This Bay Area school district spent $250,000 on Woke Kindergarten | San Francisco Chronicle


In a bid to tackle systemic racism and improve student engagement, Glassbrook Elementary in Hayward splurged $250,000 on Woke Kindergarten, a program designed to empower teachers to disrupt racism and oppression. Despite the hefty investment, funded by a federal grant aimed at aiding underperforming schools, Glassbrook's test scores in English and math have seen a worrying drop, with less than 4% of students proficient in math and under 12% at grade level in English.



Hayward Superintendent Jason Reimann noted a subsequent improvement in student attendance, with 44% of students considered chronically absent last year, down from 61% the year prior. Though, the Chronicle pointed out that a similar improvement was seen districtwide, suggesting this improvement was due to a larger trend.



Additionally, anti-semitic concerns have been raised by other news outlets pointing out that that Woke Kindergarten states on their site that: “One place that people are demanding a permanent ceasefire for is in Palestine because they are being occupied, or controlled, by a made-up place called Israel that has settlers called Zionist who are harming and killing the Palestinian people who have always live on the land.”



While many champion the need for confronting historical biases in education, critics argue that such programs divert attention and funds from proven academic interventions, as seen in the success of targeted math programs elsewhere. Sadly, this one narrative is now racing around right leaning news outlets as an example of why not to teach about the history of racism all together, rather than a balanced ‘in addition to, not instead of’ approach.



-------
Listen to our podcast: Wholewhale.com/Podcast
On Facebook:   / wholewhale  
Tweet us: @WholeWhale
Our website: WholeWhale.com/