District of Columbia Public Schools
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Updated – July 11th, 2023
The Washington DC State Board of Education voted unanimously to approve an “anti-racist” curriculum.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the new social studies standards—which go into effect during the 2024-25 school year—were designed to “incorporate the histories and perspectives of historically marginalized groups.”
The guidelines stem from the Social Studies Guiding Principles—adopted in December 2020—which directed the board to develop a curriculum that is “actively anti-racist, and that explicitly addresses discrimination against traditionally marginalized groups.” The new materials will feature themes that encourage anti-racism, examine “power and bias,” and promote “underrepresented groups” including “LGBTQ+ writers.”
The guide further encourages “black history” to be taught “through the words of Black people, giving agency to BIPOC rather than discussing only in relation to white people.”
Under the new standards, fourth-graders will learn to “evaluate the significance of 1619.” This insinuates that DC schools will be required to teach that America’s founding was not in 1776, but rather the year the trans-Atlantic Slave trade reached the colonies.
The curriculum further tasks students to examine the “contradictions” of the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence. Seventh-graders will study George Washington’s “legacy as an enslaver” while fifth-graders will examine the experiences of “Latinx, Indigenous, [and] LGBTQ+ servicemen.” High schoolers will learn about the “threat of climate change” while being encouraged to enact policies that “drive social change.”
According to The Federalist, the new curriculum will feature topics on gender and sexuality. Fifth-graders will examine aspects of “queer culture.” Students as young as kindergarten will learn about their gender identity and how to “identify different family structures, including single-parent, grandparent-headed, multiracial, and LGBTQ+.”
Updated – July 5, 2022
Victor Javier Rodriguez, an equity advisor for the District of Columbia Public Schools, posted a litany of Tweets condemning white people. He described his own actions as “cyberbullying.”
Rodriguez claimed in a tweet that his job is to force educators to comply with culturally responsive practices, many of which derive from the core tenets of critical race theory.
In another tweet, Rodriguez claims poor grammar is why he cyberbullies, saying, “This is why I cyberbully. If you’re gonna come after me, at least have decent grammar.”
In other tweets, the equity coordinator condemns white people and so-called “whiteness.” In most cases, Rodriguez refuses to use the word “white” and instead uses the letters “yt.”
Erika Sanzi, the Director of Outreach for “Parents Defending Education,” told the Daily Caller that Rodriguez’s comments appear to denigrate people based on their race.
“These tweets are cause for concern because of the lack of professionalism and basic decency they reveal, but there is also a certain irony in how an equity director has no qualms about publicly shaming and denigrating people based on their race.”
D.C. Public Schools and Rodriguez did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.
Published – June 15, 2022
D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) hosted a drag queen performance in celebration of LGBTQIA+ students in the Washington D.C. area on June 3. This event comes as several other schools across the nation have increasingly made drag queen shows and story hours a featured part of “family-friendly” pride month celebrations.
Chancellor of D.C. schools Lewis D. Ferebee announced the “Leading with Pride!” celebration at the Ballou STAY public school campus in an email to DCPS families. The email included a flyer with a photograph of an unidentified drag queen in a red dress as well as a link to an Instagram post advertising the event.
Erika Sanzi, outreach director of Parents Defending Education, criticized the event saying,
It was not clear whether the event was for young students to participate in their own “performances” or watch them done by others. The National Desk (TND) reached out to DCPS for comment and to clarify but did not hear back prior to publication.In 2019, following a drag performance by a 9-year-old boy that generated a flurry of criticism, GOP state representatives sought to ban performances “in which a child simulates sexual activity,” such as DCPS’s recent event for students.
The D.C Public Schools is the local public school system for the District of Columbia. The DCPS contains 117 schools and serves 47,548 students.
