# data[].attributes.body
Validation with active listening can continue to create safe and inclusive environments in education. When educators validate students experiences, it allows all people to be vulnerable. When students feel safe they can be more open to advocating for themselves and others.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What are microaggressions?
Microaggressions refer to brief, commonplace behavioral, verbal, and environmental insensitivities by potentially well-meaning individuals that communicate hostile or negative attitudes and insults to individuals of marginalized groups ( Sue et al., 20 07).

According to Sue et al. (2007), there are three types of microaggressions:

Microinsults: communications that convey rudeness and insensitivity and demean a person's identity.

Microassaults: verbal or nonverbal attacks meant to hurt the intended victim through name-calling, avoidant behavior, or purposeful discriminatory actions.

Microinvalidations: communications that exclude, negate, or nullify the psychological thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality of persons belonging to minority groups.

Microaggressions vary from everyday rudeness to slanderous acts and communicate to members of minority groups that their status has been degraded to that of a second-class citizen ( Sue et al., 2019). Microaggressions may appear harmless, but over the course of time can inflict feelings of shame and degradation on the target (Yosso et al., 2009).
Who is impacted by microaggressions?
Microaggressions can be experienced in a number of ways based on family structure, social class, race, sexuality, gender, ability and disability, religion, appearance, and size (Compton-Lilly, 2020; Sue, 2010; Wintner et al., 2017). Microaggressions in the classroom can occur between students or between school personnel and students and can impact the target, aggressor, and bystanders by leaving those exposed to the incident feeling less at ease within their school community (Wintner et al., 2017). Examples of microaggressions between students include the use of phrases such as "that's so gay" in response to something a student has said or done, telling a fellow student that they would look pretty if they lost weight, or asking a student to touch their hair (Clay, 2017). Examples of microaggressions between school personnel and students include assigning a student a task or role based on gender role expectations (i.e., assigning cleaning tasks only to female students), continuously failing to pronounce or learn the proper pronunciation of a student's name, or scheduling due dates for assignments on cultural or religious holidays (Murray, 2020)
Why are microaggressions problematic?
Students who experience microaggressions are at risk for a number of negative outcomes. Research suggests that students who experience microaggressions have elevated levels of anger, stress, and anxiety (Huynh, 2012). The students are also likely to exhibit post-traumatic stress symptoms and are more likely to engage in risky behaviors (e.g., drug and alcohol use, sexual activity, involvement in fights) as a means to cope with these symptoms (Flores et al., 2010). Microaggressions can also impair students' academic performance. Research has found that teachers are more likely to perceive their classes as too difficult for students of color, which is problematic because when students are underestimated by their teachers, they tend to internalize these low expectations and have lower achievement (Cherng, 2017).
What can educators do?
Microinterventions are unintentional or intentional words or deeds that validate the targets' experiences, affirms their racial identity, and offers encouragement, support, and reassurance that the target is not alone (Sue et al., 2019).

Implementing microinterventions in the classroom:

Use microaffirmations. Microaffirmations are small acts that foster inclusion and support for individuals who may feel isolated or invisible in an environment (Rowe, 2008). Examples of microaffirmations include rewarding positive behaviors, creating lesson plans that are culturally inclusive, and using positive words even when correcting students' work or behavior (Samuels et al., 2020).

Set high expectations for all students. Making comments along the lines of "You are all extremely intelligent and capable students" and "I am confident that you are all going to succeed" can go a long way.

Validate students' feelings and experiences. Make it clear to the student that you recognize and understand the challenge of the experience, and that you are willing to help them come up with productive strategies for addressing it (Powell et al., 2019).

Talk it out. If you witness a microaggression occur in the classroom, do not be afraid to talk about it. Explore the incident with the student who committed the microaggression and seek to understand the intentions behind their behavior. You can also use this time to educate the student by explaining to them why their behavior was offensive (Sue et al., 2019).

Additional resources:
Please use the link below if you would like to offer anonymous feedback on the information provided: https://fsu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3I7pTbydtIMfX1k
References
Clay, R. A. (2017). Did you really just say that? Here's advice on how to confront

Darvin, J. (2018). Becoming a more culturally responsive teacher by identifying and reducing

Flores, E., Tschann, J. M., Dimas, J. M., Pasch, L. A., & de Groat, C. L. (2010). Perceived racial/ethnic discrimination, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and health risk

57(3), 264-273. https://doi.org/0.1037/a0020026

184-185. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20200323-02

Samuels, S., Wilkerson, A., Chapman, D., & Watkins, W. (2020). Toward a conceptualization: Considering microaffirmations as a form of culturally relevant pedagogy and academic 89(3), 298-311. https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.89.3.0298

Sue, D. W., Capodilupo, C. M., Torino, G. C., Bucceri, J. M., Holder, A. M. B., Nadal, K. L., Esquilin, M. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications for clinical https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.62.4.271

Sue, D.W., Alsaidi, S., Awad, M.N., Glaeser, E., Calle, C.Z. & Mendez, M. (2019). Disarming racial microaggressions: Microintervention strategies for targets, white allies, and

Yosso, T., Smith, W., Ceja, M., Solórzano, D. (2009). Critical race theory, racial https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.79.4.m6867014157m707l

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Microaggressions and Microinterventions in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What are microaggressions? Microaggressions refer to brief, commonplace behavioral, verbal, and environmental insensitivities by potentially well-meaning individuals that communicate hostile or negative attitudes and insults to individuals of marginalized groups ( Sue et al., 20 07). According to Sue et al.

# data[].attributes.body
Segregation can come from ignorant faculty, staff, and students. These people are not educated that the words they use can seriously engage discrimination. Understanding microaggressions and how to disengage from them can help create a safe and inclusion education for all.

