Thread by @JeffreyASachs

New from @PENamerica, a story out of Oklahoma that has everything critics of anti-CRT laws warned about and everything supporters assured us would never happen.

pen.org/press-release/…

It's a story about a vague statute, capricious officials, half-assed procedures, culture war fury, and two school districts that together serve over 35,000 students.

It's also very hard to explain, but I'll try.

Late last month, the OK State Board of Education (SBE) voted to severely downgrade the accreditation status of two school districts, Tulsa PS and Mustang PS, over violations of HB 1775. That's the state's anti-CRT law.

kfor.com/news/local/okl…

SBE was acting on the recommendation of Brad Clark, general counsel for the State Dept of Ed (SDE). In the case of TPS, Clark investigated an online staff training on implicit bias. According to Clark, while the slides did not violate the law, the audio that accompanied them did.

I'll describe the content of the training in a sec, but first it's important to be clear about what Clark says he did: First, he reviewed the slides and found them harmless. Then, some months later, he listened to the audio and declared that it violated HB 1775.

There's just one problem. As SDE was later forced to admit, the audio was a verbatim word-for-word reading of the slides. Nothing added, nothing removed. If the slides truly did comply with HB 1775, logically the audio must have complied with it as well.

normantranscript.com/news/state-dep…

So just keep in mind that this is the level of rigor and consistency that officials are bringing to bear on anti-CRT laws.

But ok, what exactly was said at the staff training? At top are the statements flagged by Clark. Below are the provisions of HB 1775 he says they violate.

Do you see what I see?

It is now illegal in the state of Oklahoma for a school to tell its teachers or students that "societal systems, including public schools, were originally solely developed by the majority, who were then predominantly White, middle-class individuals."

It is illegal to tell them that "deeply rooted stereotypes, built over time and by history and culture, can still be found in classrooms. These can turn into implicit bias and can eventually lead to discrimination if unchecked."

Hell, it is illegal to report the factual statistic that "while just 18% of preschool students were Black in 2015, they accounted for 42% of the out-of-school suspensions."

Remember, this is not my snarky gloss on the presentation. It's SDE's.

s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2212…

IOW, Clark found that statements affirming the existence of bias in general and implicit bias in particular violate HB 1775. And on the basis of that finding, SBE downgraded TPS's accreditation status from "with no deficiencies" (rank 1 of 5) to "with warning" (3 of 5).

If that isn't crazy enough, let me tell you what SBE did to Mustang at the same meeting. Again, Clark found that MPS had violated HB 1775. This time, it was a voluntary class exercise where students step forward or back depending on how they answer questions about privilege.

One question in particular angered a child's parent and led to the investigation. Here it is:

“If you have ever been called names regarding your race, socioeconomic class, gender, sexual orientation, or physical/learning disability and felt uncomfortable, take one step back.”

A parent complained that this question made their child feel "embarrassed", which Clark said violated HB 1775's ban against teaching that "any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex."

Again, really try to hone in on what happened here. Under the law, teachers can't say that a student SHOULD feel discomfort on the basis of their race or sex. But that's not what the teacher said. Instead, they asked a question that CAUSED the student to feel discomfort.

Does this distinction sound vaguely familiar to you? If so, it may be because of an op-ed that @kmele, @jasonintrator, @DavidAFrench and @thomaschattwill wrote a ways back against these anti-CRT laws. They misdescribed a law and had to issue a correction.

nytimes.com/2021/07/05/opi…

@kmele @jasonintrator @DavidAFrench @thomaschattwill This error prompted no end of contemptuous tut-tutting by the law's defenders. "Sure, if one of these laws actually stopped schools from teaching anything that makes students feel discomfort, that would be bad," they declared. "But that's *obviously* not what they do."

@kmele @jasonintrator @DavidAFrench @thomaschattwill The state of Oklahoma says otherwise. Teachers are now on notice: Before you say anything in class, assign any book, or lead a volunteer exercise, try to anticipate how it will make your students feel. Guess wrong and your entire school district could pay the price.

@kmele @jasonintrator @DavidAFrench @thomaschattwill Because that's what happened to Mustang, btw. SBE downgraded their accreditation status to "with warning" as well. Any further deficiencies by TPS or MPS in the next year and they could lose their accreditation status all together.

Did I mention they serve 35k kids?

@kmele @jasonintrator @DavidAFrench @thomaschattwill According to one member of the SBE, these actions were taken in order to "send a message." I believe that message has been heard. Just yesterday, an OK teacher was suspended for sharing with her students online access to the Brooklyn Public Library.

gothamist.com/news/oklahoma-…

@kmele @jasonintrator @DavidAFrench @thomaschattwill Now school libraries across the state are scrambling to cut off students' access to books. Can you blame them? Nobody wants to be the next Tulsa or Mustang, but all it takes is one parental complaint.

https://twitter.com/wsuares/status/1561914088531410944

@kmele @jasonintrator @DavidAFrench @thomaschattwill HB 1775 is not defective. It is operating exactly as it was intended to. It is a vague, poorly drafted law, one that no one knows quite how to interpret. But that's the whole point.

pen.org/for-educationa…

@kmele @jasonintrator @DavidAFrench @thomaschattwill Teachers are not idiots. Faced with a vague and contradictory statute, they will err on the side of self-censorship every time. And clearly they're right to do so! If reporting a factual statistic about racism might be illegal, the only smart move is to stop talking about racism.

@kmele @jasonintrator @DavidAFrench @thomaschattwill If it might be illegal to say something that makes a student feel uncomfortable about their race or sex, obviously your best move is to never say anything about race or sex.

It's not rocket science. It's just anti-CRT.

@kmele @jasonintrator @DavidAFrench @thomaschattwill For details about what happened to TPS and MPS, click on the top link and read the letter that @PENamerica sent to the Oklahoma SBE.

For more on anti-CRT bills in general, including quite a few that are even worse than HB 1775, read here.

pen.org/report/America…