Oregon – A new report from the Oregon Association of Scholars (OAS) provides insight on the extent of identity politics ideology / DEI in Oregon’s K-12 public education system. The report titled Politics Over Performance speaks to the connection between DEI and related concepts and Critical Theory including Critical Race Theory.
The Association states in the report summary that “[t]hrough the research process OAS clearly identified that Neo-Marxian identity politics have been woven into the education system at multiple levels. A substantial amount of funds dedicated to staff focused on implementing these concepts in multiple school districts. Identity politics ideology has been built into policy in multiple ways.” They cite several examples in the full report including the Oregon Education Investment Board (OEIB) Equity Lens which states that they intend to “challenge and change our current educational setting to be more culturally responsive”. The Oregon Association of Scholars’ report ties this concept back to Critical Theorist Gloria Ladson-Billings who states that a core component of culturally responsive teaching is developing critical consciousness which is a concept from Neo-Marxian theorist Paulo Freire.
The report goes on to address how these concepts are woven into the new state social science standards, teacher training, and statewide Transformative Social Emotional Learning framework.
OAS also obtained data on DEI / SEL staffing for 62 positions across 15 school districts in Oregon. The average salary was $93,525 and the total annual salary for the positions was $5,798,603. Right Now Oregon previously reported on DEI staff expenditures at the state showing a total annual cost of salary and benefits of $76.3 million. That included the Oregon Department of Education’s (ODE) Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion with 21 budgeted positions (20.18 FTE) at a cost of $10.1 million for the 2023-25 biennium.
The report notes that OAS was not able to obtain data from all 41 school districts that were selected for other points of analysis and that the data obtained likely does not represent a full accounting of the fiscal resources dedicated to implementing these concepts. Speaking to this the report provides a quote from a school district that was received as part of a response to the record request. “As a school district, nearly all of our employees in our district, especially teaching staff, are all focused on one or more of the things you listed out — diversity, equity, inclusion, anti-racism, gender identity, culturally relevant/responsive/sustaining teaching, affinity groups, social emotional learning — as part of their job. Many of our staff members are pushing this work forward.”
The report also identifies communication from the Oregon Department of Education and Coalition of Oregon School Administrators that provides guidance on “Communicating about Racial Equity in a Charged Environment”. This document provides messaging guidance to communicate that Critical Race Theory is not a required part of the curriculum and that “[i]ndoctrination through Critical Race Theory just isn’t happening.” As the OAS report discusses there is further guidance in this communication supporting Critical Race Theory and detailing how to move people from opposition to advocacy for racial equity.
OAS also provides information from an ODE contract with West Ed to develop teacher training that specifically incorporates Critical Race Theory. These facts run directly counter to the claim in the ODE / COSA guidance downplaying the influence of Critical Race Theory.
The report goes into some detail on the training produced by ODE and West Ed linking these concepts back to Critical Theory. In a post on X the Oregon Scholars show a visual from the training materials that clearly shows the concept of Critical Consciousness as being a core element of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (teaching).
The @ORDeptEd and @WestEd clearly identify the Neo-Marxist concept of Critical Consciousness developed by Paulo Freire as a core element of Culturally Relevant/Responsive teaching. They are training #Oregon's #teachers to focus students on the idea that society is fundamentally… pic.twitter.com/C95Cku74iF
— Oregon Association of Scholars (@OregonScholars) November 22, 2024
The report concludes by addressing Oregon’s continuing struggles with academic performance as demonstrated by low levels of proficiency on state assessments for English Language Arts, mathematics, and science. The data presented shows that as financial resources and institutional focus on DEI have grown there has been no observable change in proficiency scores among students of some racial / ethnic minority backgrounds. OAS provides recommendations for how state government and local school districts should proceed to wind-down DEI efforts and refocus resources.
About the Author
First let me say i am 70 years old and attended school in a time very much different from now. Many changes have occurred over time that were responsible for our current situation. Topics such as this article are not solely responsible but a symptom of our current environment. But I do believe teaching basic behavior needs to be reinforced. Be nice, don’t name call etc for k-6th grades. As for the following grades maybe talk about class identity and bullying. As far as DEI and its perception maybe offer a class ( elective only)to jr and sr or maybe just srs. Just my take.