# data[].attributes.body
"They" is a word I recently took out of my vocabulary. Who is they? "They" is often used in school systems when talking about students other than white, rich, English speaking students. ESL students are casted to other rooms to learn and are segregated from the general classrooms with out educating the other students on why. When educators teach cultural and linguistically diverse students, students can learn how to best engage and support one another together.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Honoring the mandate to provide all students with an equal education requires adaptation. Shifting demographics in the United States have dramatically altered the ethnic and racial makeup of student populations, and a growing number of students do not speak English fluently. These changes present significant challenges for educators, requiring them to rethink their curricula and teaching strategies.

Examining the growing need for diversity and exploring ways to modify behavior in the classroom constitute a critical step toward creating linguistically inclusive and culturally sensitive learning environments.

The Growing Need for Diverse Teaching Strategies

US school districts are required to provide equal educational opportunities to language minority students, but meeting that standard has become more challenging as the number of students classified as an "English language learner," or ELL, has grown.

Generally, the term "English language learner" describes a student who is learning English in addition to their native language. Exact definitions of ELL vary, as do delineations between ELL and ESL (English as a second language), but by any measure, the number of students for whom English is not their first and primary language is growing as a percentage of all students enrolled in US public schools.

An average of 10 percent of students in US public schools are English language learners, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). In cities, the average is close to 15 percent. (NCES defines ELL students as those being served by programs of language assistance, including ESL, high-intensity language training, and bilingual education.) Among ELL students in the US, Spanish is the most common language spoken at home (75 percent), followed by Arabic (3 percent).

The increase in ELLs in public schools reflects a larger demographic shift. The percentage of non-white students in US public schools has increased significantly over the last decade, from 48 percent in 2010 to an estimated 54 percent in 2020. The percentage of Hispanic students enrolled in public schools grew from 23 percent to 28 percent over the same period.

While addressing diversity in the classroom largely consists of focusing on ELL students, cultural and linguistic divides are not exclusive to that segment of learners. In 2018, 47 percent of students and 79 percent of teachers in US public schools were white. This contrasts starkly with the student-teacher ratio for Hispanics (27 percent of students, 9 percent of teachers), Blacks (15 percent of students, 7 percent of teachers), and Asians (5 percent of students, 2 percent of teachers). Such disparities in representation of races and ethnicities among educators constitute a longstanding issue in US public schools.

Teaching Strategies for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

The first step in addressing cultural and linguistic diversity is to be aware. The very act of considering culture and language skills when developing curricula and activities makes it more likely that lessons will be inclusive. Teaching culturally diverse students entails the following additional steps:

Learn about your students' cultural backgrounds and demonstrate appreciation of those cultures. Teachers show students how to embrace different cultures by modeling respect and acceptance.

Learn more about students' lives outside of the classroom, and let that information inform lessons. For example, try to find examples that are relevant to students with different cultures and backgrounds.

Embrace diversity in teaching styles. Making an effort to accommodate different communication preferences, cognitive styles, and aptitudes results in lessons with a greater chance of reaching all students.

Encourage students to relate the benefit of a lesson to their own lives.

Bring diverse guest speakers into the classroom.

Educators can also benefit from the following tips for teaching linguistically diverse students:

Develop a relationship and work closely with an ESL teacher or interpreter.

Incorporate more group work. This allows students to practice their language skills in a more personal, less intimidating setting than the front of the classroom.

Make things as visual as possible by writing on the board, diagraming, and using pictures.

Allow ELL students to preview materials before a lesson when possible.

Understand that some students may experience a silent period. Students learning a new language commonly go through a period of several weeks or longer when they are taking in the new language but do not yet speak it.

Efforts to better serve culturally and linguistically diverse student populations are not limited to the classroom. Developing responsive curricula and teaching strategies is critical, but a holistic approach that includes families and the larger school community promises better outcomes.

Working With Parents

Positive parent-teacher relationships can influence any student's success, but they can be particularly important for students whose culture or dominant language differs from that of the majority of their classmates. Developing a relationship with the parents of ELL students or any student who is outside the dominant cultural or ethnic group, or whose culture or ethnicity differs from that of the teacher, builds a sense of trust and acceptance among students and their families. Making the effort to build such relationships can be challenging for teachers, and in cases where there is a language barrier, it may be necessary to engage with a language instructor or interpreter for support.

Support From Schools

Schools can address linguistic and cultural diversity by working to recruit teachers of color and instructors who can teach and tutor in languages other than English. Demonstrating support for student diversity is also crucial. Measures such as providing school signage in different languages, encouraging students to speak their first language at school, and displaying non-English books and materials creates an environment of acceptance and appreciation that benefits all students.

Schools can also play a role in supporting more training designed to mitigate implicit bias. Research has shown that teachers are just as likely to have a racial bias as non-teachers.

Create Inclusive Classrooms

American University's Online EdD in Education Policy and Leadership prepares educators to shape education policy and create more inclusive learning environments.

The degree program provides future teachers and education leaders with the tools they need to transform the education system to benefit all learners. With a focus on building equitable learning environments, the curriculum emphasizes systems change, personal leadership, social justices and anti-racism, and policy and research.

Learn more about American University's Online EdD in Education Policy and Leadership.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students | American University

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Students in US schools are increasingly diverse. Learn more about teaching strategies that address culturally and linguistically diverse students.

# data[].attributes.body
Diversity problems persist when people are shy of the topic. In schools, children are being taught to be linguistically diverse. This allows students to celebrate others culture and begin to understand the discrimination that persists and how to be an ally to the systematic oppression.

# data[].attributes.body
We continue to see today, especially in West Virgina, re-zoning. Similar to the news stories under 'legal challenges' low-income families are being rezoned with less resources such as good education. This is where we continue to see segregation. The reality is there are predominate white schools and predominate minority schools, it is less often that we see schools with similar populations of races/ethnicities. Segregation is still happening in 2023.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Nearly 70 years after the Supreme Court handed down the historic Brown v. Board decision and declared that segregated schools are "inherently unequal" and unconstitutional, U.S. public school students are significantly more diverse but still attend schools that are divided along racial, ethnic and economic lines.

