Freedom to Learn

Context

No matter our color, background, or ZIP code, we want our kids to have an education that imparts honesty about who we are, integrity in how we treat others, and courage to do what’s right. We also want educators to feel supported when teaching these important lessons.

Together, parents, educators, and students can demand that our schools have the resources to meet every child’s needs with well-trained and supported teachers, and a curriculum that helps them reckon with and shape our future. Find resources and actions below to help protect our students freedom to learn.

View the Freedom to Learn Model School Board Resolution Template

Narratives

How we speak about issues is of critical importance in activism. Use these narratives for creative and social media content, visuals, public messages, calls to action, spokesperson materials, and more.

3 Key Narratives

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The Freedom to Learn

Every student, of every race and in every place, deserves the freedom to learn from a quality educator in a safe and just public school. Great public schools are places where students feel safe, have a sense of belonging, and can receive an education that prepares them for the real world. Where parents and educators work together so each student has the support and opportunity they deserve to thrive and pursue their dreams.

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Prioritizing Students over Politics

A handful of politicians are stoking social and racial division, putting some students into boxes, banning books from shelves, and censoring our history. They care more about their political careers and agendas than our students. They are driving great educators out of the profession and taking funding away from public schools for vouchers.

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Politicians Aren't Curriculum Experts

But they can help America’s students by ensuring all children attend well-resourced schools with an accurate and inclusive 21st Century curriculum that prepares them for the future.

Engaging with your Community

Our neighborhood public schools are meant to inspire imagination, cultivate critical thinking, and ensure our children can live fulfilling lives. By coming together, we can more deeply engage our school board and school community to ensure opportunity for all.

Getting Started

Think about the following questions before you begin enlisting support from the community:

What policies does the school district already have in place? Use words like “reaffirm” for policies that already exist and point to them.

Is the district already investing time and resources into anti-racist work, such as staff recruitment, professional development, or culturally-responsive curriculum? If not, can it? Be ready to name those things.

What policies are you planning to change or introduce? Describe your intentions for changing or creating new policies.

What community or district can you use as a model? Review examples of how others have successfully engaged with their communities to find models your resolution. If you use an example heavily, cite it at the end by saying “portions were modified from [name of resolution and link].”

What is happening in your community? Understand how the environment, and the conversations happening, could influence your strategy.

How will Board members lead conversations in the community -- through town halls, forums, personal outreach? Boards should be specific as possible with what you intend to do to foster deep and broad engagement.

Step-by-Step Guide to Getting a Resolution Passed in Your School District

Whether you are a regular at your school board meetings or are just getting started, here are some tips to make your advocacy for our students the best it can be.

1. Form a Team to Support the Effort and Then Expand Your Supporters

Are there students, parents, educators on your team? Good! You are ready to expand your effort into the broader community. Check and see if there are other groups working on similar issues in your community. If not, pull together a committee with representatives from different constituencies including faith-based groups, students and youth organizations, parent groups, etc. Call a first meeting to discuss the problem students are facing and why a resolution may be a solution.

2. Engage Your School Board, Educators and Parents
If you are unsure about where your school board stands on a particular student civil rights issue, you may want to start by surveying the board so you can assess who are your allies, swing members, and those that will pose a tough challenge. Meet with each board member and ask if they would generally support the resolution. This effort can be divided among different team members or partnering organizations. IF students are old enough to represent themselves in meetings, it’s always powerful when they share their own stories. Make sure there is a point person who is collecting the results of the meetings to report back to the group.

3. Gather Signatures of Support
Create a petition and disperse it widely through Facebook and other social media, at parent and educator meetings, etc. The petition should demand that the school board “get on board” and take a stand on the resolution.

4. Identify Board Member Allies
Identify your strongest ally (or allies) on the school board and set up a meeting with him/her to discuss introducing a resolution. Bring an education packet to share. Include talking points, newspaper articles, signed petitions, and survey data – a visual of the survey data is even better! Ask the board member(s) to take the lead in garnering the support of other board members. Ask him/her to approve the language in the draft resolution. This process may take a number of days and a fair amount of negotiating.If the board person is not willing to lead the effort to get a resolution passed, first assess the reasons why. Is it that the resolution you presented as written would prove impossible to secure his/her support? Is he/she afraid to take the lead on this issue? Depending on the reason, you may want to take some of the following paths:

Try a different member of the board.
Plan actions to target the member.
Negotiate on the draft resolution language.

5. Hold a Public Education Event or Town Hall Meeting
At any point in this process, you may want to consider setting up a public event in your city/district to raise awareness in the community and garner wider support for the resolution, to bring more citizen power into the effort, and to build the movement in your area. One way to involve school board members early in this effort is to set up a “town hall meeting” with a panel of people presenting the various arguments for (and against) the resolution and a panel of board members and citizens listening and asking follow-up questions.

