Acalanes Schools adopt racial equity policy, approve course on deconstructing race

On Aug. 5, 2020, the Acalanes Union High School District Board adopted a “Racial Equity” plan, asserting that they will “develop and implement policies and strategies to promote racial equity and interrupt institutional racism in District programs and activities,” taking steps that include:

• “[a]dopting curriculum and instructional materials that accurately reflect perspectives of the racial and ethnic diversity among students, and examining and addressing the historical Eurocentric curricular and course offerings institutional bias,”
• “[i]mplementing special instructional and learning programs with regularity (academy, seminar, assembly, Human & Social Development) for all students to examine racial identity, white privilege, and institutional racism,” and
• “[e]ngaging Districtwide parent committee and implementing parent education to examine and support efforts for racial equity and antiracism and culturally appropriate relations between school and home.”

On Sept. 2, 2020, Acalanes Union High School District governing board in California finalized the approval of a new course, “English 4: Deconstructing Race.” The board wrote, “The thematic focus on the course will be on race and cultural identity, the history of racism in America, social impacts of structural racism and critical race theory.”

This would be considered “critical literacy,” an outgrowth of “critical race theory.”

References

Governing Board Approves Two Classes on Race, Acalanes Blueprint, Sept. 4, 2020