A 2022 report by the Government Accountability Office said that in 2021-2022, more than a third of students attended a predominantly same-race/ethnicity school where 75 percent or more of the student population is of a single race/ethnicity, and 14 percent of students attended schools where 90 percent or more of the students were of a single race/ethnicity. It also says:

Students who are poor, Black, or Hispanic generally attend schools with fewer resources and worse outcomes (about 80 percent of students attending low-income schools are Black or Hispanic).1 They are also more likely to be referred to alternative schools for disciplinary reasons, and Black students experience disproportionate and more severe discipline, which can remove them from classroom learning. These inequities can have serious life-long implications, including lower earnings and less access to post-secondary education and skill building. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing inequities for these students. For example, GAO estimates that teachers who taught in a virtual environment for the majority of the year with mostly high-poverty students were about six to 23 times more likely to have students who lacked an appropriate workspace, compared to all other teachers in their grade-level band.

The following is a book excerpt by Richard D. Kahlenberg about the main driver of school segregation - exclusionary zoning laws - which is the subject of his new " Excluded: How Snob Zoning, NIMBYism and Class Bias Build the Walls We Don't See." Kahlenberg is a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, a nonresident scholar at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy, and the author and editor of nearly 20 books. He writes about economic integration in K-12 schools, class-based affirmative action in higher education admissions, teachers' unions and other subjects.

From Ferguson to Baltimore: The consequences of government-sponsored segregation

By Richard D. Kahlenberg

Exclusionary zoning laws - such as bans on multifamily housing or requirements that homes be built only on large lots - are under attack from policymakers from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Arlington, Virginia, mostly because they limit the supply of housing and make housing unaffordable.

But there is another big reason to reform exclusionary zoning ordinances: they limit severely limit educational opportunities, particularly for working-class and low wage families.

Exclusionary laws help cause economic and racial segregation of residential areas, which in turn helps explain why American schools are highly segregated by race and socioeconomic status. This has disastrous effects because research dating back five decades shows one of the most powerful ways to improve the life chances of disadvantaged students is giving them the opportunity to attend high-quality schools that educate rich and poor students under a single roof.

Residential segregation, not gerrymandered school boundary lines, is the fundamental driver of school segregation. Indeed, recent research found that if students were all assigned to the very closest school, racial school segregation would actually be 5 percent worse than it is today.

Some students attend school outside their neighborhoods, but in a country where 71 percent of students attend neighborhood schools - that is, are simply assigned to the public school nearby their homes - school integration efforts need to include housing integration. Policymakers, researchers, and advocates have long noted that it is important to pursue a parallel set of housing strategies that, if successful, could help integrate neighborhood schools. As one scholar has put it, "Housing policy is school policy."

Low-income students stuck in schools located in high-poverty areas are surrounded by peers who, because they have had less opportunity, are typically less academically engaged and more likely to act out than those in schools in higher-income neighborhoods. Adding to the challenge is a community of parents who are less actively involved in school affairs, in part because they may have less flexible work schedules and lack transportation to get to school easily. Finally, high-poverty schools on average have weaker teachers who have less experience and lower expectations for students.

High-poverty schools are twenty-two times less likely to be as high-achieving as middle-class schools. On the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) given to fourth graders in math, low-income students who attended schools that were more affluent were almost two years of learning ahead of low-income students in high-poverty schools. Likewise, a 2008 study found that growing up in high-poverty neighborhoods had the effect for African American children of reducing verbal ability later in life on the order of one year of schooling. And controlling carefully for students' family background, a different 2008 study found that students in mixed-income schools showed 30 percent more growth in test scores over their four years in high school than peers with similar socioeconomic backgrounds in schools with concentrated poverty.

Being isolated in a high-poverty school also reduces the chances that low-income students will befriend wealthier classmates, a phenomenon that new research finds can significantly boost one's adult earnings. A 2022 study by Raj Chetty and colleagues of 21 billion friendships among 72.2 million users of Facebook found that having cross-class friendships was "the single strongest predictor of upward mobility identified to date." It is more important to social mobility than any other factor studied - including the median household income of the family a child grows up in, the degree of racial segregation in a neighborhood, and the share of single-parent households there.

A number of local programs have demonstrated the importance of where children grow up and go to school. In 1974, for example, Montgomery County, Maryland adopted a groundbreaking inclusionary zoning program that years later was shown to have dramatic effects on the academic achievement of low-income students. Under the policy, when a developer builds more than a certain number of units, 12.5 percent to 15 percent of the new housing stock must be affordable for low-income and working-class families. Between 1976 and 2010, the program produced more than twelve thousand moderately priced homes, of which the housing authority has the right to purchase one-third for public housing. Children in a subset of these units had the chance to attend middle-class schools.

More recently, Montgomery County implemented a second intervention: the school board allocated an additional $2,000 per pupil to schools in higher-poverty areas to allow for reduced class size in the early grades, extended learning time, and better teacher development.

In 2010, a RAND Corporation researcher, Heather Schwartz, compared the effects of the inclusionary zoning and the compensatory spending programs on the academic outcomes of elementary school students. She examined 858 children who had been randomly assigned to subsidized housing units scattered throughout Montgomery County and who were enrolled in Montgomery County public elementary schools between 2001 and 2007 and asked: Who performed better-subsidized housing students in higher-poverty neighborhoods where schools have extra financial re- sources or similar students in lower-poverty schools that spend less?

Over time, Schwartz found, the effects of neighborhood and the poverty level of classmates trumped per pupil spending. Low-income public housing students in low-poverty ("green zone") schools per- formed far better in math than low-income public housing students in higher-poverty ("red zone") schools with more resources. Low-income students in green zone schools cut their large initial math gap with middle-class students in half. The reading gap was cut by one-third.

