William Rodick, Ph.D., one of the study’s authors and a P12 Practice Lead at Ed Trust. “The fact is that students of color learn and perform better when they see themselves and their experiences authentically and non-stereotypically reflected in their school curricula.

“Seeing a diverse set of people in books also helps White students develop a deeper understanding of their racial and ethnic identity and the world around them, which is filled with people of varying ethnicities and cultures,” Rodick concludes.

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Chino Valley Unified School District’s policies require schools to notify parents if their child asks to use a name or pronoun that’s different from what’s on their birth certificate or official records. Educators must also inform parents if a student wants to use bathrooms or participate in programs that don’t align with their sex on official records.

These mandates are unconstitutional and violate the privacy and civil rights of LGBTQ+ students, Bonta said in a statement. “The forced outing policy wrongfully endangers the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of non-conforming students who lack an accepting environment in the classroom and at home,” he continued.

Chino Valley Unified School District officials defended the policy, insisting it actually protects transgender students. If a transgender student says they are in danger, schools must contact police or social services before parents are notified, The Guardian reported.

“We will stand our ground and protect our children with all we can because we are not breaking the law,” Chino Valley USD school board President Sonja Shaw told The Guardian. “Parents have a constitutional right in the upbringing of their children. Period.”

Several other California school boards have ignited controversy by adopting or considering similar parental notifications—and the debates caused tempers to flare at this summer’s school board meetings. Most recently, the Temecula Valley Unified School District, which is near Chino Valley USD in Los Angeles’ more conservative outer suburbs, now requires school officials to “notify parents within three days if their child requests to be treated as a gender other than what’s on their birth certificate,” KVCR news reported.

“This shouldn’t just happen in our district,” Temecula Valley board president Joseph Komrosky said. “This should be happening in all schools around the world.”

More from DA: 6 more superintendents depart in start of school year shakeups

The Anderson Union High School District, which sits in a conservative pocket of inland Northern California, adopted a policy that ostensibly covers several aspects of a student’s in-school experience. Parents there will be notified when students are having academic, attendance, social, emotional or behavioral difficulties—and if they identify as transgender, Action News Now reported. The district will also alert parents if a student is being bullied or if they appear to be suicidal or are considering self-harm.

Earlier in August, the Murrieta Valley Unified School District’s board of trustees adopted Chino Valley USD’s policy by a 3-2 vote. “I do think that passing it sends a strong signal to the community that we stand with parental rights,” trustee Nicolas Pardue said, according to KABC.com.

“On that note, I would say that passing this board policy sends a clear message to our students that they are not safe in our schools,” trustee Linda Lunn—a dissenter—responded.

Orange USD, also in southern California’s more conservative region, is now considering a three-day notification policy.  “We believe it is important to clarify communication between the school district and parents and guardians on these important matters pertaining to the mental health and social and emotional issues of their students in order to prevent or reduce potential issues of self-harm,” Orange USD school board Rick Ledesma said, according to the Voice of OC.

Bonta, the attorney general, is asking the court to immediately prevent Chino Valley USD from enforcing its new transgender policy while he is also reviewing the rules passed by the other districts.

“The Board’s plain motivations in adopting the policy were to create and harbor animosity, discrimination, and prejudice towards transgender and gender-nonconforming students, without any compelling reason to do so,” Bonta’s lawsuit says of the Chino Valley school board. “Board members described students who are transgender or gender nonconforming as suffering from a mental illness or perversion, or as being a threat to the integrity of the nation and the family.”

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More than one in five (22%) LGBTQ+ high school students attempted suicide in 2021, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Additionally, 52% reported having recently experienced poor mental health.

“Young people are experiencing a level of distress that calls on us to act with urgency and compassion,” said CDC Division of Adolescent and School Health Director Kathleen Ethier in a statement. “With the right programs and services in place, schools have the unique ability to help our youth flourish.”

These findings mirror those of a new survey released on Thursday by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, which found that school-related protective factors play a significant role in mitigating the risk of suicide among students. In fact, students who had access to at least one “protective factor” were 26% less likely to attempt suicide in the past year, the data suggests.

“Young people between the ages of 13 and 18 spend a significant portion of their waking hours at school, making it imperative to examine how schools can create affirming environments for LGBTQ students in middle or high school,” the survey reads.

