ST. CHARLES COUNTY — After a tumultuous month of student protests, national headlines and community outrage, Francis Howell School District is considering revised curricula for its Black history and Black literature courses.
The new curricula are largely similar to the versions that drew opposition from the conservative majority on the district’s school board late last year. But the district dropped the most hotly contested bits: social justice standards set by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit legal organization that specializes in civil rights litigation.
“Other than removing the standards, which I don’t see as political, I don’t really see a difference,†said Jani Wilkens, a former Francis Howell teacher who helped develop the original Black literature curriculum.
The all-white Francis Howell School Board voted 5-2 in December to rescind the social justice standards outlined by the SPLC. Student reaction was swift. A group of students and teachers came to school one day dressed in black in protest. On Jan. 18, hundreds of high school students walked out of class. And many students expressed skepticism of a “politically neutral†curricula that board President Adam Bertrand said the board would approve.
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Now, the board is expected to have a first reading for the new curricula at its meeting on Thursday. A final vote is slated for March.
Community and board members in favor of booting the SPLC standards said they feared they were a veiled attempt to teach students critical race theory, a once-obscure academic concept that’s become a lightning rod of right-wing scrutiny in recent years. The theory loosely analyzes how public policy and systems were shaped by racism.
“The left knows that getting rid of these standards (and any curriculum using them) is a first step in removing ideological indoctrination from schools,†Francis Howell Families, a conservative PAC that supports the majority of board members, wrote on its website.
The new curricula
The new curriculum for the Black history course is significantly different from the previous one, while the Black literature course remained mostly true to its original version. Both are electives offered to juniors and seniors at Francis Howell’s three high schools.
For , most unit titles and descriptions were slightly reworded or kept the same. “The Power of Black Voices†unit, for example, became “The Impact of Black Voices.â€
, meanwhile, had entire units refocused. Gone is a unit on how laws and economic policies affected Black wealth, as is another on what historical and modern-day struggles exist for Black people working toward equity.
Instead of a more analytical approach to history, where students made “value judgments,†or assessments of history as right or wrong, the course is based on sequential, straightforward history. It spans from the origins of African kingdoms to the present day.
The original course was more topical, with entire units focused on the lasting legacy of Black cultural icons, how Black Americans persevered and became change agents, and how Black history influenced local history, among other units.
“Essential questions†of the units, which educators typically use to guide discussions, have changed from “Is protest patriotic?,†“Is education equitable for all?†and “What does it mean to be Black?†to less-philosophical questions that would lead to more fact-based answers, such as: “What impact did Plessy v. Ferguson and Jim Crow laws have on Black Americans?â€
“We evaluated the language to see, ‘Is this just obviously incendiary?’†Lucas Lammers, director of curriculum and high schools said at a district event last week. “Like, why poke the bear? (We’re) just trying to be smart.â€
A team of seven people worked two days to revise the curricula. Of those, there were two Black literature teachers, two Black history teachers, a social studies content leader, a content leader facilitator and Lammers.
‘We just wanted some great discussions’
This year, 60 students took Black history this year, and 42 took Black literature. For now, teachers have continued to teach the courses as they were originally written.
The courses were based, in part, on the standards formed through SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance project. The nonprofit founded the project in 1991 to “strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people,†according to its website.
The project’s social justice standards call for students to be able to “recognize their own responsibility to stand up to exclusion,†to “express comfort with people who are both similar to and different from them,†and “express pride, confidence and healthy self-esteem without denying the value and dignity of other people,†among several other goals.
The Black history and literature courses were developed by Francis Howell teachers, staff and administrators in the 2020-21 school year at the request of students.
Dr. LaGarrett King, who directed the Carter Center for K-12 Black History Education at the University of Missouri at the time, consulted on the courses’ development. Critics of the courses questioned King’s involvement, claiming he infused the courses with critical race theory. But those involved in the courses’ development have said King’s involvement was minimal.
Wilkens, one of the teachers involved with the curriculum writing, said the social justice standards were incorporated after a person on the team looked for discussion questions online and came across the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website.
“That’s as harmless as it all comes,†Wilkens said. “We just wanted some great discussions to start the course.â€
‘I think Black history has promise now’
Parents were able to review the new curricula at an event last week in which educators sat at tables to discuss changes to the Black history and literature courses, in addition to 15 other courses up for evaluation.
Amy Chance, whose daughter is a senior, said she was concerned the courses would be “whitewashed.â€
“I appreciate that they tried to keep the integrity of the classes and just kind of took out the wording they didn’t like,†Chance said. “I am concerned it will not get pushed or voted on.â€
Only two of the seven board members who initially approved the courses in 2021 remain on the board, which is now dominated by members supported by the conservative Francis Howell Families PAC.
Janet Stiglich was one of the two board members who voted against rescinding the original courses. She said last week she thought the new curricula and standards looked fine, but she “didn’t have any concerns about the previous curricula.â€
Randy Cook, one of the new board members, wrote a 17-page letter in opposition to the courses in 2021. He asked the board to suspend the courses until the curriculum was “overhauled or eliminated altogether.†Cook was elected to the board the following year.
Last week, Cook told a reporter: “I think Black history has promise now.â€
Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the number of students who took Black literature this year.Â