She estimates that most of the effect (two-thirds) was due to attending low-poverty schools, and some (one-third) was due to living in low- poverty neighborhoods.

New Jersey provides another example. As noted earlier, in 1975, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Mount Laurel that zoning laws that have the effect of excluding low-income families violate the state constitution. The court ruled that localities have an affirmative obligation to provide their "fair share" of moderate and low-income housing. Although implementation of the Mount Laurel decision has often proven difficult because of political opposition, thousands of low-income families have been able to move to low-poverty neighborhoods as a result of the decision.

Researchers set out to compare the outcomes of families in subsidized housing who moved to Mount Laurel with those who applied but could not be accommodated because of space constraints. In Climbing Mount Laurel: The Struggle for Affordable Housing and Social Mobility in an American Suburb, they reported finding "significant improvements in mental health, economic independence, and children's educational out- comes as a result of moving into the project."

The impact on families was very large. The people who moved, the study found, saw "a 428 percent increase in economic independence (e.g., working for pay, share of income from work)," and "a 303 percent increase in school quality (as assessed by class size, test scores, attendance rates etc.)." Poor children benefited. Children who moved to Mount Laurel have "fared better. They study twice as many hours and spend more time reading. That extra effort is paying off - even though their schools are more academically rigorous, they earn slightly better grades." (The researchers did not have access to test scores.)

In the 1990s, the Clinton administration supported a new program called Moving to Opportunity (MTO) in five major cities to deconcentrate poverty and rigorously study the results. The experiment, run by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development between 1994 and 1998, randomly assigned 4,604 families living in high-poverty housing projects in the five cities to one of three groups: those receiving a Section 8 housing voucher to move to a census tract with a poverty rate below 10 percent, those receiving a voucher to live anywhere, and a control group that was not offered a voucher to move.

A 2015 follow-up study of the Moving to Opportunity program found that the adult outcomes of moving to a low-poverty neighborhood were significant for those who moved as children before the age of thirteen. The total mean income as adults for early movers was 31 percent higher than for the control group. The expected lifetime earnings benefit was estimated at $302,000.

Although much of the research has focused on the ways in which low-income families benefit when exclusionary barriers are torn down, it is important to note that the benefits of diversity flow in all directions. Students and adults in middle-class neighborhoods also benefit when children and adults who bring different life experiences are able to enrich classroom discussions and neighborhood gatherings. Research finds that novel ideas and different points of view can make people think more creatively and deeper in solving problems than when participants all come from very similar backgrounds.

Fighting exclusionary zoning is a particularly promising way to open up and desegregate schools for two reasons. To begin with, zoning reform can address the thorny challenges around "interdistrict" school integration. To the extent American school districts have plans in place to integrate, they are almost always limited to within a district's boundaries. The problem is that about two-thirds of racial segregation in metropolitan areas is between districts rather than within them. Because school integration plans almost never reach across districts, housing integration efforts are a key way to effectively combat interdistrict segregation.

In addition, housing integration efforts avoid a major problem associated with school integration efforts: many Americans dislike the idea of long bus rides for kids. A 2021 study found that longer commutes significantly weaken support for school integration. Americans support racially diverse schools in principle by 2:1 but by 2:1 oppose creating such schools when it requires that students be transported to schools farther away.

Exclusionary zoning laws shut working-class families out of high-performing public schools. They make a mockery of the idea that all schools are "public." As one author wryly notes, the Palo Alto Unified School District in California is "free and open to the public. All the public has to do is buy a home in a neighborhood where the median home value was $2.8 million in 2020.

We can do better.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Perspective | A fundamental driver of persistent school segregation

# data[].attributes.body
25 states have enacted laws and policies to ban books that discriminate against minorities and are allowing books and lessons to uncover the truth of discrimination in the United States

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signs the Parental Rights in Education bill at Classical Preparatory School in March 2022. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times/AP)

In July 2021, the American Federation of Teachers said it had at least $12.5 million " ready to go" to defend teachers from proliferating state laws restricting education on race, gender and sexuality. The same month, the American Civil Liberties Union said "multiple organizations are actively exploring litigation. ... It's important to do it sooner rather than later."

Nearly two years later, at least 25 states are enforcing laws that have made it easier to remove books from school libraries, blocked certain lessons on race, gender and sexuality, restricted the rights of transgender students and cost teachers their jobs, according to a Washington Post analysis.

Yet few lawsuits have emerged targeting the raft of new curriculum laws - and only one suit has been successful. The paucity and slow pace of legal challenges reflect the broad power states have to shape curriculums, experts say, and the lack of favorable precedent in a relatively unexplored territory of law.

To date, at least four states - Arizona, Oklahoma, New Hampshire and Florida - have seen such lawsuits, brought by free-speech advocacy groups, teachers associations including the AFT and civil rights organizations including the ACLU. One has been resolved, a suit filed in part by the Arizona School Boards Association and the Arizona Education Association challenging a law that prohibited certain ways of teaching about race. In November 2021, the Arizona Supreme Court struck down the law, finding its manner of enactment violated the state constitution.

One reason lawsuits are sparse is it's difficult for plaintiffs to show that curriculum restrictions violate other laws, the U.S. Constitution or precedent, said Derek Black, a University of South Carolina professor of constitutional law. Although the Supreme Court has found that students have a First Amendment right to voice their opinions at school, teachers do not, Black said. Nor do they benefit from the wide-ranging academic freedom accorded to university professors.

"With limited resources, civil rights advocates have to make strategic choices about where to file," Black said. "Assuming the first suits work out favorably to plaintiffs, you might see a whole bunch of suits filed thereafter."

Several suits are still in preparation.

An explosion of culture war laws is changing schools. Here's how.

Georgia is about to face a legal challenge to its law forbidding the teaching of "divisive concepts." In November, the Georgia Association of Educators, in partnership with the National Education Association and the Southern Poverty Law Center, sent a letter to the state's attorney general sharing its intent to sue.