6. Reach Out to the Media
The easiest way to make the resolution effort appealing to the media is to demonstrate the direct impact on the students in your district and your community.A public education event or action is a great opportunity to inform journalists about the campaign and build support to get the resolution passed. If you are not holding a public education event, consider holding a news conference featuring school board members leading the effort and diverse members of your coalition.If you don’t have board members friendly to your cause, you may want to plan media outreach around an action designed to target board members and expose their unwillingness to support parents and educators. Ideas include: holding a teach-in at a public space, holding a vigil at their home, or conducting some other creative action to garner attention for the resolution. Draft a news release and send it to your local and regional press. Don’t overlook education and parent bloggers in your area.If a resolution passes successfully, don’t forget to do follow-up media work. Hold a news conference and claim a victory for your issue and thank your supporters!

7. What to do When a Resolution Will Not Pass/Be Introduced
The following are some alternative options for expressing the support for your position in your school district/city:

Gauge if more internal organizing such as union meetings and informal meetings with parents and other activists (including students) might help escalate actions and the effort to pass the resolution.
If you have any allied board members, ask them to circulate a general letter in support of your position to other members.
Write a letter to the editor or an opinion piece for the local paper.
You can also try different groups in your city/district such as University Resolutions, Labor Union local resolutions, Parent and Teacher Associations, or other civic bodies.

Model School Board Resolution Template

Fill in the {district- and state-specific} fields in the template below. The resolution should name your District and identify the state board and curriculum standards.
Identify relevant anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, and anti-bullying policies that might already exist in your District; this resolution can lift them up.
Include district, state or even national demographic data to reinforce the urgency of inclusive, culturally-responsive curricula and teaching in our schools.
Take what you need from this model, and add what is missing: This resolution should address the customized needs and capabilities of your district.
Consider alternative phrasing: Certain words or phrases in the model language can be modified to help support your message.

WHEREAS, {DISTRICT} values nurturing learning and teaching environments; supports and respects educators as trained professionals; and is committed to ensuring that all students can thrive regardless of their ZIP Code, color or background;

WHEREAS, {DISTRICT} supports education that values honesty about who we are; integrity in how we treat others; and courage to do what’s right by listening to, learning from, and respecting diverse viewpoints;

WHEREAS, {DISTRICT} values our educators, who through pedagogically sound, age appropriate curricula and teaching standards help students understand our collective past, spark curiosity and critical thinking, and prepare all students to meet the challenges of our multicultural present and future {INSERT local demographic data here as needed};

WHEREAS, the {STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION} outlines curriculum and teaching standards that deliver high-quality curricula that teach the full sweep of U.S. history, and equip teachers and students to develop their understanding of the world and their ability to make meaningful change in it;

WHEREAS, many communities across the country have faced misguided attacks on the instruction occurring in schools, when they are simply teaching the full truth of our country’s history in accordance with district and state curriculum standards through research-tested pedagogical approaches;

WHEREAS, studies show that students enrolled in Black and ethnic studies courses that include the experiences and narratives of Black, Indigenous and other People of Color (BIPOC) and LGBTQ people, honor their cultural assets, and provide students with tools to critique inequality develop strong relationships with teachers and gain benefits in terms of school engagement and persistence in academic attainment;

WHEREAS, a diverse faculty and staff reflective of the demographics of the community, country and world, provides significant value to Black, Indigenous and other People of Color (BIPOC) students, white students, educators, school staff, and administrators;

WHEREAS, continuing professional development and guidance for educators that is culturally responsive, anti-bias, anti-racist and includes historically excluded perspectives enables educators to foster safe school spaces and promotes academic attainment for students;