The timing of this research coincides with an ongoing battle among educators, parents, leaders and policymakers who all have trouble finding a common middle ground in terms of deciding what should and shouldn’t be taught in the classroom as it relates to LGBTQ+ topics. For instance, protests broke out at the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters this week as nearly 150 demonstrators who oppose LGBTQ+ education demanded eliminating discussion of the topic from their schools.

“We believe that there is a radical indoctrination system that has seeped from academia and now into K through 12,” Ben Richards, a San Diego parent and founder of SoCal Parent Advocates, told the Los Angeles Times.

#HAPPENINGNOW Los Angeles, CA –

Parents are now marching on the streets and headed from City Hall to LAUSD HQ where the board is currently meeting.

LARGE police presence. pic.twitter.com/qBAdNlwFKR

— Anthony Cabassa (@AnthonyCabassa_) August 22, 2023

The researchers also compared data between students who did have access to affirming features at their school with students who didn’t. Unsurprisingly, the results revealed that more support equals safety and inclusivity, and potentially a saved life. Here’s a look at the data:

Suicide rates of LGBTQ+ middle and high school students based on protections

Access to a gender-neutral bathroom

• 14% among those who did have access
• 17% among those who didn’t have access

History that discusses LGBTQ people

• 14% among those who did have access
• 16% among those who didn’t have access

Access to a GSA 

• 14% among those who did have access
• 18% among those who didn’t have access

Most/all teachers respecting their pronouns

• 19% among those who did have access
• 22% among those who didn’t have access

Overall, 70% of both middle and high school students had access to at least one protective policy at school; those protections, however, are more commonly found in high schools.

Finally, students are more likely to perceive their schools as “LGBTQ-affirming” when they have access to these protections. For instance, 79% of students believe their schools are more welcoming when their teachers respect their pronouns, compared to 51% of students who said most of their teachers don’t respect their pronouns.

“The findings suggest that attending a school with a GSA or other similar club, learning about LGBTQ people and experiences, having access to a gender-neutral bathroom, and having teachers who respect their pronouns are all associated with lower suicide risk among LGBTQ students in middle and high school,” the survey reads. “Overall, these findings provide concrete actions for educators and administrators to take in ensuring that all of their students are safe and affirmed in the spaces they are mandated to be in.”

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Last month, the Virginia Department of Education made its final revisions to its new policies, which require students to use school facilities that align with their biological sex, thus making it much more difficult for them to change their name or pronouns at school. As such, Virginia districts are required to implement their own policies that align with the state’s standards. But Fairfax Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid has a different idea.

In a letter to families on Tuesday morning, Reid wrote that upon legal review, the district determined that their current policies “are consistent with federal and state anti-discrimination laws as required by the new model policies.”

She expressed that they have no plans to alter the current rules that allow transgender and nonbinary students to be called their chosen names and pronouns, use facilities that are consistent with their gender identity, and have their privacy respected.

“We believe that supporting our students and working with parents and caregivers are not mutually exclusive; we already do both and will continue to do so,” she wrote. “We know that students can only learn effectively when they feel safe and supported.”

More from DA: How this Iowa district deployed AI to ban 19 books from its libraries

In Maryland, a federal appeals court on Monday ruled against a group of parents that were pleading for changes to Montgomery County Public Schools’ gender identity policy. According to the rules, school personnel are required to help transgender and nonconforming students create a plan that addresses their preferred pronouns and provide them with the opportunity to use facilities according to their preference. It also restricts staff from informing parents of those plans without the student’s consent.

The parents, who were backed by the National Legal Foundation, a Christian conservative group, argued that the policy “infringed their due process rights under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment to direct the care of their children,” NBC News reports. But U.S. Circuit Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum ruled that the parents’ arguments lacked standing because neither of them alleged their children had gender support plans. Rather, their concerns were merely a “policy disagreement.”

Oppositely, school officials at the Orange Unified School District in California may soon be required to notify parents if their child is “requesting to be identified or treated” as a different sex or gender, The Orange County Register reports.

According to the proposed policy, it would be up to a principal or designee, certified staff or counselor to inform the parents or guardians within three school days of that school official becoming aware of the change.

