Education Week - October 11, 2023 - 16

Laws Restricting Curriculum, Pronoun Use
Cause Confusion and Chaos in Schools
By Libby Stanford
& Ileana Najarro
The school year at Alachua County
public schools in Florida began Aug.
10. But days prior, as teachers finalized
plans for the year, district leaders were
confused about whether they were
legally allowed to offer an Advanced
Placement Psychology course.
That's because in May, the course
administered by the nonprofit College
Board came under scrutiny by
the Florida Department of Education
for potentially violating the state's Parental
Rights in Education state law,
which took effect in 2022 and bans
instruction on gender identity and
sexual orientation. The AP Psychology
course includes instruction on
these topics.
Throughout the summer and right
up to Aug. 9, one day before the start
of the school year, there was a public
back-and-forth between the Florida
state agency and the College Board
over whether the state could make
edits to the course (the College Board
said no) and whether schools could in
fact offer it in full (Florida finally clarified
that yes, they could).
The uncertainty about AP Psychology
marks just one of the confusing
scenarios school districts in Florida
and across the country have encountered
over the last few years as they
seek to abide by a spate of relatively
new laws that restrict instruction on
race, gender, and sexuality. Such laws
passed after highly charged debates,
sparking strong opinions from opponents
and proponents. Now, schools
are left to carry out the often vaguely
worded laws, many times without
clear guidance from state education
agencies. In Florida, the state's guidance
on AP Psychology changed by the
day as the start of school approached.
" Since 2020, this is a first I've ever
experienced as a parent of children in
public schools, and now as an elected
official, " said Tina Certain, chair of
the Alachua County district's school
board, and president of the Florida
School Boards Association. " We
haven't had this where you're getting
these vague laws and rules, where the
department of education doesn't give
guidance on implementation, and
then things come out at the very last
minute. "
Since January 2021, 18 states have
passed laws restricting teaching about
critical race theory or so-called " divisive
topics " such as race, gender, and
sexuality, and at least 10 states have
passed laws explicitly stating that
teachers and staff don't have to use
students' pronouns and names that
align with their gender identity.
The laws have come under scrutiny
from LGBTQ+ advocates, educators,
and others who argue they sanitize
facts about American history and
actively harm students of color and
LGBTQ+ students. Political views
aside, the laws have also led to confusion,
and sometimes chaos, in classrooms
because of a lack of clarity or
support from state education departments
in implementing them, educators
say.
The laws " really put everyone in
this very difficult and sort of very awkward
situation where you have vaguely
defined laws, where it's very unclear
what exactly is prohibited, " said Jon
Valant, director of the Brown Center
on Education Policy and a senior
fellow at the Brookings Institution.
" Then it's also unclear to what extent
it's actually going to be enforced. "
'Feeling so under attack'
Worried about jeopardizing teachers'
livelihoods by potentially violating
state law, Certain's district opted
to offer alternatives to AP Psychology.
In April, the Florida board of education
had voted to expand the Parental
Rights in Education, which critics commonly
call the " Don't Say Gay " law, to
all grades. The policy also threatened
to take away teachers' licenses for defying
the law.
The Alachua County district also had
to remove an LGBTQ+ support guide
due to new state rules over pronoun
and bathroom assignments in schools,
Certain said. The district had received
a letter from the state education department
stating the guide violated
the Parental Rights in Education law,
public radio station WUFT reported.
Certain said her district has already
lost some teaching staff, both new and
established.
" It is very difficult, and it's very
stressful for our educators. I mean,
they're feeling so under attack, underappreciated, "
she said. " They've been
underpaid for years. Now, they're
being told they're indoctrinating students,
and then these laws at the last
minute where they're just not allowed
to operate as professionals. People just
say they're tired of it, they don't want
to deal with it anymore. "
The Florida Department of Education
did not respond to a request for
comment.
Districts outside of Florida have had
to contend with similar changes in
their states, attempting to comply with
vaguely worded laws without much
guidance.
In some Iowa districts, for example,
students who go by Joe instead of Joseph
or Kate instead of Katherine were
sent home from the first day of school
in August with forms asking their parents
to approve the use of their nicknames
because of a law intended to
prevent teachers from hiding changes
to a student's gender identity from
parents. Under the law, which took
effect last year, schools are required
to get parental consent to use a name
different from the one listed on the student's
birth certificate. District leaders
say they don't have enough guidance
from the state's education department
