We were disappointed that, in March of 2022, district leaders announced their decision to remove the academic honor of Valedictorian beginning with the Class of 2026. They shared that the title of Valedictorian inflicts “harm” on other students. In addition to removing this honor, the district has moved towards a policy of “equity in grading” by “leveling down” academic standards, eliminating requirements and grading for homework, and have even discussed the elimination of Advanced Placement courses and the International Baccalaureate Program.
A review of the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) statewide assessment of academic performance has shown a frightening reality. In 2023, more than half of our student population in grades 3-8 did not meet basic expectations in English Language Arts or Math. These unacceptable failure rates were present before COVID, indicating district practices have been failing to educate our children for almost a decade in these critical academic areas for years.
We were disturbed to learn that district administration and the Board of Education set a goal in February of 2019 as part of the district’s “Systemic Racial Equity Transformation,” which required all “new to Cherry Creek School District educators” attend the Pacific Education Group’s Beyond Diversity & Courageous Conversations professional development training sessions. This curriculum has been flagged by civil rights organizations for promoting and emphasizing a regressive and divisive ideology. This ideology assumes that America was founded on white supremacy and asserts that racism is at the heart of every disparity in society and our schools. This ideology requires people to see themselves not as Colorado Parent Advocacy Network 2023 3 individuals, but as representatives of a group of oppressors or oppressed – all depending on the color of their skin.
They teach lessons such as the 8th grade Language Arts assignment at Infinity Middle School, asking students to identify WHY their favorite hobby is racist. For 12th graders at Smoky Hill High School, a class titled, “Math and Social Justice” is offered to twist statistics where students “use the power of mathematics to explore Social Justice topics”. An Overland High School English teacher compelled students to respond to a video about the tragic story of Emmett Till by demanding they be enraged and repeatedly say an expletive word while declaring that he flipped a desk in another class because his students were not enraged to his satisfaction. The Cherry Creek Education Association (Teachers Union), in collaboration with the Assistant Superintendent of the Office of Equity Culture & Community Engagement, Michael Giles (now Superintendent of Schools in Adams/Arapahoe 27J), created a week long Black Lives Matter School Week of Action curriculum for children in grades K-12 in February of 2022 where children were asked to pledge allegiance to the 13 Principles of Black Lives Matter and participate in “Power & Privilege” exercises that would separate children into “privileged & marginalized” groups based on immutable characteristics