“The proposed Board Policy is recommended in order to support the fundamental rights of parents/guardians to be informed of and involved in important aspects of their student’s education during the school year,” reads the agenda description.

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So far, Mason City schools has banned 19 books from its grade 7-12 libraries, with an administrator saying that the size of its collection was too large for staff to read every title that has been “purchased, donated and found.”

“We are using what we believe is a defensible process to identify books that should be removed from collections at the start of the ’23-24 school year,” Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Bridgette Exman said in a statement to the Gazette. “After this, we will continue to rely on our long-established process that allows parents to have books reconsidered. Parents will always have a voice in their students’ education.”

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Under the new law, Iowa’s school libraries can stock only “age-appropriate materials,” which means books and other materials cannot contain “descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act.” Districts must also list on their websites every book available to students in their libraries.

Exman also told the Gazette that many teachers feel uncertain and nervous because the state has not provided clear guidance on which books should be restricted and why. She also noted that no parent had challenged a book in the district in at least the last 20 years.

In an even more frank response, Exman told a website called PopSci that Mason City educators “have more important things to do than spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to protect kids from books.”

These are the books removed by Mason City schools so far (as listed by the Mason City Globe Gazette):

• Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
• Sold by Patricia McCormick
• A Court of Mist and Fury (series) by Sarah J. Maas
• Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
• Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
• Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Looking for Alaska by John Green
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• Crank by Ellen Hopkins
• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
• An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Feed by M.T. Anderson
• Friday Night Lights by Buzz Bissinger
• Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The new law, signed by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in March, also prohibits instruction related to gender identity and sexual orientation.

The post How this Iowa district deployed AI to ban 19 books from its libraries appeared first on District Administration.

“Teaching has always been a demanding job. In recent years, it’s only become harder,” says Mylien T. Duong, senior director of research at the Constructive Dialogue Institute, which conducted the study. “The stories we heard make it clear that, for some teachers, political polarization has made their work intolerable. We need to start addressing the issue before more teachers burn out.”

LGBTQ+ rights, critical race theory, religion and COVID topped the list of divisive issues teachers said they are struggling to navigate. Complicating attempts to get a handle on the problem are the wide gaps in political climates across the country.

More from DA: How districts are navigating the first days of school amid a ‘major heat wave’

For example, a teacher in rural Idaho told the Institute’s researchers: “Everybody [at this school] has a gun rack in their pickup. And then if you were a student at the school and you’re driving your daddy’s pickup and it has a rifle in the pickup, you can get in trouble and the cops can tote you away.”

Here’s another startling example of the divide: One of the teachers interviewed said they were asked to remove a rainbow flag because it was considered “political speech.” In another district, a teacher was questioned about why she had not placed a rainbow sticker in her window.

Here, according to the study, are the three biggest burdens political polarization is placing on teachers:

1. Increasing scrutiny: Fearing harassment from parents or termination, teachers feel increasingly compelled to make decisions about instruction through a political lens—rather than evaluating what is best for students.
2. Classroom challenges: Student shouting matches, name-calling and denial of historic facts such as the Holocaust are among the difficulties teachers are experiencing in class. This has caused teachers to avoid controversial topics, both historic and current, to prevent conflict, which limits students’ exposure to diverse perspectives and hinders critical thinking.
3. Escalating intolerance: Topics such as LGBTQ+ rights and critical race theory have increased tension among students, staff, parents, and the community, creating difficult learning environments and disrupting school dynamics. These tensions have increased sharply since the 2016 presidential election, teachers told the researchers.

How schools can get past political polarization

“Support from administrators” was cited by teachers as the most important protection against the disruptions of political polarization. Some teachers, however, told researchers that their administrators had not offered guidance on how to cover politicized topics, leading to “confusion and inconsistency.”

Parents, fellow teachers and students also have roles to play in easing classroom tensions. “[Teachers] requested that parents approach schools with humility and understanding when voicing concerns, rather than defaulting to accusations,” the report concludes. “They hoped for colleagues with differing opinions to maintain professional respect and genuine care for each other as individuals, even in the face of disagreement.

“They aspired for students to learn to manage their emotional responses to differing viewpoints and engage in constructive and respectful discussions.”

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“The AP course asks students to ‘describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development,'” the College Board said in a statement. “Any AP Psychology course taught in Florida will violate either Florida law or college requirements.”

