SPLC Curriculum in K-12: Learning for Justice/Teaching Tolerance tracker

43 plus District of Columbia

Total number of States

30

Total Number of State Government Entities

225

Total Number of School Districts

Executive Summary

For years, Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) education program called Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance) has been able to integrate its far-left content and materials into K-12 schools throughout the country. The organization’s website and documents can be found on school district webpages, in teacher professional development and trainings, classroom lessons, district-wide curriculums, Social Emotional Learning (SEL), social justice standards, and district antiracism and equity policies and resources.

The aim of this report is to expose how Learning for Justice content and materials have been and are being used in schools, and how widespread the organization’s influence is in K-12 education. While this report is not exhaustive, it does capture the different ways in which the SPLC’s programming is utilized and/or promoted by state agencies, education institutions, teachers unions, professional associations, consultants, and education focused companies.

Unfortunately, the true scope of Learning for Justice’s impact on schools and districts is difficult to fully capture due to a lack of public access to curriculums, lessons, and textbooks. Additionally, because of the potential integration of the Social Justice Standards into several popular SEL curriculums, it is hard to track down all districts using the SEL programming that includes those standards.

Another complication in tracking down usage is the ability for teachers to independently incorporate Learning for Justice content and tools into daily lessons and assignments. Therefore, it is fair to assume that the use of Learning for Justice content is more widespread throughout K-12 education than this report is able to capture.

While Learning for Justice produces some content that appears neutral, the sum of its work does promote far-left ideologies and viewpoints that push a leftwing agenda. For example, the organization’s Social Justice Standards includes an entire domain focused on teaching the youngest of learners to engage in “action” or activism for social justice causes.

What follows are examples, documents, and links showing how the SPLC’s Learning for Justice content has wormed its way into American education institutions and the influence it has on policy, standards, curriculum, daily lessons, and the community.


Key Takeaways

  • Learning for Justice’s Social Justice Standards include an Anchor Domain focused on “action” that includes Anchor Standards that focus on students planning and carrying out “collective action against bias and injustice in the world” and to “evaluate what strategies are most effective.”
  • The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian includes Learning for Justice/ Teaching Tolerance as “Recommended Resources” in lessons and “Recommended Reading” related to “Native Americans of California during the mission period.”
  • According to the 2020 National Sex Education Standards (NSES) document, the standards were “further informed by the work of …the Social Justice Standards.”
  • Second Step social and emotional learning program used in schools across the country “curated a set of Learning for Justice lessons” to be taught in “tandem with your Second Step implementation to incorporate diversity, equity, and social justice work into your classroom’s SEL plan.”
  • Documents show that Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence’s (YCEI) SEL program called RULER integrates Learning for Justice’s Social Justice Standards into the curriculum and lessons.
  • The Social and Emotional Learning company 7 Mindsets states that its course is “aligned with 10 SEL competencies (the CASEL 5 and 5 additional ones)” as well as the “Social Justice Standards.”
  • In 2022, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) added “equity revisions” to its NY Social Emotional Learning Benchmarks which aligned the benchmarks with “Learning for Justice’s Social Justice Standards.”
  • Piedmont Unified School District’s (CA) Racial Equity policy requires the district to “adopt curriculum such as the Teaching Tolerance Anti-Bias Framework” and “integrate social studies standards curriculum into units of study across all levels and in all content areas.”
  • Cambridge Public Schools (MA) incorporates the Social Justice Standards into its Junior Kindergarten through Fifth grade Physical Education curriculums.
  • In late 2023, the Francis Howell School District Board of Education voted to “rescind approval, for use of the academic standards titled ‘Social Justice Standards: The Teaching Tolerance Anti-Bias Framework.’”
  • Princeton Public Schools’ (NJ) Equity webpage notes that the district used a grant to update its Early Childhood “library and humanities curriculum based on the Social Justice Standards, a road map for anti-bias education at every stage of K-12 instruction.”
  • Learning for Justice’s Social Justice Standards are incorporated into Somerset Hills School District’s (NJ) Social Studies curriculum from kindergarten through high school.
  • Yonkers Public Schools’ (NY) Pre-Kindergarten Project Based Learning Unit Design Plan incorporates the Social Justice Learning Standards into the curriculum and lessons.
  • According to an Essex Westford School District’s (VT) policy procedure, the district will “achieve Goal A of the district Equity Policy by implementing “curriculum to teach the social justice standards developed by Learning for Justice.”
  • Sun Prairie Area School District’s (WI) Student Academic Standards for Social Studies includes Learning for Justice’s “Social Justice Standards.”
  • The American Bar Association’s (ABA) “Bullyproof Resources for Educators” webpage promotes “Teaching Tolerance Classroom Resources.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Learning for Justice