Representatives for leading civil rights and teachers associations said more lawsuits are in the works, although they declined to provide specifics or a timeline. Emerson Sykes, senior staff attorney at the ACLU, said "we and others continue to work up related cases in Florida and elsewhere."

Alice O'Brien, general counsel for the National Education Association, said her group has lawsuits "coming down the pipeline," but cautioned it will take time to find people who have been affected by state laws limiting education - and who are willing to take their stories public.

"These lawsuits are not easy to put together," O'Brien said. "Educators are scared in the current environment. A lot of these laws are enacted in states where educators have very few protections."

Over the past three academic years, amid national debate over education and how it intersects with moral, societal and cultural values, at least 64 laws have passed in half the country reshaping what students can learn and do at school, per a Post analysis. The laws related to curriculums restrict what teachers can say about race, racism and American history, and/or constrain lessons on gender identity, sexuality and LGBTQ issues. Eighteen states have passed laws or policies in the first category, per a tally kept by Education Week, while eight states have passed a total of 15 laws in the second category, per The Post's analysis.

Conservative politicians, pundits and parents argue these laws are necessary to protect children from ideological indoctrination from the left, including lessons that focus on the role of race in history and present-day society, as well as those that explore a variety of gender identities and sexualities. Liberal educators and activists counter that, to reach all children, modern-day educators must acknowledge students' racial and socioeconomic backgrounds and take note of the histories and voices of marginalized peoples.

Legal arguments against these laws touch on issues ranging from First Amendment concerns to allegations of racial animus.

The strongest of these, said University of South Carolina professor Black, is probably the argument that vaguely worded laws are having a chilling effect on free speech by rendering teachers unsure of what they are permitted to teach. The laws' vagueness also leaves them vulnerable to the claim that they violate teachers' right to due process under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, Black said.

"As a matter of due process, it is not fair to pass laws that citizens are confused as to how to comply with," Black said. "The only downside of this sort of claim is, the state could come back later and make it clearer what they are prohibiting - so victory now, but potentially new laws later."

The vagueness argument is "the lead claim" in the ACLU's lawsuits against education laws in New Hampshire and Oklahoma, Sykes said.

New Hampshire's law forbids educators from discussing race, gender identity and sexual orientation in certain ways, including barring teachers from telling students that people "cannot and should not attempt to treat others without regard" to race, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. The lawsuit in that state, brought in December 2021 by lawyers from the ACLU, the NEA and a host of other advocacy groups on behalf of New Hampshire school administrators and the state's chapter of NEA, is headed for a trial after the U.S. District Court rejected the state's attempt to dismiss it in mid-January.

The suit is now in a discovery period, during which attorneys for the plaintiffs plan to seek documents revealing how state agencies track and explore complaints against teachers filed under the law, according to the New Hampshire Bulletin.

Oklahoma's law similarly outlaws certain content about race and sex, including teaching that "meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist or were created by members of a particular race to oppress members of another race." Little has so far happened in the lawsuit there, filed in October 2021 by the national ACLU, its Oklahoma chapter and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

The plaintiffs and the state have traded motions for and against preliminary injunction, dismissal of the case and initiation of limited discovery. But the judge has not issued a single decision, Sykes of the ACLU said.

"It is pending, but it has not been moving," Sykes said. "The judge has been taking his time."

The Georgia suit, yet to be filed, will probably also center on allegations of vagueness, said Gerry Weber, an attorney representing the Georgia Association of Educators. Georgia's curriculum law stipulates that schools cannot teach a list of ideas related to race including the notion that "one race is inherently superior to another" or that "the United States of America is fundamentally racist."

"The Georgia statute kicks it to the school districts to develop their own policies, and we are seeing a crazy quilt," Weber said. "Teachers are looking at these and are not sure whether they can talk about the Three-Fifths Compromise, or aspects of slavery, or even apartheid."

Weber said his group will be filing suit "in coming months" on behalf of both teachers and students affected since the law took effect in July. The association is gathering anecdotes from across Georgia and has submitted dozens of records requests to counties and to the state, Weber said.

Another possible challenge centers on the argument that laws infringe on educators' academic freedom - but this tactic is more likely to work at the level of higher education, where professors benefit from broad protections.

In Florida, the ACLU offered a version of that argument in its August lawsuit challenging the Stop Woke Act, which outlaws certain ways of teaching about race, including instructing students that "an individual, by virtue of his or her race ... bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt" for the past. In November, a federal judge agreed with the ACLU, blocking the enforcement of the act in the realm of higher education.

But the law is still in effect for kindergarten through 12th grade, at least for now. The ACLU is considering legal challenges to the law in the K-12 environment, Sykes said.

Suzanne Eckes, an education professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said it will be tough to prove that laws like Florida's Stop Woke Act infringe on K-12 teachers' academic freedom - largely because such freedom does not exist, at least according to the courts.

"Historically, courts have deferred to the states and to local school districts in determining what is going to be taught in the curriculum," Eckes said.

States must comply with the Constitution by adopting education policies that serve a "legitimate pedagogical purpose" and do not discriminate on the basis of protected characteristics such as race or ethnicity, Eckes said. But it will be hard for plaintiffs to prove new curriculum laws fail to meet these requirements, she said, unless they can show that legislators adopted the measures specifically to advance racial discrimination.

And that would require a very high level of proof, such as incriminating and very specific texts between legislators, Eckes said.

She added that the U.S. Supreme Court has not given a definitive ruling on who gets to shape curriculums: states, school districts, teachers or parents. But a string of cases decided by lower courts from the late 1800s through today, she said, have favored school districts' ability to set curriculums over parents' ability to limit them.