A recently passed state law makes it illegal for teachers to discuss sexual orientation and gender identity, which have been covered in the course since it was created 30 years ago. Without those topics, the course would no longer meet standards for Advanced Placement, college credit or career readiness, the College Board explained.

More from DA: Virginia superintendents line up to defy new K12 transgender restrictions 

The American Psychological Association added that a course that omits sexual orientation and gender identity would violate its guidelines and shouldn’t bear college credit. More than 28,000 Florida students took AP Psychology during the 2022-23 school year, the College Board pointed out.

“The state’s ban of this content removes choice from parents and students,” the organization said. “Coming just days from the start of school, it derails the college readiness and affordability plans of tens of thousands of Florida students currently registered for AP Psychology, one of the most popular AP classes in the state.”

In response, Florida has accused the College Board of “attempting to force school districts to prevent students from taking AP Psychology.” Other advanced course providers, such as the International Baccalaureate program, are continuing to attach college credit to psychology courses, Cassie Palelis, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education, told NBC News.

“The Department didn’t ‘ban’ the course. The course remains listed in Florida’s Course Code Directory for the 2023-24 school year,” Palelis said in an email to NBC News. “We encourage the College Board to stop playing games with Florida students and continue to offer the course and allow teachers to operate accordingly.”

AP Psychology is not the only course in the crosshairs

Advanced Placement has been a target of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration, which earlier this year—right around Martin Luther King Day, in fact—barred schools from offering AP African-American Studies. Florida Department of Education officials told the College Board in January that it had rejected AP African-American Studies because it “lacks educational value,” the National Review reported at the time. DeSantis’ administration also believes the course veers into critical race theory in violation of Florida’s controversial Stop WOKE Act, according to the National Review.

But that wasn’t the administration’s final move to reshape how African American history is taught beyond the most advanced high school courses. New African American history standards approved by the state’s board of education in July ask students to consider that slavery may have been beneficial because the people enslaved learned vocational skills.

The new curriculum will also offer high school students a new perspective on the 1920 Ocoee Massacre, in which 30 Black Floridians were killed while trying to vote. Teachers must also cover “acts of violence perpetrated by African Americans,” according to the standards.

The post Head scratcher? Florida blocks AP Psychology over LGBTQ+ content appeared first on District Administration.

The Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank that provides timely analyses of policies related to LGBTQ+ issues, published new data this week detailing how state LGBTQ+ policies have evolved in 2023 alone. As their analysis suggests, a significant number of transgender students have no access to their school’s athletic organizations.

According to the data, 22 states in total now ban transgender students from playing school sports, which includes six new additions since this year alone. Two states in particular (Alabama and Texas) expanded their existing policies to also apply to college students. The remaining four (Wyoming, Kansas, North Dakota and Missouri) implemented entirely new policies.

With these new additions, nearly one-third (31%) of transgender youth now live in a state that bans them from participating in school sports.

More from DA: Virginia superintendents line up to defy new K12 transgender restrictions

This data comes at a time when LGBTQ+ policies continue to be a hot-button topic among district and state leaders. For instance, last month, the New York State Education Department released updated guidance for schools on creating safe school environments for LGBTQ students, Lohud reports. The 42-page document covers everything from bathroom policies to instruction on how to change a student’s records when they request to be called a new name that aligns with their gender.

But this isn’t the case for every district. As mentioned previously, 22 states restrict students from participating in school sports. According to MAP’s analysis, these states include:

• Montana
• Idaho
• Wyoming
• Utah
• Arizona
• North Dakota
• South Dakota
• Kansas
• Oklahoma
• Texas
• Iowa
• Missouri
• Arkansas
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Alabama
• Florida
• Tennessee
• Kentucky
• Indiana
• South Carolina
• West Virginia

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Last week, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the Virginia Department of Education released “Model Policies to Ensure Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools.” The regulations say parents’ rights include deciding what names and pronouns their children use and if students receive any counseling on gender identity.

Leaders at Arlington Public Schools were quick to respond, saying their Washington, D.C.-area district would stick to its own policies that protect the rights of transgender students. Acknowledging that the model policies are likely distressing some of the district’s students, Arlington Public School Superintendent Francisco Durán promised to make additional resources available for transgender, non-binary and gender-fluid youth.