Teachers Unions, Professional Organizations, & Companies


Districts

Below is a list of districts and departments of education (DOE) by state. Because some of the documentation is from past years, the inclusion of institutions on this list does not automatically mean that school or DOE is currently using or promoting Learning for Justice content or standards. This list primarily serves to highlight the wide use of Learning for Justice materials throughout K-12 education.

Artifacts that are used to justify adding a district or DOE to the list include:

  • Lessons, curriculums, and resources,
  • Professional development
  • School or district level accountability reports (such as California’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) or School Accountability Report Card)
  • Adoption of Teaching Tolerance’s social justice standards
  • Use of social emotional learning (SEL) programs such as Second Step that incorporate the organization’s content, resources, or social justice standards
  • Defending Education dispatches and reports
    • It should be noted that some of these are a few years old and may no longer be in use. If that is the case, a note will by added about this update but the artifact will remain as a means to illustrate the prevalence of the use of the organization’s content.

This is not a comprehensive list and will be updated as new information is found or shared. Additionally, non-school district entities such as school board associations, teachers unions, and other professional organizations are highlighted in red and state Departments of Education are italicized to make them stand out from school districts.

Alaska Department of Education Education and Early Development

Fairbanks North Star Borough School District

Kenai Peninsula Borough School District

Arizona Department of Education

Tempe Union High School District

Tucson Unified School District

  • July 31, 2023: Tucson Unified School District is using Learning for Justice’s Social Justice Standards to build “multicultural” curriculum for students

Arkansas Department of Education

California Department of Education

Alameda Unified School District

Berkeley Unified School District

Bonsall Unified School District

Bright Star Schools (Charter)

Colton Joint Unified School District

Corona-Norco Unified School District

Culver City Unified School District

Davis Joint Unified School District

Folsom Cordova Unified School District

Gateway Public Schools

Glendale Unified School District

Gravenstein Union School District

Los Alamitos Unified School District

Los Angeles Unified School District

Manhattan Beach Unified School District

Marin County Office of Education

Moraga School District

Natomas Unified School District

New Haven Unified School District

Oak Grove School District

Orange Unified School District

Piedmont Unified School District

Pleasant Valley School District

Robla School District

Sacramento City Unified School District

San Francisco Unified School District

San Lorenzo Unified School District

San Mateo Union High School

Santa Barbara Unified School District

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District

Solano County Office of Education

Sunnyvale School District

Temple City Unified School District

West Contra Costa Unified School District

Woodland Joint Unified School District

Roosevelt Elementary PTA – Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District

Connecticut State Department of Education

Canton Public Schools

Hamden Public Schools

Regional School District 17

Stratford Public Schools

West Hartford Public Schools

Atlanta Public Schools

  • November 4, 2022: Atlanta Public Schools Center for Equity and Social Justice Features Zinn Education Project in Its Guidelines for Teaching Controversial Issues

DeKalb County School District

  • January 26, 2022: DeKalb County School District promotes Black Lives Matter movement; provides educators with resources to teach BLM material
    • Lesson plans included in the material all link to Learning for Justice resources.

