A partnership between universities and CMS is pumping radical extremism into Charlotte's classrooms.
By Sloan Rachmuth and Savannah Hulsey Pointer
Through the Charlotte Teachers Institute (CTI), Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Johnson C. Smith University have joined forces to promote Critical Race Theory, with the help of private funders up and down the state.
WHAT IS BEING TAUGHT:
CTI Fellow Amber Geckeler, teacher at Oakhurst STEAM Academy in Charlotte, created a 3rd grade Social Studies lesson on segregation, gentrification, Jim Crow laws, and the mistreatment of blacks.
Geckeler set the tone for her lesson with a quote from critical race theor (CRT) activist Peggy McIntosh:
“One question for me and others like me is whether ... we will get truly distressed, even outraged, about unearned race advantage and conferred dominance and, if so, what we will do to lessen them.”
Geckeler's goal is for Charlotte's third graders to be able to"recognize and facilitate their own conversation and possible solutions to how Charlotte Schools became resegregated after the attempt made to desegregate.”
As below 50% of the state's third graders were proficient in reading in 2020, it's hard to imagine that these advanced concepts are age-appropriate.
If Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools were serious about reversing students learning loss, increasing direct instruction time would be more important than adding confusing lessons on school segregation.
But Geckeler isn't the only teacher in the district getting CTI's money to devise ridiculous "equity" lesson plans that water down academics. Another teacher is Emily Rucki, a 9th grader at Garinger High School who created a math curriculum entitled "Challenging the White Frame of Mathematics Education: Racialized Differences on Math Test Scores."
Rucki plans to force math students into taking a “white privilege survey" to confess the sins of their skin color. High schoolers will be required to complete privileUnder these exercises, students who are perceived as having "less privilege" are asked to share experiences of marginalization so that "privileged" students can feel the pain.alized so that "privileged" students can feel the pain.
“The goal for this unit is to bring to students’ attention the inequities in the education system for people of color … By analyzing the math test results and demographics of high poverty schools, moderate poverty schools, and low poverty schools in their own school district students will see the data behind the inequity they have ‘felt’ for so long."
Here is a look at the incoming 9th graders' end-of-year math tests:re incoming 9th graders are with math litteracy measures:
School Superintendent Earnest Winston reacted to Charlotte-Mecklenburg's failing test scores recently: "We spend a lot of time talking about test scores.". But I also believe that test scores shouldn’t be the proxy for whether kids are being successful or not."
Then he continued, "So, I think we have to consider other variables when talking about our kids' success."
STI's teacher program sseems simpatico with Superintendent Winston's relaxed attitude towards learning loss.
PROGRAM FUNDING:
As one can imagine, this is not a cheap project, but CMS has the backing of some big names.
Some of those partners include Wells Fargo, Piedmont Natural Gas, the Belk Foundation, The Vining Davis Foundations, the Night Foundation, The Foundation for The Carolinas.
HOW TEACHERS APPLY TO CTI:
Before teachers can take advantage of CTI's program, they must attend a seminar to learn more about its goals. Within the CMS system, teachers must specify their professional plans, their goals for participation, and what impact their participation will have on their students.
After the seminar, applicants can submit a letter of intent to the CTI Admissions Committee, which is composed of CTI teacher leaders.
According to CTI's application requirements, teachers must teach full-time in a CMS school, intend to teach full-time in CMS, and "commit to full participation in accordance with the requirements in the Application, including attendance at all seminars and completion of the Curriculum Unit."
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