Lexington County School District 1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Published – November 17, 2023
According to reporting from WLTX News 19, “Lexington [County] School District One says a civil lawsuit filed by the South Carolina Freedom Caucus has been dismissed after the two reached a settlement agreement over the district’s Expeditionary Learning (EL) curriculum.”
WLTX also stated that the district “initiated an internal review of the EL Education curriculum ‘to ensure that SC Proviso 1.105 is being followed.’” The district claims that it intended the curriculum would be used to “best serve students and their educational goals.”
South Carolina General Assembly Bill H.5150 expressly prohibits school districts from using any funds to adopt, teach, or make use of any instructional material that presents one race or sex as superior or inferior to another race or sex.
The bill was enacted on June 29, 2022.
On June 21, 2023, WIS 10 News explained, “The lawsuit ensued in November [2022] when the members of the Freedom Caucus claimed [District One] was teaching concepts associated with critical race theory, violating a temporary state law that prohibits state dollars from being used to teach those concepts in schools.”
WIS 10 continued, “The internal review did not reveal the curriculum violated state law according to the district administrator…The agreement between the two entities enables the district to refocus all resources toward supporting best practices in teaching and learning that cultivate high levels of student engagement supported by family and community participation.”
Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives and Freedom Caucus Vice Chairman RJ May called the settlement a “win for the Freedom Caucus, parents, but most importantly [a] win for students who will no longer be subjected to racial, liberal indoctrination.”
District One’s Meadow Glenn Middle School defines EL by declaring, “Learning is active…Learning is challenging…Learning is meaningful…Learning is public…Learning is collaborative.”
However, EL Education’s website says, “Educational equity means that all children experience [the] pillars of educational equity.” The organization lists the four pillars:
- Instruction and assessment that challenges, engages, and empowers learners
- Access to standards-based, content-rich, culturally affirming curriculum
- School culture that fosters positive identity, belonging, agency & purpose
- Explicit anti-racist discussion, practice, and action
Please send information on Lexington County School District One to [email protected].
Published – November 23, 2022
Lexington County School District One was named as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging critical race theory (CRT) curriculum in multiple schools.
On November 16, 2022, News19 reported, “[T]he South Carolina House Freedom Caucus filed a suit [that] alleges Lexington School District one is adopting ‘expeditionary’ learning at several of its schools.”
Freedom House Caucus vice-chairman Rep. RJ May told News 19, “‘They have rebranded it as diversity, equity, and inclusion, as anti-racism, as culturally relevant pedagogy. But it is at its heart rooted in critical race theory.”
Encyclopedia Britannica describes CRT as an “intellectual and social movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups…but a socially constructed category that is used to oppress and exploit people of color.”
The Expeditionary Learning (EL) Education website says courses are “created by teachers for teachers, and based on college and career readiness standards.” The curriculum includes the following standards:
- “Equity & Inclusion — English language learners of varying abilities are fully participating members of a diverse and heterogeneous classroom structure”
- “Embedded Social Emotional Learning — encourages students to develop as effective learners and ethnic people; integrated opportunities for students to “contribute to a better world, putting their learning to use as active citizens, working for social justice, environmental stewardship, and healthy, equitable communities”
In June 2021, WBTW News 13 reported on House Bill 4325 which was introduced to ban CRT from South Carolina schools. News 13 said, “State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman [spoke] out against the concepts…[and her] statements [are] in response to a nationwide effort to determine how historical racism should be taught in schools.
According to the Critical Race Training in Education page, “South Carolina has joined the number of states placing restrictions on CRT in K-12 public schools.” They also said HB4325 attempts to “ban or restrict CRT [as it] applies to colleges and universities, not just K-12.”
Lexington County School District One enrolled 27,766 students in Pre-K through 12 across 29 schools.
