"Activism" is a euphemism for extremism. We should be calling it what it is.
I mean, believing that lowering standards makes kids smarter is extreme by any definition.
https://www.city-journal.org/article/trump-department-of-education-contracts-left-activism?skip=1
RELs have pushed progressive identity policies in schools. REL Mid-Atlantic collaborated with the New Jersey Department of Education to promote racial preferences in teacher hiring. This laboratory developed six training sessions on “culturally responsive hiring practices” for state leaders to “build an educator workforce that more closely reflects the ethno-racial diversity of the state’s student population.” Another part of the project featured REL staff working with ten local school districts to increase the “hiring of teachers of color.”
REL Midwest worked with Akron Public Schools in Ohio to relax disciplinary policies with the goal of reducing minority-student suspension rates. Beginning in 2022, REL Midwest launched a five-year equity audit partnership to “address inequities in school discipline practices.” This approach has endangered students and staff. A 2023 Akron Beacon Journal report paints a troubling picture: students brawling, wielding knives, and suffering concussions. For the 2022-2023 school year, the district saw more than 1,000 fights, only 112 of them resulting in police reports; the Journal estimated that more than 80 percent of assaults on staff went unreported. School administrators rarely punished student violence harshly, even if it resulted in teachers being hospitalized. The local teachers’ union says that school staff have become too relaxed on student discipline over the years.
REL Pacific produced a teacher’s guide on culturally sustaining pedagogical practices, an identity-based teaching approach that uses disciplines like “ethnomathematics” to make minority students feel like they belong in the classroom. These approaches lack rigor, and their associated standards of implementation often compel educators to hold irrational beliefs. For instance, Pennsylvania’s “Culturally-Relevant and Sustaining” practice standards required teachers to “elieve and acknowledge that microaggressions are real.”
Beyond their own progressive activism, RELs have contributed to the growth of a nonprofit bureaucracy that shares their left-wing priorities. The Department of Ed. enters into multiyear, multimillion-dollar contracts with public and private research consultancy organizations to manage the laboratories. These contracts provide managing organizations with valuable credibility and connections to state and local education authorities. Over time, these connections have led to lucrative opportunities beyond the scope of the REL program itself.
I mean, believing that lowering standards makes kids smarter is extreme by any definition.
https://www.city-journal.org/article/trump-department-of-education-contracts-left-activism?skip=1
RELs have pushed progressive identity policies in schools. REL Mid-Atlantic collaborated with the New Jersey Department of Education to promote racial preferences in teacher hiring. This laboratory developed six training sessions on “culturally responsive hiring practices” for state leaders to “build an educator workforce that more closely reflects the ethno-racial diversity of the state’s student population.” Another part of the project featured REL staff working with ten local school districts to increase the “hiring of teachers of color.”
REL Midwest worked with Akron Public Schools in Ohio to relax disciplinary policies with the goal of reducing minority-student suspension rates. Beginning in 2022, REL Midwest launched a five-year equity audit partnership to “address inequities in school discipline practices.” This approach has endangered students and staff. A 2023 Akron Beacon Journal report paints a troubling picture: students brawling, wielding knives, and suffering concussions. For the 2022-2023 school year, the district saw more than 1,000 fights, only 112 of them resulting in police reports; the Journal estimated that more than 80 percent of assaults on staff went unreported. School administrators rarely punished student violence harshly, even if it resulted in teachers being hospitalized. The local teachers’ union says that school staff have become too relaxed on student discipline over the years.
REL Pacific produced a teacher’s guide on culturally sustaining pedagogical practices, an identity-based teaching approach that uses disciplines like “ethnomathematics” to make minority students feel like they belong in the classroom. These approaches lack rigor, and their associated standards of implementation often compel educators to hold irrational beliefs. For instance, Pennsylvania’s “Culturally-Relevant and Sustaining” practice standards required teachers to “elieve and acknowledge that microaggressions are real.”
Beyond their own progressive activism, RELs have contributed to the growth of a nonprofit bureaucracy that shares their left-wing priorities. The Department of Ed. enters into multiyear, multimillion-dollar contracts with public and private research consultancy organizations to manage the laboratories. These contracts provide managing organizations with valuable credibility and connections to state and local education authorities. Over time, these connections have led to lucrative opportunities beyond the scope of the REL program itself.
