Trusting Teachers to Ensure the Black and Latinx Studies Course Meets the Needs of their Students

An Update from the ARTLC

The ARTLC is committed to authentic, anti-racist teaching that centers students’ voices and experiences in the classroom. For this to occur, educators must have the freedom to draw upon the vast pedagogical and curricular resources available to them.

The CT State Department of Education (SDE) recently announced that all schools teaching the newly mandated Black/Latinx Studies elective will be required to use the curricular materials developed by the State Education Resource Center (SERC) in their course. The ARTLC believes that this decision, if implemented, undermines the good faith efforts of many teachers and students to develop a Black/Latinx Studies course responsive to their needs. The SDE would essentially be directing dozens of teachers across the state to set aside effective, classroom tested curricula that they have developed with and for their students in favor of a one-size-fits all set of materials created by consultants. Teachers and students who piloted the course last year were never consulted before this decision was made, and no evaluation of the mandated curriculum has ever been done. 

We can do better. Teachers, students, administrators and others could work collaboratively with the SDE and SERC to develop a set of curricular standards for the course that all schools must meet, and then permit individual schools to make use of the consultant-authored curriculum as well as their own resources and pedagogies to implement the course to meet the needs of their students  as they see fit. This is the standard practice across nearly every other subject area and was clearly allowed in the original legislation authorizing the course passed in 2019.

The ARTLC has requested a meeting with Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker and Chair of the state Board of Education, so that teachers, students, and teacher educators can share their experiences with the course and relay their concerns about this decision. We will update you as soon as we have more information to provide.

In the meantime, the ARTLC encourages you to continue your excellent efforts and to reach out to us via this form if you have questions and/or would like to be more involved in organizing efforts around this issue.

Teachers from an ARTLC Community of Practice meeting in person last summer.