Albemarle County Public Schools (ACPS), a district in a far-left county in Virginia, encourages students to make a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideology as a “core competency,” and has an “equity” grading system that guarantees at least 50 percent on incomplete assignments.
According to documents obtained by Defending Education, the county, home to the Charlottesville metro area and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, is fully steeped in “anti-racism” — an ideology used in curriculums to browbeats white students into denying their self-worth as human beings based on race. The majority of ACPS students are white.
“Albemarle Schools don’t only promote a worldview based in social justice ideology but they tell students that they too must hold this worldview,” Erika Sanzi, Senior Director of Communications at Defending Education, told The Federalist. “Teachers’ lessons are judged using an anti-racist vetting tool to ensure they are sufficiently integrating power and privilege and teaching students to resist oppression. This is not normal.”
Turning Point USA
ACPS already has a history of employing radical teachers and school board members.
Last year, shortly after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a chapter of Turning Point USA at Western Albemarle High School hosted an event called “Two Genders, One Truth,” led by the president of the Family Foundation of Virginia.
After the high school initially canceled the event, it reinstated it. But at-large ACPS board member Allison Spillman compared the event to a Ku Klux Klan event.
“As a school board member and proud parent of a trans student I am beyond livid,” she said on social media. “”In my opinion this is not a matter of free speech, it’s hate speech and has no place in our schools. If the KKK wanted a speaker during lunch would we allow that as well?”
After backlash, Spillman attempted to walk back her statements, saying she was not trying to equate the students to KKK members.
In the wake of Kirk’s assassination and her comments, another board member came to her defense after the backlash decrying the way “intense vitriol in our politics can lead to people’s personal lives and the ways that it can deeply chill.”
“Portrait of a Learner”
ACPS’s strategic plan has a section titled “portrait of a learner,” which describes how the district intends on “develop[ing]” students. At least two of eight “core competencies” are overtly left-wing propaganda.
“Anti-racism” asks students to “possess increased awareness of the dynamics between race, power, and privilege. Ability to speak out and challenge acts of racism. Maintain healthy cross-racial relationships with peers and school staff.”
“Social justice and inclusion” similarly demands that students “uphold a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, and the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political, and social rights and opportunities. Promote equitable participation of all groups while seeking to address and acknowledge issues of oppression, privilege, and power. Nurture an ability to navigate and critique dominant narratives and systems.”
On paper, the descriptions could sound semi-neutral — but all school policies using this sort of language directs its ire and punitive, corrective mentality at white students.
ACPS was actually on the forefront of adopting this ideology — otherwise known as critical race theory — back in 2019-2021. It even attempted to hide the fact that it was critical race theory behind the term “culturally responsive teaching,” which uses the same acronym “CRT.” ACPS still uses that term, and has always tried to hide the connection with critical race theory by saying “it’s not the same CRT.”
The district boasts that it has 100 percent of its staff take “Anti-Racism Policy Orientation.”
Despite that, ACPS chief communications officer Jason Grant denied to The Federalist that the district forces the racialized ideology on students, claiming that “We do not require students to commit to any ‘ideology,'” despite the strategic plan stating students should “uphold a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.”
He also claimed that “no, we do not enforce policies by race,” despite the inherent anti-white racial nature of the ideology pushed by the district. He did not address that concern.
Teachers in ACPS are required to use the “Culturally Responsive & Anti-Racist Curriculum Assessment Tool” to adapt different assessments and curriculums based on race.
“Culturally Responsive Teachers teach to and through culture as they plan curriculum and instruction that is differentiated, rigorous, and relevant,” one portion reads, before clarifying it “Disaggregates assessment, engagement, behavioral, and attendance data by student social and cultural groups and identifies and applies differentiated strategies to address growth and learning needs of all students with specific attention to students who are impacted by equity, opportunity, and achievement gaps.”
Ignoring behavioral and attendance issues, otherwise known as restorative justice, is often a system that works to hold some students of some races or ethnicities to different standards than others. Any student with behavioral or attendance issues, for example, will not be held accountable for those if they are an “underrepresented minority,” but a student who is not part of that protected class, but shows the same issues, would receive whatever remediation the district saw fit.
The assessment tool also requires a “critical lens” where teachers are asked of their lessons, “Are students encouraged to examine materials, events, and institutions critically, through their and others’ cultural lenses, attending to power, privilege, and bias?”
In classic critical race theory ideology, this typically means that non-white students must think of themselves as perpetual victims seeking some form of retributive justice from the white students who are required to internalize, confront, and reject their “whiteness.”
