School Board OKs first step toward classical education model in elementary schools

Miami-Dade County Schools on Wednesday gave the OK to “explore the feasibility” of offering a classical education curriculum, potentially bringing the politically tinged education model — which has been championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and conservatives — to the state’s largest school district.

The curriculum, which emphasizes a return to core virtues and subjects like math, science, civics and classical texts, puts a strong emphasis on the “centrality of the Western tradition” — or a historical focus on white, Western European and Judeo-Christian foundations — and “demands moral virtue of its adherents.”

Hillsdale College, a politically influential private Christian college in southern Michigan that’s had a hand in shaping education policies in Florida, is one of the most prominent proponents of the classical education model.

The item, proposed by board member Monica Colucci, calls for determining whether the district could offer the curriculum and to “develop a plan and a timeline for its implementation” for the 2024-25 school year. The outcome of the exploration is expected to come back to the board in October.

READ MORE: Florida education officials discuss SAT alternative focused on ‘Western tradition’

According to Colucci, the proposal “isn’t seeking to impose this curriculum on every student [and] not seeking to mandate it as the norm for the whole district.” Instead, it’s meant as a choice, “something for parents to consider” and a way to possibly increase proficiency levels in the district, something she said was a top concern as an educator.

She pointed to a school in Miami-Dade that uses a classical curriculum and is “outperforming in the district” but did not provide the name of the school. Instead, she referred to it as “the school that will remain nameless” during the committee meeting earlier this month. (In an email statement to the Herald Friday, Colucci said the school was True North Classical Academy. The reason she omitted the name, she said, was to keep the focus of the discussion on the model of instruction, rather than the school that was visited.)

But some community members and board member Lucia Baez-Geller, who perhaps was the most vocal critic of the item, raised concerns about whether the curriculum does, in fact, boost proficiency among students.

What does the data say?

“While I could appreciate the data, I do want to point out the glaring issues with us having four classical academies in our district [but] no data [presented] about our students. I think that’s very telling,” Baez-Geller said. Based on her research, Baez-Geller said, the four charter schools serve about 1,200 students and have “no difference” when comparing performance levels with the traditional public schools in the same ZIP code.

Included in Colucci’s proposal was data from classical charter schools in New York City, Nashville and Washington, D.C. Data from the classical schools in Miami-Dade was absent.

Nancy Lawther, the former president of the Miami-Dade County Council of PTA/PTSA presidents, said educators shouldn’t be “too quick to credit curriculum and instructional approach alone as determining factors” for proficiency outcomes, especially given the known correlation between family income and proficiency.

“We should perhaps instead look at some of our best performing Title 1 schools in looking for a good model to follow,” she said to board members during the regular meeting Wednesday.

The item passed with Baez-Geller voting no and board member Luisa Santos absent.

READ MORE: A few things to know about the classical education model for K-12 schools

Classical education boom in Florida

Colucci’s item comes as GOP lawmakers and conservative groups have pushed for the educational model to expand in the state and after a legislative session that doubled down in the state’s support of it.

Last month, DeSantis, alongside Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, signed into law HB 1537 and other education bills at True North Classical Academy. (Colucci is a longtime friend of Nuñez. She left teaching to work in the governor’s executive office from February 2019 to August 2020 as the special assistant to Nuñez.)

The law now provides state funding for school districts to administer the Classic Learning Test and expands Bright Futures Scholarships criteria to include the test, among other requirements.

The test’s founder, Jeremy Tate, said the test is meant to be an alternative to the College Board-administered SAT exam, which he argues has become “increasingly ideological” in part because it has “censored the entire Christian-Catholic intellectual tradition” and other “thinkers in the history of Western thought.”

Colucci, for her part, said in an email to the Herald that her item is “strictly academic and curricular in its scope. It has nothing embedded or intended with respect to religious teachings.”

In May New College of Florida announced it intends to accept the test as an alternative to the SAT and ACT, becoming the first public college in the state to do so. Former state education commissioner Richard Corcoran’s wife founded one of these charter schools: Classical Preparatory School in Pasco County. Corcoran now serves as the interim president of New College of Florida.

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And on Wednesday, a committee of the state Board of Governors approved the test as an option for all 12 schools in the State University System, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The final vote is expected to take place later this summer.

Speaking to the crowd ahead of the bill signing at True North, Nuñez, a “True North mom,” said the school “build(s) good character, they insist on virtues and their focus on classical liberal arts education.”

She touted its academic and athletic accomplishments and said it was “one of the most sought after schools” in the county. She also referenced a phrase on one of the school’s buildings that read: To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.

“I would say that’s the embodiment of True North students, and I would say that’s the embodiment of a certain governor from the free state of Florida,” she said.