Why It’s Hard to Control What Gets Taught in Public Schools

Since 2021, over 20 U.S. states, including Oklahoma and Texas, have enacted laws that aim to control how race, gender, and American history are taught in schools. Despite these efforts, many educators assert that these regulations have minimal impact on their classroom practices.https://wordpress.com/

“I continue teaching as usual,” said Derek Collins, a middle and high school social studies teacher in Roff, Oklahoma.

In El Paso, Daniel Gallegos shared that he was “not at all” intimidated by the state’s restrictions on discussions of racism, and he still engages his 11th-grade students in broad conversations about the subject.

Debates over topics like evolution and the causes of the Civil War have persisted for years, but in the last four years, there has been a significant surge in political activity aimed at reshaping the public school curriculum.

Oklahoma and Texas have recently urged schools to incorporate biblical themes into lessons, while Louisiana has pushed for a mandate to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms. These states, alongside 15 others that lean conservative, have passed laws to restrict discussions of racism and gender.

Conversely, a number of more liberal states, such as California, Minnesota, Oregon, and Vermont, have taken a different approach. They have introduced ethnic studies into their social studies programs and embraced concepts like structural racism and settler colonialism.

However, the experiences of teachers like Collins and Gallegos highlight the challenges politicians face in trying to control the curriculum in public schools. The U.S. education system is highly decentralized, meaning local schools and individual teachers have significant autonomy in selecting their curriculum and lesson plans, as noted by historians. This decentralized nature often limits the influence of federal mandates, including efforts by former President Donald Trump, who sought to promote a “patriotic” curriculum by withholding federal funds from schools that teach left-leaning views on race and gender.

Despite pressure from policymakers and politically engaged parents, there are indications that many teachers manage to either ignore or subtly complicate mandates on race, gender, and U.S. history. According to RAND, only a quarter of teachers reported that restrictive laws influenced their curriculum choices or teaching methods.

“I haven’t heard of any teacher who has actually stopped teaching something they once taught,” said Tim Bailey, director of curriculum development at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, which provides free educational resources to teachers.

The Complexity of Teaching American History and Civics

While lawmakers from both political sides have scrutinized American history and civics education, these subjects are more difficult to regulate than others. For many years, policymakers focused more on improving standardized testing results, leaving social studies education underfunded and underprioritized. This, in turn, allowed social studies teachers more independence.

A recent survey by the American Historical Association found that two-thirds of social studies teachers reported that their districts either provided no specific curriculum guidelines or only vague outlines of required topics.

Collins, for example, said his district provided a textbook for American history and government, but he preferred to create his own curriculum using a collection of primary source documents. This year, he especially enjoyed teaching the Federalist Papers and discussing the differences between a republic and a democracy.

Although Oklahoma’s state superintendent, Ryan Walters, has attracted attention by directing schools to teach the Bible and show a video of him praying for Trump, Collins said that his small rural school district had not rushed to implement these directives. He and his colleagues, though devout Christians, questioned whether they were qualified to teach the Bible in a public school setting.

Despite Walters’ insistence, many principals and superintendents across Oklahoma have shown reluctance to integrate biblical teachings into public education. Walters has threatened to remove noncompliant school officials from their positions and has introduced new social studies standards incorporating biblical principles, which the state legislature will soon vote on.

The Texas Example

In Texas, where discussions of racism in classrooms are heavily restricted, teacher Daniel Gallegos has not felt constrained. He continues to teach about racism and its historical implications, especially in topics that resonate with his largely Hispanic students, such as slavery, the Mexican-American War, and the farmworkers’ movement.

Gallegos noted that his state’s political leaders have claimed that teaching about racism will lead students to dislike America, but he disagrees. “Patriotism and learning the truth are not mutually exclusive,” he said, encouraging students to understand the ways in which historical events continue to shape the present.

Although most of Gallegos’s students are Hispanic, he acknowledged that teachers in more conservative areas of Texas might face greater challenges when discussing sensitive issues.

Adapting to Political Pressures

Bailey from the Gilder Lehrman Institute acknowledged that his organization had modified some of its language to comply with restrictive state laws. For example, they now use terms like “civic experience” rather than “civic action” to avoid giving the impression that teachers are pushing political views. Another strategy is to teach using primary source documents, such as the Constitution, to keep the focus on historical moments rather than contemporary political debates.

Liberal States and Progressive Curricula

In contrast to the conservative push, liberal states have also worked for years to transform social studies education. California, for instance, has some of the most progressive social studies standards in the country, encouraging teachers to address LGBTQ+ rights, redlining, and economic inequality. The state has even mandated ethnic studies courses for high school students, a move that has sparked controversy even in a liberal state.

Teachers in these states often drive curricular changes themselves. In South Burlington, Vermont, Christie Nold, a social studies teacher, introduced ethnic studies concepts into her classroom long before they became mandated by the state. In her Holocaust studies class, she explored the Nazis’ destruction of a research center for transgender individuals and connected the historical persecution of marginalized groups to contemporary debates on transgender rights.

Nold said she aims to support students grappling with complex issues and has received strong backing from her community.

Florida: The Exception to the Rule

Efforts to control curricula have largely been unsuccessful in many states, but Florida is a notable exception. Under Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida has implemented strict curriculum regulations, including new learning standards that emphasize “the influence of the Judeo-Christian tradition” on American history. Because Florida uses standardized testing for civics, teacher Crystal Etienne felt compelled to adjust her teaching methods to meet the state’s new requirements, even though she felt unqualified to teach biblical content.

Additionally, Florida now requires schools to log every book in their classrooms, screen them for banned content, and maintain an online database. Teachers risk losing their licenses for noncompliance. The pressure has led some educators, including Etienne, to stop maintaining classroom libraries altogether, which she says is no longer “worth the hassle.”

Due to these escalating pressures, Etienne has transitioned out of classroom teaching and is now advocating for teachers as part of the United Teachers of Dade union. hassle.”

In part because of these pressures, she has opted to step away from classroom teaching and is now serving as an advocate with United Teachers of Dade, her local union.