For example, an 1886 ruling by the Supreme Court of Indiana found that a school district could require students to attend music classes despite parental objections. In 2003, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that a Connecticut school district could mandate health and family life education classes, contravening a parent's claim that the lessons infringed on his right to raise his child in accordance with his values. And in 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit concluded that a Massachusetts district was justified in providing books to young students that featured same-sex marriage, even though parents labeled the book repugnant to their religious beliefs.

Eckes said she has no idea how the current Supreme Court, dominated by a conservative supermajority, would rule on the issue if one of the lawsuits challenging curriculum laws wends its way to the nation's highest judicial body.

"Are they going to tip the balance in favor of parental rights more so than they've done in the past?" Eckes said. "I don't have any indication."

But, she added, she would understand if some left-leaning advocacy groups fear the worst: "Maybe that's another reason they are not filing suits right now."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Few legal challenges to laws limiting lessons on race, gender

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
States have broad latitude to shape curriculums, nonprofits are still searching for plaintiffs, and there is little precedent for such lawsuits to succeed.

# data[].attributes.body
The Equity and Access Policy was not enacted until 2015 in South Orange-Maplewood school district. As late as the policy was enacted, it was good, right? Students today are still seeing segregation due to law changes especially when entering middle school. Money for this policy was put towards new facilities and not student's learning, there was rezoning of neighborhoods diminishing low-income students, and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SEGREGATED: A Working History of South Orange-Maplewood School Integration, Access & Equity Efforts - The Village Green

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After decades of failed attempts, the South Orange-Maplewood School District is finally balancing its elementary schools with its Intentional Integration Initiative. Local leaders agree it'll take more to erase years of inequity and prepare diverse students for bright futures.

# data[].attributes.body
There is a lack of diversity coverage in school due to the high rate of white men that are news reporters and journalists. Society is beginning to see a change in those roles as minorities are seeing more management opportunities in journalism and media but there is still a long way to go.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A new Pew study looks at diversity across news beats in the US. The data comes from a 2022 survey of 12,000 journalists and finds that, like the newsrooms they work in, an overwhelming majority of the reporters covering major beats in the country are white and male.

Those beats include energy and the environment (84% white) and sports (82% white). Social policy, along with education and health, are more likely to be covered by reporters of color or women, though only slightly, according to the study.

"What we wanted to do here was to provide some really important data to create conversations around who was covering certain beats," says researcher Jeffrey Gottfried, who helped author the study.

He adds the figures are in line with findings from last year that found 77% of all workers in US newsrooms are white, far behind the overall workforce in the country, where workers of color account for about 40% of the total, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Among the 12,000 journalists included in the survey, only 6% identified as Black, 8% as Hispanic and 3% as Asian. Sixteen percent identified as working in newsrooms targeting specific demographic groups.

Low wages and the lack of clear pathways to entrance in the media profession for young people of color are some of the reasons behind the figures.

"It's difficult to figure out how these numbers square with the ethnic media sector, since the overwhelming majority of ethnic media newsrooms employ people of color who are culturally and linguistically fluent with the audience they serve," says EMS Executive Director Sandy Close. "If anything, the study underscores why ethnic media play such an indispensable role in the news media landscape - to report on and reflect the lives of those communities underserved by the general market media."

In preparing the original survey, Gottfired says his team first had to settle several key questions. "We were trying to decide, what is a journalist. How do we conceptualize what we are studying here?" With the explosion of social media and the increased fragmentation of today's media landscape, trying to figure out who in fact qualifies as a journalist can be a slippery question.

To answer it, Gottfried and his team cast a wide net to include "anyone working to create, edit, and report original news content." That definition, notes Gottfried, allowed the researchers to gather data from a large swath of the sector, offering as broad a lens as possible on the current state of diversity within the media profession today.

"We didn't believe that we could do a project like this unless we made sure we were very thoughtful that we were including journalists very broadly," said Gottfried.

Among some of the more telling data points was the fact that while a majority of journalists reported that diversity is lacking in their newsroom, less than half said it was considered a priority, while conversations around diversity and inclusion were more likely to happen among journalists of color and younger journalists working in the profession.

Gottfried also noted the "overrepresentation" of journalists included in the survey who tended to be clustered in major metropolitan areas like New York, Los Angeles and Washington DC.

The data comes as trust in media has fallen to record lows, according to a report released by Gallup and the Knight Foundation in February that found half of Americans believe the news industry intentionally misleads.

It also comes as hate crimes targeting ethnic, religious and sexual minorities is on the rise, calling into question the media's ability to effectively cover issues impacting communities far removed from the newsrooms ostensibly meant to serve them.

Anecdotal experiences shared by reporters interviewed for this story also suggest that reporters of color hired by general market outlets can often find themselves pigeonholed into covering their respective communities while being shut out of more general beats.

"In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and during the pandemic, there was an upheaval across many major newsrooms around diversity issues," says EMS Co-Director Julian Do, pointing to outlets including the New York Times and the LA Times, which recently hired its second African American executive editor, Kevin Merida.

"So while there may be some minorities now in management positions, there is still a ways to go when it comes to story and beat assignments."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
New Study Reveals Woeful Lack of Diversity Across News Beats | EMS

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Major news beats across the country continue to be dominated by white men in an industry that lags the nation when it comes to diversity.

# data[].attributes.body
-There are distinct perspectives from different media outlets that provide lessons from different communities
-Many media organizations were covering diversity topics in education and instead of competing in the media, the organizations solely hoped to work towards the same mission of awareness.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching an old education reporter new tricks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
📌 The Grade publishes first-person essays and media commentary on Wednesdays & a roundup of the week’s best education coverage on Fridays. Sign up here! 📌

# data[].attributes.body
In schools like Montclair High School, 50% of the student body is white and 68% of the students enrolled in AP courses are white compared to 9% black students, 8% hispanic, 7% Asian, & 7% Native American. Students are understanding the racial disparities as they get older and also understand AP is beneficial for continuing education in higher ed... continuing the cycle/system of white people starting with one foot in front of minorities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Walking into an Advanced Placement classroom of almost all white peers, one Montclair High School student immediately felt isolated.

