FCPS has commissioned an Equity Climate Study to provide recommendations for removing institutional barriers that have not served students, staff, and families. The firm approved and hired to conduct the Study, Insight Educators, from Minnesota, will gather information via an equity survey to all students, FCPS staff, and parents/guardians, along with interviews, focus groups, and an analysis of the data to “examine disparities.”  Based on the results, Insight Educators will recommend changes and will provide equity support and coaching.

Our concerns are threefold:

1. The review of disparities in the findings must include a complete review of the root causes of disparities. This means economic, environmental, and behavioral causes, as well as racism. The study does not mention causes other than the inequitable nature of the school systems and seems to enter the survey with the belief that systemic and institutional racism is already and unquestionably present in FCPS.
2. A search on the background and positions of Insight Educators seems to bear this out. Parents Defending Education, a national watchdog organization for parents, maintains a database of school contractors that provide everything from training to curriculums, provided quotes from Insight’s leadership that included “education empowers individuals to disrupt the impact of systemic racism,” hire educators that are “rooted in the tenets of anti-racism,” and work to “dismantle practices that perpetuate structural racism.” As we’ve documented, the concepts of anti-racism align with the basic principles of CRT.
3. Based on the above, we are concerned that this survey and analysis will be used as a validation that systemic racism is the main cause of disparities, focus on white racism rather than all racism, and will be used as a foundation and rationale to rewrite policies, curriculums, and school regulations.