What does Curriculum Transparency mean?
October 5, 2022 4:21 PM Subscribe
I am trying to figure out how to vote for the school board members in my district and the race is Non Partisan. This phrase "Curriculum Transparency" keeps coming up and it is hard find anything else substantial about these candidates' views.
I've searched and it seems like it is a requirement that all teaching materials are made available to parents. Can I safely assume anyone putting this in their official statements is a conservative candidate?
I've searched and it seems like it is a requirement that all teaching materials are made available to parents. Can I safely assume anyone putting this in their official statements is a conservative candidate?
Best answer: That'd be my assumption, yes. I've been watching local-school-board tactics because I'm trying to teach future (public and school) librarians what to watch out for, and "transparency" has come up (here's a report containing tweets from a major conservative attacker of schools and libraries) as a way to force schools and educators to make available their lesson plans for censorship.
Thank you for asking, and thank you for caring.
posted by humbug at 4:30 PM on October 5, 2022 [12 favorites]
Thank you for asking, and thank you for caring.
posted by humbug at 4:30 PM on October 5, 2022 [12 favorites]
Best answer: Yes. Conservative think tanks have been putting out 'Curriculum Transparency' model legislation. The Goldwater Institute is one of them. Here is how they pitch it:
Kids are being exposed to radical political content in America’s K-12 classrooms. Racially divisive ideologies like Critical Race Theory are being forced on our kids, and parents are left in the dark. Many don’t even know what’s being taught to their children because schools are going out of their way to keep it secret.
There’s a solution: The Academic Transparency Act. This powerful new law developed by the Goldwater Institute ensures that parents know what their children are being taught. Under this law, public schools would be required to publish a list of instructional materials and activities used during the academic year on a publicly accessible portion of its website. Academic Transparency protects parents’ rights by bringing true academic transparency to America’s public schools.
You can go to their site to read a full briefing on it. But they openly intend for it to have a chilling effect on teachers and schools, and hope it will be paired with bills like Parental Rights in Education Act that allows parents to sue school districts and teachers. They hope using a word like 'Transparency' that the left likes will help get it by people who aren't paying attention.
posted by Garm at 8:20 PM on October 5, 2022 [7 favorites]
Kids are being exposed to radical political content in America’s K-12 classrooms. Racially divisive ideologies like Critical Race Theory are being forced on our kids, and parents are left in the dark. Many don’t even know what’s being taught to their children because schools are going out of their way to keep it secret.
There’s a solution: The Academic Transparency Act. This powerful new law developed by the Goldwater Institute ensures that parents know what their children are being taught. Under this law, public schools would be required to publish a list of instructional materials and activities used during the academic year on a publicly accessible portion of its website. Academic Transparency protects parents’ rights by bringing true academic transparency to America’s public schools.
You can go to their site to read a full briefing on it. But they openly intend for it to have a chilling effect on teachers and schools, and hope it will be paired with bills like Parental Rights in Education Act that allows parents to sue school districts and teachers. They hope using a word like 'Transparency' that the left likes will help get it by people who aren't paying attention.
posted by Garm at 8:20 PM on October 5, 2022 [7 favorites]
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Yes.
posted by Toddles at 4:27 PM on October 5, 2022 [23 favorites]