Student A, a female student of color, told Montclair Local she has always looked outside of her AP classrooms to find friends, watching as her white classmates found community with one another.

"Most of my strong friendships that I have are not people that I spend days in classes with," said Student A, who asked to remain anonymous, fearing negative comments or feedback.

White classmates hung out outside of class, studying and helping one another with the course material, she said. Meanwhile, Student A said she was "typically just alone in the content."

"COVID made it hard to make friends," she said. "I couldn't really foster my friendships and grow my new friendships because my classes were just all white, and they didn't really care to interact with me. That's just kind of how it is."

Beyond the isolation from her classmates, Student A said she also had negative interactions with white AP teachers who questioned her work ethic and sided with white students instead of her.

But if Student A were a rising sophomore, she said, she would do it all over again.

"I'm very academically driven," Student A said. "To build my GPA, I'd pick classes X, Y, and Z and kind of just deal with it."

In 1977, Montclair moved away from neighborhood schools to a choice system - part of a voluntary desegregation plan.

Beginning with only two magnet programs, the plan grew to include all elementary and middle schools in the district. After middle school, students all funnel into Montclair High School, the only public high school in town.

At Montclair High School, half the student body is white. The other half is made up of Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American and multiracial students.

According to a fall 2022 enrollment report submitted to the state, of the 1,966 students enrolled at the high school, 989, or 50.3% of students, are white; 478, or 24.3% of students, are Black; 271, or 13.8% of students, are Hispanic; 111, or 5.6% of students, are Asian; 2, or .1% of students are Native American; and 116, or 5.9% of students are two or more races.

But in Advanced Placement classrooms, the demographics look different. In all but one of the AP courses offered at Montclair High School - Spanish Literature and Culture - the percentage of white students exceeds its percentage of the school population.

Based on 2022-23 enrollment data for all of Montclair High School's AP courses, the average AP classroom at the high school is 68.3% white, 8.8% Black or African-American, 8.2% Hispanic or Latino, 7.3% Asian and 7.3% students who have identified as two or more races.

In some AP courses - Modern European History, Human Geography, Calculus BC, Physics C Pt II, Music Theory - the percentage of white students hits or exceeds 75% of the class. In other courses - Computer Science Principles, Physics C Pt I, Spanish Language and Culture - the percentage of white students falls below 60%.

"This is a difficult and troubling issue that has persisted not just in Montclair but in most school districts across the state and the country," said David Cantor, executive director of communications for the district.

AP enrollment at Montclair High School does exceed state levels across all demographic groups, according to data submitted to the state for the 2021-22 year . During the 2021-2022 year, 67% of 11th and 12th graders at Montclair High School were enrolled in at least one AP course. On the state level that same year , only 34.5% of 11th and 12th graders were enrolled in at least one AP course.

At the high school, 81.7% of white students were enrolled in at least one AP course, compared with 39.2% on the state level; 80% of Asian, Native Hawaiin or Pacific Islander students in Montclair, compared with 67.9% on the state level; 55.5% of Hispanic students in Montclair, compared with 22.1% on the state level; 34.5% of Black or African-American students, compared with 18% on the state level; and 75% of students who have identified as two or more races, compared with 38% on the state level.

Taking AP courses and receiving a high enough score on the end-of-year exam can earn a student college credit, often exempting them from entry-level courses freshman year and sometimes resulting in a lower tuition bill.

Students sign up for AP courses as they would any other class, though some require prerequisite courses.

"When you're young, you don't have the racial literacy to be like, 'Oh, there are systems that are causing these disparities,'" Batres said. "You think, 'Oh, I'm dumb, I can't do this.'"

Students of color in AP classes at Montclair High School say their experiences class to class have differed, but many mentioned the feeling of being singled out, of having to prove their worth in class before receiving perks their white counterparts seem to receive easily.

Latinx student Sofia Batres, who graduated in June, remembers when she was in eighth grade, struggling with her math class. It was not until right before a test, while her classmates were talking, that she realized nearly all of them had tutors.

"When you're young, you don't have the racial literacy to be like, 'Oh, there are systems that are causing these disparities,'" Batres said. "You think, 'Oh, I'm dumb, I can't do this.'"

Fast forward to high school, Batres sat in class as her teacher asked who was considering taking AP classes the following year. Several students of color raised their hands, and the teacher launched into a speech, warning of the challenges of the courses.

"She said, 'It's going to be a lot of work, so if you have a job after school, or you have to take care of siblings, that's going to take up time and you want to consider that,' and all these other excuses," Batres said. "The majority of students that are in the situation she talked about are BIPOC students, because a lot of these white students have rides, have cars, have socioeconomic access to resources where they don't really have to consider family members other than themselves."

A week later, the teacher asked the same question. Only two students of color in the class, including Batres, raised their hands.

"AP classes aren't that much different than the honors coursework for us," Batres said. "It just kind of felt like she was cheating them out of this thing they can put on their transcripts."

The tone of each AP classroom is set by the teacher, Student A told Montclair Local.

One white AP teacher made her feel particularly uncomfortable, questioning the legitimacy of her acceptance to a prestigious program and belittling her efforts in his class.

"You feel really helpless in those situations, especially when it's coming from someone who's an educator," Student A said.

Student A was frustrated with her performance in the teacher's class and felt like she could do better. The teacher spoke with her parents, and said he felt like she "didn't put any effort into class." Student A had an 89% at the time.

"If a white student falls back, because of their very present families and PTA moms, the parents just know exactly what they need to do to get their kids to the highest class," Student A said. "They get babied and coddled."

Student A has never asked for an extension, she said.

Montclair High School has a few different options for students struggling in AP courses, Cantor said. Students can get help from teachers through the school's Mountie Tutoring Program, from other students through the school's National Honor Society peer-to-peer tutoring program or they can work with a counselor, alongside their teacher, on what they are finding challenging.