WHEREAS {DISTRICT} will center educational equity, by building a shared understanding of U.S. history and actively engaging students, educators and families, thereby ensuring that all students have what they need to thrive and succeed academically;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED on this {date} day of {month, year}, by the Board of {DISTRICT}, that the District stands steadfast in its commitment to foster an inclusive, culturally responsive educational environment where every student, educator, and community member is treated with dignity and respect, and condemns racism, sexism, and all forms of bigotry in our schools and community;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that {DISTRICT} stands behind its curricular materials, which meet {STATE Academic Standards}, and that the District further shall: 1) Stand by the right of our students to learn — and our expert educators to teach — an inclusive curriculum that covers our country’s whole history and encourages students to think critically and develop their own views and voice about current events; 2) Support culturally-responsive education that centers students’ diverse history, cultures, families, and communities, thereby allowing students to see themselves reflected in the classroom, have strong relationships with their educators, and understand the world in which they live; 3) Support the study of the social, political, economic and historical perspectives of our nation’s diverse racial and ethnic groups, which helps foster cross-cultural understanding among all students, and aids students in valuing their own cultural identity while appreciating the differences around them; 4) In partnership with educators, students, and the community, review the District’s current curriculum in order to ensure it reflects a true history of this nation and the world we live in, and works to dismantle systemic racism and racial inequity in our schools; 5) Move forward with creating and implementing Black Studies and Ethnic Studies courses in all high schools;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that {DISTRICT} stands behind educators who teach District curricula and {STATE academic standards} in a truthful way that represents the full scope of this country’s history and present reality, and that the District further shall: 1) Support and defend educators’ use of teaching materials that incorporate diverse perspectives and that represent and acknowledge the experiences of all students; 2) Ensure that individual educators who teach {STATE academic standards} are not punished for teaching accurate information; 3) Honor the training, expertise and professional judgment of its educators, and respect pedagogical approaches that engage students around difficult questions in an inclusive, critical, and age-appropriate way; 4) Commit to dedicating time in schools for ongoing professional development, culturally responsive training, book studies, celebrations of diversity that center people of color, critical conversations among staff and with students, and establishing community partnerships to support this work; 5) Put in place practices that will lead to a more diverse workforce, consistent with the District’s commitment to a diverse faculty and staff that reflects the demographics of the community, country and world, and thereby provides significant value to students of color, white students, and all in our community;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that {DISTRICT} commits to educational equity, and that the District further shall: 1) Reject the idea that educational equity is a zero-sum proposition in which some students lose opportunities to help other students succeed, and instead, work to provide all students with a world-class education; 2) Ensure safe, welcoming, and effective schools, in which every student — regardless of their race, gender, zip code, language, country of origin, religion, sexual identity or orientation, ability or disability, or family’s income — has a chance at academic success; 3) Ensure learning environments are free from discrimination, harassment and identity based bullying, consistent with {insert relevant, existing District policies}; 4) Support, review, and revise the District’s policies, programs, educational materials, teaching approaches, and resources to ensure educational equity; 5) Review and assess the District’s discipline practices to determine if there is evidence of racial bias in discipline enforcement; and 6) Work to meet students where they are — academically, emotionally, and physically — and implement trauma-informed disciplinary practices in schools, particularly in communities in which students’ families have been disproportionally impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic due to health disparities.

ADOPTED this {date} day of {month}, {year}

Download the Model School Board Resolution Template as a word document

Download as pdf

NEA President Becky Pringle delivers the keynote address to the 2021 NEA Representative Assembly.

These dangerous attempts to stoke fears and rewrite history not only diminish the injustices experienced by generations of Americans, they prevent educators from challenging our students to achieve a more equitable future.

Quote by: Becky Pringle, NEA President

Tweet this Read the op-ed

Say This, Not That

Say this

Use active language to make it clear that certain people created the problem. Describe the reasons bad actors attempt to distract, fuel fear and divide us across race, gender, and origin.

Avoid

Resorting to partisan finger pointing—use the more general "some politicians" or "some elected officials."

Say this

Provide specific, tangible actions people can take, such as attending school board meetings, voting in elections, and contacting officials.

Avoid

Using war or battle metaphors and terminology (ex. “fight”).

Say this

Seize the moral high ground and engage on our terms. With attention on education, let’s talk about the teaching and curricula we support and connect to desired outcomes and a call to action.

Avoid

Using the phrase “critical race theory.” This is an academic term, unfamiliar to most audiences, and the right has co-opted it as an all-purpose dog whistle.

Say this

Ascribe motivations to the opposition. Talk about why they’re attacking curricula and educators.

Avoid

Unwittingly repeating the opposition's talking points in order to dispel their claims (e.g., “we are not teaching grade-schoolers about XYZ”).

What the Research Says

An established body of research affirms what educators have long known: Culturally responsive and racially inclusive education—including the study of the social, political, economic, and historical perspectives of our nation’s diverse racial and ethnic groups—benefits students. Learn how championing honesty in education creates a learning environment where students are more academically engaged, develop a stronger sense of personal empowerment, perform better academically, and graduate at higher rates.

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Culturally Responsive and Racially Inclusive Curriculum

Culturally responsive and racially inclusive education imparts students with a sense of self and of the world that leads them to be informed, critical, and socially responsible citizens.

Learn More >

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Ethnic Studies

Interdisciplinary ethnic studies help foster cross-cultural understanding among both students of color and white students, and helps student value their own cultural identity while appreciating the differences around them.

Learn More >

Protect yourself as you work for justice.

When students are given a choice in what they read, as well as support and time to read, they thrive. NEA’s Read Across America offers several classroom resources to celebrate the freedom to read, including a list of educator-recommended books that have been banned or challenged.