The Potential Damage That Politicizing Dei Has On Closing The Achievement Gap

The potential damage that politicizing DEI has on closing the achievement gap

This blog post is in response to the Recent Executive Orders Impacting Education issued by the new presidential administration labeling DEI efforts discriminatory. Culturally-responsive teaching (CRT), which follows learning sciences research and which aims to narrow an ever widening achievement gap, would now be deemed discriminatory under the DEI ban.

The U.S. Department of Education traditionally supports research that advances learning outcomes for American Youth. I personally have written several grants intended to narrow research-practice gaps between what we know would support the most vulnerable learners in the education system and what we are currently practicing in the classroom. Culturally-responsive teaching presents such a research-practice gap.

If grant proposals submitted to the new Department of Education will be deemed discriminatory because their focus includes diversity, equity, and inclusion, then the new DEI ban is discriminatory as it will hurt the most vulnerable learners in the education system.

I encourage the readers of this blog post to

  1. View the Presentation given at the 2024 MN Summit on Learning  and Technology on: Culturally-responsive teaching by design: From principles to practice,
  2. Read the White Paper which provides a scientific literature review on Culturally-responsive Teaching,
  3. Listen to the Audio Summary of the White Paper we created with the help of NotebookLM (17:10)
  4. Check out the Professional Learning opportunities by which reDesignED supports schools in adopting more culturally-responsive practices
  5. Stay connected with reDesignED by completing our Subscribe form
  6. Share this post and its enclosed resources on social media to communicate the potential damage that the DEI ban has on narrowing the achievement gap.