Are Utah public school teachers effectively trained to be neutral and unbiased in the classroom? Is there direction in place to monitor how curriculum is taught?
That’s what the state legislative audit subcommittee wanted to find out. In a time where books are being pulled from Utah school libraries and teachers are placed on leave for “inappropriate conversations” with students, the debate on what’s “appropriate” to teach and talk about is a hot topic.
State auditors interviewed over 150 parents, teachers, and school leaders. They reviewed over 500 complaints and surveyed 10,000 educators to figure out how social issues are taught and who decides that. A 68-page report found that it’s just not clear enough.
“Our teachers are so overburdened. If we have one more annual training to their plate it’s just too much. But we can put processes in place,” said Dr. Sydnee Dickson, state superintendent of public instruction.
The audit found that Utah school districts vary in how they manage curriculum and that it allows a “range of content to be taught in schools.”
It also gives a shout out to the Davis School District, saying it has “clear policies and procedures” on how to approve materials.
“All of the teachers want to do what’s right. We interviewed so many teachers who say, ‘I’m afraid, I don’t know what I can or can’t say so I just don’t say anything,’” said Leah Blevins, manager with the Office of the Legislative Auditor General.
The report includes “potentially questionable content from a sample of course materials.” Including one school district’s training about Pioneer Day, writing the state holiday “normalizes settlers privilege” and “celebrates white supremacy.”
Another district’s training for teachers instructed “white persons to ‘be accountable’ to Black, Indigenous, and people of color.”
“Of greater concern for us was the lack of structures in place that could have helped mitigate this or vet the material ahead of time,” said Matthias Boone, audit supervisor.
Auditors recommend legislators consider deciding at what level the curriculum establishment process should be uniform from district to district.
“They create an expectation for each district, each charter to have a process for how that curriculum is chosen,” Blevins said.
The state superintendent said materials are best selected at the local and level. She also went on to say that although a few stories of concern were identified in the audit, there “were no conclusions of widespread issues.”
“We want to keep code in its lane. With library materials, we want to keep that in it’s lane and with some of these other processes we think local boards should be the focus of control,” Dickson said.
