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Oregon’s DOE ‘acted to obscure’ radical ideologies ‘woven’ into policies, lessons

The Oregon Association of Scholars has a new report out detailing how that state is putting “Politics Over Performance.”

According to the report, “members of the public in Oregon and across the country have had concerns about politicization and the integration of identity politics in the public education system” since 2020.

These include the Oregon Department of Education promoting “ethnomathematics” (which instructs educators to “identify and challenge the ways that math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views”), sponsoring an event featuring 1619 Project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones, and creating teacher workshops that “explicitly incorporate” critical race theory (CRT).

(In 2021, The Fix reported that Oregon’s “Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction” toolkit claims “the concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false,” and notes a way “to improve equitable outcomes for Black, Latinx, and multilingual students” is to “visibiliz[e] the toxic characteristics of white supremacy culture with respect to math.” Some of these “toxic characteristics” include a “focus on getting the ‘right’ answer,” “independent practice is valued over teamwork,” and “requiring students to show their work.”)

There’s also the fact that Governor Kate Brown signed into law a bill which did away with “all [Oregon high school graduation] essential skills requirements” in the name of “equity” and “anti-racism.”

The OAS report says the state’s DOE and Coalition of Oregon School Administrators “acted to obscure the ideological connection” between CRT and DEI measures that are “woven” into Oregon’s public education system “at multiple levels.” These include systemic oppression, anti-racism, intersectionality, and whiteness.

For example, an Oregon DOE document “Toolkit: Communicating about Racial Equity in a Charged Environment” notes CRT “is not a required part of any curriculum in our district,” yet it “coaches” teachers and other school staff on how to talk to parents (and others) to help them become “activists” for racial equity — a tenant of CRT.

MORE: Minority teachers at Oregon school: Eye-rolling is ‘harmful,’ based on white supremacy

The toolkit also says school personnel “need to equip students with the tools they need to think critically about issues of race, racism, and inequity,” and provides links to CRT-related resources — including the “Guide to Counter-Narrating the Attacks on Critical Race Theory” via the group Race Forward.

This guide claims attacks on CRT “draw on narratives that breed racial resentment,” such as believing in colorblindness, that discussions about race are “inherently divisive,” and that white people end up as the “victims” in dealings with systemic racism.

To counter such beliefs, the guide says (educators) should put forth that everyone “deserve[s] an honest education about race in this country,” that systemic racism is a real thing, and that politicians use “caricatures” of CRT to “rob us of our history” and prevent solutions to racism.

Oregon Association of Scholars President Shawnn Hartley told The Fix that Oregon school districts “vary in the degree to which they’ve imbibed the ideology.”

“Districts like Portland, Beaverton, Bethel in Eugene, and Bend lean fully into it,” Hartley said. “Bethel even links to a social justice reading list including Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Parents can’t readily access classroom curricula, reading lists, or supplementary instructional materials for most districts.”

Hartley added parents “have even less visibility” into what goes into state teacher workshops and administrative policies.

“Obfuscating the fact that these policies and practices are grounded in philosophies designed to fundamentally transform society in line with the vision of radicals like Freire, and what that means for what content is taught or how that content is taught, is negligent at best,” he said.

MORE: Oregon sued for banning religious schools while letting public schools reopen in person

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