Woodland Park School District RE-2 pulls course material after critical race theory complaint

Jan. 30—Woodland Park School District RE-2 is pulling material from a high school course following a complaint that it teaches critical race theory concepts.

District officials reviewed the material and found that it did not conform to curriculum standards, interim Superintendent Ken Witt said.

District taxpayer Jameson Dion filed the complaint against a junior- and senior-level English and social studies elective at Woodland Park High School titled "civil disobedience," which explores the foundations of protest movements using nonfiction texts throughout history.

One particular course text, "Between the World and Me" by Ta Nehisi Coates, was flagged in the complaint and during the curriculum review process.

The teacher behind the class said his goal is to encourage diversity of thought and opinion through discussion, but Dion accuses the book of being "a tool of a teacher who appears intent upon using this course as (an) indoctrination tool."

The school board adopted a new set of social studies standards on Jan. 11 known as the American Birthright. These standards were created by the Civics Alliance, a conservative coalition with the stated mission of combating a "new civics" approach of the progressive left that prioritizes activism over the responsibilities of American citizenship. Social studies courses offered within Woodland Park schools will now be evaluated in accordance with American Birthright.

Witt said Dion's complaint is not the reason "Between the World and Me" is being removed from district classrooms. However, the complaint did bring civil disobedience to the district's attention while deciding which courses to review first.

"A simple reading of that text and a simple reading of the American Birthright standard does not require very much effort to see a bad alignment," Witt said. "That was an easy call to make."

English and language arts teacher David Graf has taught civil disobedience for eight years, tracing back to a 2015 push to improve juniors' performance on the SAT. Specifically, Graf said students lacked nonfiction texts in their classes.

The department reimagined itself accordingly, establishing 10 brand-new semester-long electives with an emphasis on nonfiction text analysis. Among the crop of new offerings was civil disobedience.

Students who elect to take the course will swap ideas in a discussion-based setting. They will read Sophocles as they evaluate the merits of breaking unjust laws, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau as they consider the origin of modern law and democracy, Henry Thoreau as they explore the foundation of larger protest movements and, until the district's recent finding that it was out of compliance with curriculum standards, "Between the World and Me" as they discuss examples of 21st century social movements.

Graf selected the text by Coates in part because of the Ferguson, Mo., protests that dominated headlines following the fatal officer-involved shooting of Michael Brown in 2014.

"I thought it would be a good text for our students in Woodland Park to read to gather understanding about why a movement like that was taking place at that point in time," Graf said. "A movement like Black Lives Matter, you have soccer teams across the world kneeling for it in 2020. How does all that happen? We talk about all of that."

In his formal complaint, Dion said Coates demonizes white Americans and teaches impressionable readers that individuals should be judged by the color of their skin. He cited several passages from the book that he found inappropriate, including Coates' description of his feelings as the World Trade Center collapsed in front of his eyes on Sept. 11, 2001.

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"Everyone knew someone who knew someone who was missing. But looking out upon the ruins of America, my heart was cold," the book reads. "I could see no difference between the officer who killed Prince Jones and the police who died, or the firefighters who died. They were not human to me. Black, white, or whatever, they were the menaces of nature; they were the fire, the comet, the storm, which could — with no justification — shatter my body."

Graf, however, said the intent of his class is not to push an agenda. Rather, the goal is to hear diverging opinions in a judgment-free zone as students think critically about the texts before them.

"I think there's value in understanding where other people are coming from, and if you disagree, you disagree, and that is awesome, right?" Graf said. "Obviously, I never had the intent when I started teaching it to offend anyone with either the course or the selected texts, but we live in a different political climate nowadays than we did seven, eight years ago."

The course had the support of the English and language arts department when created in 2015 and has never, to Graf's knowledge, received a parent or student complaint.

Civil disobedience was crafted with mandated Colorado State Board of Education standards in mind, which call for a diversity of thought. The Woodland Park school board also reviewed the curriculum as recently as last spring, when it was found to be in compliance with standards at the time. That changed with the adoption of American Birthright this year.

According to a spokesperson for the State Board of Education, local boards have until fall 2024 to adopt their own standards that meet or exceed the Colorado Academic Standards outlined by the state. Local boards can adopt the state's standards as is, create their own standards or "adopt one or more other sets of standards and supplement them as necessary" to meet or exceed the state's expectations.

In a 4-3 vote along partisan lines, the state board rejected a proposal in October that would have adopted American Birthright, developed by a national association, as Colorado's base standard. The state instead crafted its standards using input from Colorado teachers and a public feedback process, according to the spokesperson.

The state board reached out to Woodland Park School District to understand its intent in adopting American Birthright.

"While American Birthright is not adequate as curriculum in itself, the Woodland Park School District has adopted American Birthright as curriculum guidance, against which we will review, select and potentially develop instructional materials to use in the classroom," the district said in response to the state board's inquiry. "This curriculum guidance, along with our additional district requirements for education on the Holocaust and Financial Literacy, will ensure our curriculum meets or exceeds state standards."

In a Jan. 23 email to Dion, Witt said the complaint is no longer being pursued since the review found "Between the World and Me" did not conform to American Birthright standards and "has been eliminated as a curriculum element and as supplementary reading from all Woodland Park School District classes."

As of Monday, Graf said he has not yet received any word from the district regarding the review or its outcome and will continue with his course as planned.

"I've found that our students do a better job at handling some of the issues that are talked about in that course than adults. They're able to talk to one another and know they have separate thoughts," Graf said. "They're able to discuss, talk about it and leave the classroom fine."

Witt said he does not anticipate pervasive changes to curriculum as the district continues reviewing courses under American Birthright. Woodland Park has already decided not to change its Advanced Placement courses and does not expect any changes to graduation requirements, he said. Civil disobedience was the exception, not the rule.

"The community has elected a board that has stated their core beliefs and has very transparently and consistently expressed a desire to ensure that we have a high quality education system in Woodland Park, and their adoption of the American Birthright curriculum furthers that goal," Witt said. "I'm just delighted to see that they have committed themselves to pressing forward with improving education in Woodland Park."

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