Going Public
Snapshot: Seeking to offer enrollment to students from a local urban center, suburban Eastport Public Schools faces pushback. Community members express concern for the safety of incoming students of color, citing a lack of explicit equity training for staff and a small but vocal parent group engaged in a federal lawsuit against the district for the anti-bias actions taken to date. However, the district has in fact been laying the groundwork for this new program through teacher training and other equity initiatives; they simply haven’t made these initiatives public, given the ongoing lawsuit. Superintendent Peter Scott finds himself caught in the quandary of how public to make the district’s equity efforts in a divided community. How can Peter best use his position to create an inclusive and equitable district?
Detailed Case Description:
Beginning in 2021, states across the US saw a tidal wave of “divisive concepts” bills flood state legislatures. These proposed laws sought to prevent discussion of race, gender, and any concept that might cause students discomfort. Even in states where proposed legislation died on the house or senate floor, teachers and administrators became cautious about what they would and would not discuss in classrooms. This chilling effect was amplified in school districts where book challenges and protests were launched, and, especially, where lawsuits were filed.
In this case, Peter Scott, the superintendent of a small, suburban school district in the Northeastern US, reflects on the appropriate balance between being too public or too private in sharing the equity work of his district. Just a few years earlier, Peter shared each equity initiative proudly. Yet, with every mention of student equity, a small, vocal parent group pushed back, eventually filing a federal lawsuit against Peter and his Board of Education. Since then, Peter has become much more circumspect in his public communication about the district’s equity. But he wonders: is his silence a strategic choice, made to protect his staff and students, or a moral failing?
As the Board approaches a vote to offer enrollment to students from a local urban center, a parent group speaks against this move, suggesting that students of color may not be safe in Eastport’s schools because not enough has been done to create a welcoming school environment. While Peter genuinely believes these community members would be reassured by a full picture of the district’s equity initiatives, he struggles to decide whether to share that full picture at the upcoming board meeting. If speaking up brings on more attacks, does that jeopardize students’ safety? Or is going public the only way to genuinely support all students’ sense of belonging?
Explore Further:
PEN America has created a state-by-state list of legislation that seeks to limit how K-12 educators can address racial and gender inequities in their classrooms.
Communities like Eastport that don’t face restrictive legislation still find themselves struggling with how to address equity in the changing cultural landscape. The TeachLab podcast’s special series Teacher Speech and the New Divide dives into these struggles in communities across the United States.
In this case, a small group of concerned parents has a large effect in a community where most people support the district’s equity initiatives. This article from Education Week highlights the dilemmas educators face in such communities and how teachers, administrators, and community members might respond.
A recent RAND report details teachers’ “awareness of and responses to limitations on how they can address race- or gender-related topics in their instruction”: Walking on Eggshells - Teachers’ Responses to Classroom Limitations on Race- or Gender-Related Topics.