That phenomenon occurred in 2020 during a meeting of ACPS English teachers who discussed “letting go of literary whiteness” and “implementing anti-racist literature.”
ACPS also has a questionnaire called “Am I an Anti-Racist,” where “anti-racist” is defined as someone who “practices identifying, challenging, and changing the values, structures, and behaviors that perpetuate systemic racism.”
An “ally,” it states, is “A member of a dominant group who works to dismantle oppression from which s/he benefits,” whereas “white supremacy” is “A system of exploitation to maintain wealth, power and white privilege.”
“White privilege” itself is defined as “an unacknowledged system of favoritism and advantage granted to white people as the beneficiaries of historical conquest. Benefits include preferential treatment, exemption from group oppression and immunity from perpetuating social inequity.”
With all the focus on white people, ACPS makes sure to point out that racism against them is virtually impossible by saying “reverse racism” is a “a disputed concept. Discrimination (a denial of opportunity) by subordinates against dominants.”
“ACPS believes that we, as a school division, should make certain the curriculum is attainable to a diverse student body, is mindful of how to include all students regardless of their lived experiences, and that participation in the learning environment remain accessible for all students,” Grant told The Federalist. “There are many ideological beliefs among the students and families in our school system — that is part of the diversity of ACPS. We embrace those different ideologies and encourage students to investigate and understand the diverse ideologies within our society and across cultures. We do not require students to adopt a particular ideology.”
A three-year social studies grant awarded to ACPS funded a “reframing the narrative” project to “develop anti-racist and culturally responsive curricula for grades 6-12.” These affected teachers of U.S. History I, U.S. History II, and VA/U.S. History.
Through the grant, 11th grade students were given access to Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You by infamous race grifter Ibram X. Kendi.
Another tool, the “Anti-Racist Learning Experience Vetting Tool,” claims it “it honors all students’ racial and ethnic identities,” but then says it “explicitly acknowledges and challenges inequities related to race,” “interrogates power structures and inequalities through critical thinking,” and “empowers students with the tools needed to examine bias in order to resist oppression in their everyday lives” — all of which contradict the idea that it “honors” all races.
It also inherently treats nonwhite persons as “experts,” stating, “The curriculum often presents people from marginalized groups as experts and authorities in the discipline and fosters opportunities to critically examine expertise and authority (e.g. barriers to entry, underrepresentation, expertise as a tool of power).”
The “Critical Examination of Knowledge and Power” section has a portion called “Empowerment” where students are expected to “reflect on and identify ways in which learning and teaching about social studies are inherently ideological acts.”
The “Choices” portion appears to encourage students to become protestors or agitators, stating, “Students critically examine the ways in which human systems are the product of choices, and supports students in imagining and taking action for more just systems.”
Meanwhile, in partnership with the Albemarle County government’s Office of Equity and Inclusion, ACPS launched the “21-Day Equity Challenge,” which has both race and sexual orientation propaganda for students and families to read.
At the end, participants are asked “How will you incorporate your new knowledge into your personal and professional life?” and an email from a district employee shows the challenge was intended for K-8 through a “Family Companion Guide.”
“Equity Grading”
In a grading policy paper obtained by Defending Education, ACPS is fundamentally uprooting normal grading systems in favor of one that lacks any academic or behavioral accountability whatsoever.
The paper mentions that ACPS superintendent Matthew Haas “sees grading reform as the most important change lever in our two major strategic initiatives–High School Redesign and Equity and Access.”
Grading overhauls include getting rid of a zero-to-100 scale, claiming that “over penalizes students for poor performance,” in favor of a scale that has a minimum of 50 percent for incomplete assignments.
The document also states “teachers should not penalize students’ grades for poor behavior, attendance, or other work habits.”
It also warns teachers about their forced commitment to DEI and “anti-racism,” reminding them, “Grading behaviors can tap into biases and subjectivity, and we want grades to represent academic achievement.”
“We recognize that not all students have the same opportunities or abilities, and that every student deserves a quality education,” Grant told The Federalist. “And so, we are committed to removing any barriers to student learning.”
Grading for equity is a classic example of the soft bigotry of low expectations, and, as Defending Education states, “students may have different outcomes, some of which can be attributed to a difficult home life, under-resourced schools, or health issues. However, changing the rubric under which students are graded doesn’t address those underlying issues; it just changes the grades. A traditional grading system that evaluates measurable inputs (homework, attendance, participation) and outcomes (final grades, accuracy) encourages all students to do their best work.”
Despite having been sued for its ideological imposition, ACPS parents were unsuccessful in getting the Virginia Supreme Court to side with them.