to know whether it applies to com16
| EDUCATION WEEK | October 11, 2023 | www.edweek.org
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks in Miami during a news conference to sign several bills related to public education
and increases in teacher pay, on May 9, 2023.
mon nicknames, according to the Des
Moines Register.
In Indiana, a similar law requires
schools to notify parents if a student
requests to go by a different name or
pronoun.
Because the law is so vague and
enforcement is unclear, lawyers in
Indiana have advised district leaders
to alert parents to any sort of name
change request, including nicknames,
according to the IndyStar. Meanwhile,
parents told the newspaper that they're
confused and annoyed by the time
commitment it takes schools to verify
a name their child has always used.
It's all a symptom of a highly political
moment, in which schools have
become a battleground for politicians
seeking to raise their profiles, Valant
said.
Education policy debates in the political
sphere are nothing new, but they
have traditionally focused on student
achievement, with debates over topics
like school choice, teacher quality, and
school accountability, he said.
Now, " you have politicians who are
using schools as a means to an end,
and that end is about their own performance
in elections that really doesn't
have anything to do with schools, " Valant
said.
What's at stake moving forward
The laws restricting instruction on
race and gender and targeting students'
gender identities, often rooted
in arguments to protect " parents'
rights, " are leading U.S. schools down
a dangerous path, said Michael Apple,
an education policy professor at the
University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Apple worries that the push to appease
a loud minority of parents who
want such restrictions and policies
will, in turn, transform K-12 schools
into a system in which parents with
the loudest voices get the most say in
what students learn.
" There's nothing holding back a
small minority of parents who are
actually changing the meaning of democracy.
Democracy, now, is simply
choice. It's like a market, " Apple said.
Referring to the thinking of parents'
rights activists, he said, " 'We have the
right to determine what our kids read,
but because of that we have the right
to determine what every kid reads.'
That's a big shift. "
The current wave of conservative
K-12 legislation isn't going away anytime
soon, Apple said. More states are
passing laws that restrict teaching and
limit transgender and nonbinary students'
rights to play sports, use bathrooms,
and go by names and pronouns
that align with their gender identity.
These laws' staying power, though,
largely depends on the outcome of the
2024 Republican primary, Valant said.
Specifically, they hinge on the performance
of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis,
who has risen to national prominence
in part by championing such education
policy changes in his home state,
setting an example that Republicans
around the country have emulated.
While DeSantis won reelection in
Florida last year by a double-digit
margin, he has struggled to maintain
a competitive edge in the presidential
primary against former President
Donald Trump, and he's modified his
approach on the debate stage, avoiding
the use of the word " woke, " which was
previously a mainstay in his speeches
and comments about schools.
" If DeSantis performs well through
these primaries and if he becomes the
nominee, I think one of the lessons
that will be learned, right or wrong,
by a lot of conservative politicians is
that you can make a name for yourself
in the Republican party by picking culture
war fights in education, " Valant
said. " I think that would be extremely
unhealthy for schools. "
To be sure, policies restricting classroom
discussions and requiring parental
notification of students' name
and pronoun changes haven't had
unchecked momentum.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom,
a Democrat, threatened to fine the
Temecula Valley school board $1.5
million for rejecting state textbooks
that mentioned Harvey Milk, a gay
rights activist and historical figure
from San Francisco. And a San Bernardino
County judge ruled against
another California school district's
policy requiring parent notification if
a student changes their pronouns, according
to the Associated Press. The
policy violated students' civil rights,
the judge said.
Last February, a group of students
in Colorado Springs School District 11
protested a policy that would prevent
teachers from asking for students'
pronouns, leading the school board
to table the issue, according to The
Gazette. The board has since drafted
a different policy that does not mention
pronouns, but prohibits teachers
from requiring students to " render
statements regarding personal or
other inappropriate private matters. "
Certain, the Florida school board
member, has heard from parents
hoping that district leaders push back
against the state laws in the Sunshine
State. In the meantime, she worries
about the national ramifications of
Florida schools' experience.
" As things go here in Florida, I think
we start to see these things spill over
into other states, " Certain said.
Rebecca Blackwell/AP

http://www.edweek.org

Education Week - October 11, 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - October 11, 2023