Battles over the role of race and gender in classroom lessons seem poised to reignite, following a series of Trump administration decrees warning against what the president sees as “indoctrination” of students.
In a recent executive order, the White House demanded that the U.S. Secretary of Education and a number of other heads of agencies deliver to him recommendations for eliminating funding for K-12 schools that promote what he views as “gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology.”
Providers of curriculum, professional development, and other resources whose materials touch on race and gender topics have already spent years coping with blowback from local advocacy groups and school board members whose views align with Trump’s.
As the prospect of a new wave of criticism of products comes into focus, education companies are looking for strategies to insulate their products from attacks, and help their school district clients.
A new EdWeek Market Brief survey seeks to give companies practical advice: When districts are immersed in culture war-type battles, what support do K-12 leaders want from vendors?
The online, nationally representative survey, conducted by the EdWeek Research Center in August and September, specifically asked 164 district and 283 school leaders what steps education companies can take to help K-12 officials navigate criticism over products that address topics of race, racism, and/or sexual orientation.
EdWeek Market Brief asked the question in 2023, and then repeated it this past fall, to see if district and school leaders’ views have changed substantially.
They have not. Two common needs from district and school leaders: They want help for teachers on the front lines of classroom battles, and they want companies to work behind the scenes — rather than in the open — in providing answers to criticism directed at products.
The highest portion of district and school leaders surveyed, 44 percent, say the most critical source of support vendors can provide is offering professional development for teachers on how to navigate potentially combustible topics.
The next-most desired form of help from vendors is for them to prepare background materials/FAQs for district school leaders that explain the merits of the product.
Those two strategies were also the top two options districts and schools pointed to, when they were asked the same question in 2023.
In the new survey, 32 percent pointed to another form of behind-the-scenes help — they want vendors to prep background materials on the merits of their products for the school board.
In many school communities, critiques of academic resources based on their treatment of race and gender topics have emanated from elected school boards — in some cases at the urging of parents, or even based on reports from students.
Thirty percent of respondents said they want companies to provide evidence that their product doesn’t violate state or local policy.
Twenty-eight percent said they want vendors to connect them to other districts/ schools that have used their product in the face of criticism.
Meanwhile, 22 percent say it would help for vendors review their own work — making sure their company’s website/marketing materials don’t run afoul of state or district policy.
Out of the Spotlight
In general, more public forms of support from vendors do not seem to be popular among district and school leaders.
For instance, 21 percent say they want vendors to offer to attend, arrange, and/or moderate community meetings to address concerns directly.
And just 6 percent say it would be helpful for companies to wade in by asking state or local officials to change policy on topics of race/racism/sexual orientation.
District administrators are often the ones brought before the school board for discussions of controversial classroom materials.
So it’s not surprising that the crosstab data from the survey show that a significantly larger share of district leaders (40 percent) than school leaders (28 percent) indicate that it would be helpful for vendors to prep background materials on the strengths of their products for the school board.
Takeaways: Education companies can be valuable partners for school districts that have been pulled into controversies over the resources they offer.
But companies have to read the local context, and adapt. The stakes are high: The Trump administration has raised the possibility that it will scrutinize state and local education programs for compliance with the White House’s vision on race and gender issues.
The survey results suggest that districts know that teachers need support, in the form of professional development, to help them anticipate criticism of classroom resources and know how to respond.
Many of the strategies school districts see as most valuable occur out of the the spotlight — in preparing background materials for district and school leaders — so that they know how to respond to criticism when it emerges.