And counselors and other high school staff are ready to support students, Cantor said.

"It's really important that students who feel unfairly treated realize they don't have to suffer in silence," Cantor said.

During the 2022-2023 school year, the high school implemented a "longer, more in-depth, and more engaged process for teachers and counselors to talk with students about their academic interests and goals, to help students clearly understand their options, and to support students once they've enrolled in high-level classes - not just with coursework but also empowering them to believe they belong and can thrive in those classes," Cantor said.

The high school also moved the date that teachers recommend students for the following year's courses from Jan. 4 to March 3, Cantor said.

"This gives teachers more time to spend with their students and students more time to get comfortable with the teachers," Cantor said. "There's also more time to talk to students about their academic interests and future coursework, and there's two more months of student work to base recommendations on."

The guidance team will be reviewing the change to determine how it helped and how it could be improved, he said.

Students can also override the course level recommended for them, with parental consent.

According to data provided by the Montclair school district, the majority of certified staff members in the district are white. Across the district, 70% are white, 16% are Black, 9% are Hispanic, 5% are Asian and .1% are Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.

"I've never had a Black AP teacher," Student A said. "I'm not represented when it comes to learning and having someone teaching the classes."

In one of her AP courses, Student A would respond to a question from her white teacher, the teacher would disagree with her, a white male student would provide a similar answer and the teacher would affirm it.

"Even classmates noticed it," Student A said.

Finally having an AP teacher of color made a world of difference, Batres said.

"You didn't feel isolated, and she always made sure our work was not just analytical but that we went and we delved into different social justice topics," Batres said. "I think she did really well in pushing students but also seeing the human before us."

In AP classes taught by white teachers, Batres' experience has been different. She took seven AP courses while at Montclair High School.

"You constantly have to present yourself in this accommodating way of friendliness and watch your tone, watch your work," Batres said.

Batres has been shut out by teachers when she asked for help, and has had several experiences where teachers are not sensitive to how a particular classroom activity may affect students whose identities are mentioned or discussed.

"There can be input from the teacher that defines what is appropriate and what is not," Batres said. And when that doesn't happen, "it just seems irresponsible," she said.

The district is working to ensure the professionals in the district look like the students in their classrooms, Damen Cooper, the district's director of human resources, said during a presentation to the school board in August.

"It is extremely important for all students to see educators, to see building leaders, to see people of diverse backgrounds teaching them, walking the halls and being school leaders," Cooper said.

The recruitment goals for the 2022-2023 school year included attending statewide minority recruitment programs, collaborating with statewide staffing website NJ School Jobs and joining the Central Jersey Program for the Recruitment of Diverse Educators, Cooper said at the August meeting.

As is the way in high school, information spreads quickly. Stories of particular teachers making students of color feel uncomfortable serve as warning signs to younger students planning their schedules for the next year.

Another female student of color, Student B, said that while she has not had explicit negative experiences in AP courses due to her race, she has intentionally avoided courses taught by certain teachers. Student B asked to remain anonymous, also fearing negative comments and feedback.

"There are certain AP classes that I didn't seriously consider taking because I knew certain teachers who had a history of having bad experiences with BIPOC students were teaching them," Student B said.

Student B said she knew younger students who were also building a schedule around avoiding certain teachers and seeking classes where they would not feel alone in their identity.

As a student of color, establishing relationships with teachers takes longer, Student B said. She waits until she builds a rapport with teachers before she feels comfortable asking for an extension. And with some teachers, she has never felt comfortable, she said.

"My white peers are just a lot more comfortable with it because I feel like the response they're often met with is, 'Oh, so how can we help?'" Student B said. "Whereas I've been told, 'Well, maybe you should reconsider whether taking this course is the best choice.'"

Students just want teachers that will not harass them, she said.

Student A said she had not heard teacher horror stories when she was enrolling in AP courses, but she understands why they would deter students who are already skeptical.

"I do think that for people that are even on the fence about taking AP classes, this is the perfect reason not to take them," Student A said.

Many students, like Student A, enroll in the subjects that interest them, often AP courses that will help to build their resume. They either have not heard the stories or are set on taking the courses anyway.

Zaire Williams, a Black student who took eight AP classes before graduating in June, did not hear stories of AP teachers making students uncomfortable. But even if he had, it would not have stopped his enrollment in a course, he said.

"I feel that as a minority, I should not steer away because of the fear of oppression, but instead confront it, and hope to change the minds of students and/or teachers," Williams said.

There have been instances when Williams felt singled out because of his race, he said. But his experiences have not affected his course selection and his desire to learn a broad range of subjects.

"No lesson should be withheld from students," Williams said. "It is important for us as students to learn the entirety of history and literature, with no bias or influence."

Rising junior Elise Crawford, also Black, shares Williams' sentiment - students should take the classes they want to take and learn about the topics they are interested in.

"I'm taking two classes that are so specific to the skills or the interests I have, there might not be as many people of color who are interested," Crawford said. "You're going to be dedicating so much of your time to these classes that it just depends on what you're really interested in."

The number of students of color in classes did not factor into Crawford's decision making and will not moving forward, she said. The issue is not something she thinks about a lot, she said.

"It's more of a background thing - it's way in the back," Crawford said. "I just think about me in the class and how I can do better."

In study after study, New Jersey - despite its diverse overall population - has been found to have one of the most segregated public school systems in the country. More than a dozen newsrooms covering New Jersey have come together to explain how it came to this, what might be done about it and how segregation affects the student experience. The series, Segregated, includes reporting from Montclair Local, Gothamist/WNYC, NJ Spotlight News and others. The continuing reporting can be found here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Singled Out: Montclair High School students of color say they feel isolated in majority white AP classes - Montclair Local

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In all but one of the AP courses offered at Montclair High School, the percentage of white students exceeds its percentage of the school population.