If you or your classroom are experiencing particular harms from Texas’ SB 3 or classroom censorship laws in other southern states and would like support or assistance in developing a response, please reach out directly to me by email!

Finally, make sure you’re part of our community engagement and advocacy listserv to ensure you don’t miss out on receiving all of IDRA’s resources and materials. And tell your friends!

All families must be part of building excellent and equitable schools regardless of their racial or ethnic background or socio-economic status. Unfortunately, many schools have not prioritized or invested in developing authentic relationships with families, particularly those of color, those with limited incomes, and immigrant families.

The expertise and experiences of these families is invaluable to building a strong and supportive school community, and it is critical for district and school leaders to ensure their voices are represented regardless of their access to financial means or political influence.

Some groups are now dividing and intentionally pitting families against schools and against each other with the goal of passing legislation that whitewashes and simplifies our history. These groups, who purport to represent values such as “equality” and “transparency” are feeding some families inaccurate information about their schools and encouraging them to make harmful demands and violent interventions in school policymaking to advance policies that actually widen inequalities and exclusion. They are pushing their economic, social, and political agendas under the name of "parent engagement."

This is dangerous.

For students to feel a connection and affinity for this country they must be taught to grapple with its painful history, see the beauty and value in the diversity of its people, and recognize all the work there is still left to do to make our democracy better. Students, their families, and their communities benefit from schools that provide truthful and culturally-sustaining curricula.

IDRA's principles for family leadership in education provide a roadmap for implementing a truly inclusive vision of family engagement in schools that centers traditionally marginalized families and focuses on building more just, culturally-sustaining schools for all students. We encourage schools and policymakers to use these principles in crafting responses to misinformation and to proactively develop opportunities for meaningful and productive engagement with all families.

IDRA's research, training and policy advocacy work centers the principle that all students should be able to attend excellent, culturally-sustaining schools. When some policymakers began pushing so-called "anti-critical race theory" policies that promoted whitewashing history to deny the role racism and other forms of discrimination play in our society, we immediately recognized the threat to our efforts and to the work so many students, families and advocates have done.

We actively opposed classroom censorship policies, including leading a large coalition in Texas, participating in national strategy meetings, and working with partners to oppose bills filed in Georgia.

As our fellow advocacy organizations continue to fight against classroom censorship in their states and communities, our hope is that the lessons we learned and tools we used in our advocacy can help support others' inclusive, community-centered work.

Please check out our new Advocacy Guide: Six Advocacy Lessons Learned from Fighting Against Classroom Censorship Policies.

For more information about IDRA's policy, advocacy, and community engagement work, please email Morgan Craven, J.D., and encourage your friends to sign up for our advocacy network.

In a previous Knowledge is Power edition, I discussed the necessity of teaching all truths about the most important historical figures in our past. We explored truths behind one of our country’s most seminal thinkers and defining leaders: Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson was an intellectual man of his time who believed that all natural mysteries could be explained by ever-growing scientific discoveries. He did not believe in miracles or in supernatural explanations. However, he was a great believer in the moral lessons found in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Because of this tension, he "edited" the New Testament and removed mentions of any supernatural events, such as resurrection and miracles.

1.    Have students find information about his religious opinions using the secondary resources on the Monticello website. These can be articles, websites and documents. The Monticello website is the portal to online information about Thomas Jefferson’s 5,000-acre plantation and a resource concerning Jefferson’s life and times.

2.    Remind students that a primary resource refers to the actual texts, objects or artifacts themselves. This is where you can explain about the usefulness of the primary resources to present facts.

1.    Ask students to find the “Jefferson Bible” in the National Museum of American History’s website and the Smithsonian website. The National Museum of American History’s website contains digital versions of primary resources that students can view.