By Ashleigh Dennis, Founder & Managing Partner of Versa Impact Group
A metro Atlanta school district recently fired a teacher for violating Georgia’s “divisive concepts law.” The teacher read a book to her class that she purchased at the school book fair, a parent objected to the content of the book, and the district placed her on leave. It’s important for us all to understand this law and its implications for educators and families.
HB 1084, officially known as the Protect Students First Act, but commonly referred to as the divisive concepts law for the nine concepts it bans teachers from discussing in their classrooms, was passed in the Georgia House of Representatives on July 1, 2022. The stated purpose of HB 1084 is to regulate teaching that individuals or one racial group may be considered responsible for or participate in systemic racism, consciously or unconsciously, or that one racial group is inherently superior or inferior to another. HB 1084 also mandates that school districts implement policies and procedures to evaluate complaints from parents about instructional materials containing divisive concepts.
The divisive concepts law has created new challenges for school districts that are working to ensure all students have access to culturally responsive educational opportunities that prepare them for graduation and for life. It opens teachers up to potential liability based on subjective interpretations of different concepts in American history, challenges administrators to determine if teacher actions identified in parent complaints rise to the level of promoting divisive concepts, and has potential to advance the notion that the social inequities faced by African Americans are a product of personal failings rather than the result of systemic discrimination and opportunity gaps.
To ensure compliance with the law and the continuance of equity-centered instruction, the Metro Atlanta Schools Equity Officers Consortium (MASEC), a professional learning community of district equity leaders from across the region, joined forces with Learn4Life, and commissioned Versa Impact Group to develop an equity toolkit to help school districts do the following:
- Communicate a shared understanding of the divisive concepts law and the opportunities the law offers to advance equity
- Provide resources to principals and teachers to enhance their understanding of the law, mitigate challenges, and address parent concerns
- Navigate common challenges to lead and advance equity for students using best practices identified locally and nationwide
Drawing on insights from surveys, interviews, and focus groups of parents and staff in participating school districts, the toolkit will be tailored to each districts’ unique set of challenges with the divisive concepts law, and will include standard operating procedures for the parent complaint process, guidelines for reviewing supplemental instructional material, a sensitive topics determination process outlining how to determine if a concept is divisive, and email templates addressed to parents explaining why topics are being taught and their alignment with the curriculum, among other useful resources. By developing these resources, the MASEC hopes school administrators and principals in our region will feel equipped to support staff and parents with issues pertaining to the divisive concepts law, and educators will feel empowered to teach in a way that honors all students and families – regardless of political ideologies. The full toolkit and communications guide will be available on the Learn4Life website in September 2023.
