Push to make schools ‘culturally responsive’
Some city parents and educators will mark Juneteenth Saturday by lobbying the city to invest more money in curriculum that reflects students’ backgrounds.
The education advocacy groups Coalition for Educational Justice and Alliance for a Quality Education say the growing celebration of Juneteenth — a holiday commemorating the day slaves in Texas learned of their freedom following the Civil War — rings hollow without an accompanying investment in diversifying curriculum and teaching methods. It’s an approach known as “culturally responsive education.”
“There’s been the announcement of Juneteenth as a holiday, but zero shifts to curriculum to reflect what Juneteenth is and its importance,” said Natasha Capers, a coordinator for Coalition for Educational Justice and organizer of Saturday’s event.
Culturally responsive education has become a common refrain, and occasional lightning rod, in recent city education debates.
Former city Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza sparked a fiery discussion among some parents and educators when he pushed the city to adopt a formal definition for culturally responsive teaching in 2019.
But longtime proponents of the approach say the city’s commitment in theory hasn’t always translated to more diverse curriculum and materials in classrooms.
A 2019 Coalition for Educational Justice analysis of more than a dozen commonly used curriculum guides and book lists found the bulk of the books were written by white authors — in a city system composed of more than 80% students of color.
State Sen. John Liu (D-Queens) recently introduced legislation that would require public schools to teach Asian-American history.
Capers pointed to the fact that this year’s historically large city budget — the biggest portion of which is devoted to the Education Department — includes no dedicated funding to buy culturally responsive curriculum.
Some teachers and schools have made strides on their own, “but they tend to be the schools with the resources to pour into training teachers, working with families,” she said. “Schools that have been historically underfunded don’t have those resources.”
The city Education Department, which will celebrate Juneteenth as an official holiday for the first time next year, curated curriculum resources for teachers to use this year in lessons about the holiday, calling it “part of a broader education of the practice, impact, and legacy of slavery that speaks to Black history in this country.”
Education Department spokeswoman Sarah Casasnovas said, “the chancellor has been clear that high-quality and inclusive curriculum, including educating our students about Juneteenth, is key to our recovery, and we will continue to partner with our communities, students, families and educators to deepen our progress.”