“I oppose any policy that infringes upon the rights of our students and threatens the safety and well-being of our LGBTQIA+ students,” Durán said on the district’s website. “As we transition into the 2023-24 school year, school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers are available at our schools to provide a listening and reassuring space.”

The politics of Virginia transgender policies

Youngkin asserted that officials are trying to increase parent engagement in the lives of students, saying the policies reflect his administration’s commitment “to ensure that every parent is involved in conversations regarding their child’s education, upbringing, and care.” The Department of Education argues further that previous state policy on protecting transgender students disregarded the rights of parents and “promoted a specific viewpoint aimed at achieving cultural and social transformation in schools.”

As an educational leader it is important to do all that I can to ensure that all students and staff feel safe and welcome in school. https://t.co/OLYoN2GTwy

— Francisco Duran, Ed.D. (@SuptDuran) July 25, 2023

“The Department of Education has delivered policies that empower parents, prohibit discrimination, create a safe and vibrant learning environment by addressing bullying incidents immediately, and protect the privacy and dignity of all students through bathroom policies, athletic procedures, and student identification measures,” Youngkin said in a statement.

Leaders in Alexandria City Public Schools joined Arlington in rejecting the governor’s restrictions. Alexandria City’s own policy protects students from discrimination due to gender expression, gender identity, sexual harassment and transgender status, Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt and school board Chair Michelle Rief said in a message to their community reported on by ALXNow.com.

“(W)e want to reaffirm our commitment to all students, staff and families, including our LGBTQIA+ community, that ACPS will continue to both implement and develop gender-affirming policies for all ACPS students,” Kay-Wyatt and Rief said.

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Leaders in Loudoun and Prince William county public schools told FOX 5 that they are reviewing the Youngkin administration’s model policies.

Virginia’s “Model Policies” also allow parents to opt their children out of using any bathrooms and locker rooms that state and federal laws allow “students of the opposite sex” to share. In a concession of sorts to transgender students, the Model Policies also encourage schools to make single-user bathrooms available. That guideline, however, appears not to have reassured the group of defiant superintendents.

“We will continue to model and live our values in support of inclusion, belonging, well-being and access to quality education,” Arlington superintendent Durán said. “Our current policies and procedures that protect, affirm, and celebrate transgender, non-binary, and gender-fluid students are of paramount importance in adhering to these ideals.”

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Turnover has risen from around 14% to 17% since the beginning of the pandemic and almost nine in 10 superintendents polled this spring cited “the intrusion of political issues and opinions into schooling” as the leading source of work-related stress, RAND reported in its latest American School District Panel Survey.

When it comes to suburban superintendents and superintendents of color, almost all of them blamed political intrusions for stress levels that have forced some to consider leaving their districts. Despite recent furors over book bans, critical race theory and transgender students, the survey did not ask superintendents which specific political issues were making their jobs more difficult.

Here’s a look at how many superintendents cited the top 10 causes of stress:

1. The intrusion of political issues and opinions into schooling: 88%
2. Educators’ mental health: 74%
3. Students’ mental health: 71%
4. Staffing shortages: 65%
5. District budget: 65%
6. State accountability requirements: 52%
7. Educator attrition: 44%
8. School board relations/school board pressure: 32%
9. Community physical safety concerns: 22
10. Feeling like the goals and expectations of the district are unattainable: 21%

More from DA: 4 noteworthy superintendent hires, 1 surprising switch and a termination

Politics is hardly a new source of stress for K12 leaders. Political divisions in the community were described as a pressing challenge by 27% of superintendents surveyed by AASA in 2020. A RAND poll conducted in the spring of 2022 found that furor over issues such as COVID safety and critical race theory were top sources of superintendent stress.

Political polarization is causing more disruptions in historically advantaged suburban, low-poverty and mostly white school systems, where leaders are dealing with more book challenges, Freedom of Information Act requests and threats against educators, RAND notes.

Overall, education leaders are far more likely to report frequent stress than working adults as a whole. Some 79% of superintendents, 85% of principals and 58% of teachers reported experiencing stress frequently. But most superintendents also told RAND that “the job is worth the stress” and believe they are coping with it well.

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