Filmmaker Eli Steele was filming a documentary on Chicago schools recently titled, “Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards.” The Illinois Board of Education had approved the Standards and they were on the verge of being ratified by the Illinois General Assembly.
The new standards make no mention of the word, “merit.”
Mr. Steele says: These new standards would require teachers to subscribe to “progressive values” and “hold high expectations in which all students can participate and lead as student advocates or activists.” (The rule-writers recently changed “progressive” to “inclusive” but every aspect of the new standards reflects progressive politics.)
They will learn to march for communism/progressivism but little else.
By progressive, they mean communist.
In 2019, only 37% of third-graders in Illinois demonstrated grade-level proficiency in English-language arts, and when it came to math only 41% could demonstrate grade-level proficiency.
The filmmaker asks, “Why would the state of Illinois consider new standards when it failed to uphold the most basic and universal of education standards?”
THE STANDARDS
Specifically, the new standards, which will take effect in 2025, define a culturally responsive educator as, among other things, one who will “critically think about the institutions in which they find themselves, working to reform these institutions whenever and wherever necessary,” as well as one who will “assess how their biases and perceptions affect their teaching practice and how they access tools to mitigate their own behavior (racism, sexism, homophobia, unearned privilege, Eurocentrism, etc.),” BND reported.
“Culturally responsive teachers and leaders understand that there are systems in our society that create and reinforce inequities, thereby creating oppressive conditions,” the standards state. “Educators work actively against these systems in their everyday roles in educational institutions.”
You will believe in anti-white oppression and systemic racism or you won’t teach in Chicago.
It was passed by an unelected body as opposed to the legislature.
THE LITMUS TEST
Critics have pointed out that the requirements essentially impose an ideological litmus test on educators, making any teacher who does not espouse certain views unwelcome in Illinois schools. In their original form, the provisions were explicitly left-leaning, and educators were required to “embrace and encourage progressive viewpoints and perspectives.” After opponents of the new rule brought public attention to the language, the word “progressive” was replaced with “inclusive,” but this has not alleviated the concern that the standard is aimed at pushing a political agenda on Illinois educators and schools, Illinois Policy.org writes.
Mandates evolve around: What should a teacher do to overcome his or her “biases and perceptions” such as “unearned privilege [and] Eurocentrism”? What does it mean to “know and understand how a system of inequity reinforces certain truths as the norm”?
Equity is a communist concept that demands all outcomes for all people come out the same.
That is communism.
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