School Choice

What is school choice? School choice is the process of allowing every family to choose the K-12 educational options that best fit their children. Every child is unique, and all children learn differently. Some children might succeed at the neighborhood public school, while others might fit in better at a charter, magnet, online, private or home learning environment. That’s why school choice is so important! These options include all forms of education, from traditional public schools, to public charter schools, public magnet schools, private schools, online academies, and homeschooling.

Every child deserves an effective, challenging, and motivating education. And, because each student has their own unique set of talents, interests, and challenges, having a variety of options in education is crucial. What works well for one child may not work well for another child! In short, school choice ensures that each student can find a learning environment that allows them to be inspired, successful, and happy.

(National School Choice Week)

     
Critical Race Theory

Critical race theory (CRT) is a framework of analysis and an academic movement of civil-rights scholars and activists who seek to examine the intersection of race and law in the United States and to challenge mainstream American liberal approaches to racial justice.^[1][2][3][4] CRT examines social, cultural, and legal issues primarily as they relate to race and racism in the United States.^[5][6] A tenet of CRT is that racism and disparate racial outcomes are the result of complex, changing, and often subtle social and institutional dynamics, rather than explicit and intentional prejudices of individuals.^[7][8]

CRT originated in the mid-1970s in the writings of several American legal scholars, including Derrick Bell, Alan Freeman, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Richard Delgado, Cheryl Harris, Charles R. Lawrence III, Mari Matsuda, and Patricia J. Williams.^[1] It emerged as a movement by the 1980s, reworking theories of critical legal studies (CLS) with more focus on race.^[1][9] CRT is grounded in critical theory^[10] and draws from thinkers such as Antonio Gramsci, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, and W. E. B. DuBois, as well as the Black Power, Chicano, and radical feminist movements from the 1960s and 1970s.^[1]

CRT scholars view race and white supremacy as an intersectional social construct^[7] that advances the interests of white people^[11] at the expense of persons of other races.^[12][13][14] In the field of legal studies, CRT emphasizes that formally colorblind laws can still have racially discriminatory outcomes.^[15] A key CRT concept is intersectionality, which emphasizes that race can intersect with other identities (such as gender and class) to produce complex combinations of power and advantage.^[16]

Academic critics of CRT argue that CRT relies on social constructionism, elevates storytelling over evidence and reason, rejects the concepts of truth and merit, and opposes liberalism.^[17][18]

Since 2020, conservative U.S. lawmakers have sought to ban or restrict the instruction of critical race theory along with other anti‑racism education.^[8][19] These lawmakers have been accused of misrepresenting the tenets and importance of CRT, and that the goal of their restrictions is to broadly silence discussions of racism, equality, social justice, and the history of race.^[20][21][22]

^(Wikipedia)

  

Common Core

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is an educational initiative from 2010 that details what                     K–12 students throughout the United States should know in English language arts and mathematics at the conclusion of each school grade. The initiative is sponsored by the following organizations:

• National Governors Association (NGA)
• Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)

The initiative also seeks to establish consistent educational standards across the states as well as ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to enter credit-bearing courses at two- or four-year college programs or to enter the workforce.^[1]

In the 1990s, a movement began in the U.S. to establish national educational standards for students across the country.

• (a) outlining what students were expected to know and do at each grade level
• (b) implementing ways to find out if they were meeting those standards.^[2]

Reception and Criticism

The Common Core State Standards have drawn both support and criticism from politicians, analysts, and commentators. Teams of academics and educators from around the United States led the development of the standards, and additional validation teams approved the final standards. The teams drew on public feedback that was solicited throughout the process and that feedback was incorporated into the standards.^[49] The Common Core initiative only specifies what students should know at each grade level and describes the skills that they must acquire in order to achieve college or career readiness. Individual school districts are responsible for choosing curricula based on the standards.^[49] Textbooks bearing a Common Core label are not verified by any agency and may or may not represent the intent of the Common Core Standards. Some critics believe most current textbooks are not actually aligned to the Common Core, while others disagree.^[50]

^(Wikipedia)