Fulton County Schools

Idaho Department of Education

Decorah Community School District

Iowa City Community School District

Waukee Community School District

  • April 4, 2022: Waukee Community School District adopts Learning for Justice’s “Social Justice Standards”; teachers reportedly promote race and gender ideology in classrooms

Jefferson County Public Schools

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Acton-Boxborough Regional School District

Bedford Public Schools

Boston Public Schools

Cambridge Public Schools

Cohasset Public Schools

Easthampton Public Schools

Everett Public School District

Framingham Public Schools

Leicester Public Schools

Lexington Public Schools

Monomoy Regional School District

Mount Greylock Regional School District

Newton Public Schools

  • July 14, 2021: Newton Schools embrace affinity groups, teach students they must “dismantle racist structures, ideas and practices” and replace them with “antiracist structures, ideas and practices”

Norwood Public Schools

Public Schools of Brookline

Salem Public Schools

Somerville Public Schools

  • January 20, 2022: Somerville Public Schools wants students and educators to “experience discomfort”; partners with organizations that promote teaching gender identity to young children

Swampscott Public Schools

Taunton Public Schools

Truro Central School

Wellesley Public Schools

Winchester Public Schools

Michigan Department of Civil Rights

Michigan Department of Education – Office of Educator Excellence

East Grand Rapids Public School District

  • August 29, 2022: School SEL lesson features elementary students writing poetry focused on racial identities

East Lansing Public Schools

Mason Public Schools

West Bloomfield School District

Mississippi Department of Education

North Kansas City School District

  • December 5, 2023: North Kansas City School District provides teachers with lesson plans on LGBTQ issues for students as young as kindergarten in celebration of LGBTQ History Month; provides teachers with resources from GLSEN and Learning for Justice

Raymondville R-VII Public School District

The School District of Clayton

Webster Groves School District

Washoe County School District

  • November 8, 2022: Washoe County School District creates “Equity Guidebook”

New Jersey Department of Education and New Jersey Division on Civil Rights

Bound Brook School District

Brentwood Union Free School District

Cherry Hill Public Schools

Emerson Public Schools

Florence Township School District

Florham Park School District

Franklin Lakes School District

Hackensack Public Schools

Highland Park Public School District

Hillsborough Township School District

Lawrence Township Public Schools

Morris School District

Princeton Public Schools

Rahway Public Schools

Somerset Hills School District

South River Public Schools

Springfield Public Schools

Verona Public Schools

Westfield Public Schools

New York State Education Department

Amherst Central Schools

Brentwood Union Free School District

Brighton Central School District

East Ramapo Central School District

Fairport Central School District

Gananda Central School District

Grand Island Central School District

Guilderland Central School District

Hastings-On-Hudson Union Free School District

Levittown Public Schools

Malverne School District

New Paltz Central School District

New York City Public Schools

Newburgh Enlarged City School District

Penn Yan Central School District

Pine Plains Central School District

Rochester City School District

Salamanca City Central School District

Schalmont Central School District

Sharon Springs Central School District

Troy City School District

Washingtonville Central School District

Yonkers Public Schools

North Dakota Department of Public Instruction

Ashtabula Area City Schools

Cleveland Metropolitan School District

Edison Local School District

Kings Local Schools

Lynchburg-Clay Local School District

Mentor Public Schools

  • April 11, 2022: Mentor Public Schools’ presentation explains to teachers how they can become “co-conspirators while using a curriculum rooted in whiteness.”

  • January 21, 2022: Oklahoma State School Boards Association offers teaching resources that promote “racial equity” to educators (including a series for preschoolers that denounces the concept of racial equality and suggests only white individuals can be racist)

Salt Lake City School District

Vermont Legislature

Vermont Agency of Education

Burlington School District

  • February 15, 2022: Burlington School District supports allowing young children to choose their gender identity and pronouns; promotes segregated “affinity spaces” for students and staff
  • Equity Resources

Essex Westford School District

Hartford School District

South Burlington School District

  • June 8, 2022: South Burlington elementary school curriculum aims to inspire students to become “active anti-racists” with resources from ‘Reading is Resistance’ and ‘Woke Kindergarten’. District staff required to participate in “white privilege” activity.

Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)

Washington State Governor’s Office of the Education Ombuds

Catalyst Public Schools

Edmonds School District

Highline Public Schools

Lake Washington School District

North Thurston Public Schools

Northshore School District

Seattle Public Schools

Shoreline Public Schools

Snohomish School District

South Kitsap School District

South Whidbey School District

Tacoma Public Schools

Tahoma School District

Berkeley County Schools

  • February 2, 2023: Berkeley County Schools provides teachers with lesson plans for students from the organization Learning for Justice

Lewis County Schools

Marion County Schools

Big Horn County School District #1

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