Guess who your teachers blame most for restricting what they teach?

Leaders of predominantly white districts were more likely to report political interference from parents, politicians and others. 

It seems everyone from politicians to parents is now pushing curriculum restrictions that bar teaching students about race, gender, and a host of other topics. The worst offenders, according to teachers, are parents and families. They are the loudest voices that are pressing for new limitations that are “infringing the most on educators’ instructional autonomy,” said teachers surveyed for the “Walking on Eggshells” report by the RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan think tank.

“The multifaceted nature of these limitations highlights how teachers exist in an increasingly complex policy environment in which they must consider and weigh not only their own perspectives but also the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, along with numerous messages and directives from a variety of sources about what and how to teach,” the authors of the report say.

For some teachers, this pressure to adapt to the limitations is harming morale and student learning, according to the teachers surveyed. In particular, they said it is becoming harder to develop students’ sense of empathy, critical thinking skills, and ability to see issues from multiple perspectives.

Other sources of curriculum restrictions are, of course, the official policymakers: State legislators and, to a lesser extent, district administrators. And the reaction from teachers runs the gamut from compliance to resistance as educators also engage in a wide range of strategies to navigate new policies.

5 key findings on political interference

Here’s a closer look at what teachers surveyed by RAND said about this era of curriculum restrictions on race or gender:

  1. States are imposing more limitations than district administrators.
  2. About 1 in 4 teachers did not know whether they were subject to such restrictions while only 30% of teachers in states with restrictions knew about the new policies.
  3. About one-quarter of teachers also said the limitations have influenced their choice of curriculum materials or instructional practices.
  4. Teachers of color were among the groups more likely to be aware of limitations on teaching race or gender.
  5. Teachers most commonly pointed to parents and families as sources of the limitations they have experienced.

LGBTQ+ issues, critical race theory, and COVID also continue to cause friction around K12 education. Roughly half of district leaders said political polarization sparked by at least one of these issues was interfering with student learning while about a third reported that their educators had been threatened, according to the Center on Reinventing Public Education’s American School District Panel survey.

Leaders of predominantly white districts were more likely to report experiencing political polarization while administrators in low-poverty districts were more likely to field requests to ban books and opt-out children from instruction about controversial subjects, the survey said.


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Threats against educators were most common in “historically advantaged” districts, such as low-income, suburban and majority-white school systems. Threats were also more prevalent in what the survey calls “island” districts, where the local political context does not jibe with the state—i.e., blue districts in red states or vice versa.

The polarization has also driven an increase in the number of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that schools have received over the last two years.

How leaders are (or should be) responding

Few leaders surveyed for the American School District Panel said political interference had caused them to change instructional content or district services. About half have confronted controversies by revising how potentially controversial content is taught and sending out more information to students and parents.

The RAND report recommends that state and district leaders include teachers and their perspectives when crafting policies and guidance for teaching about race and gender. School and district administrators should also find ways to discuss these topics with students and their families.

Finally, concrete learning objectives should be established for contentious topics in order to highlight their educational value, the RAND report concludes.

Matt Zalaznick
Matt Zalaznick
Matt Zalaznick is a life-long journalist. Prior to writing for District Administration he worked in daily news all over the country, from the NYC suburbs to the Rocky Mountains, Silicon Valley and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He's also in a band.

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