July 26, 2021- 9:14 p.m.
Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky will host a year-long professional training program on anti-racist mathematics.
The program’s goal is to “eliminate curricular violence and innovate mathematics education” through “anti-bias, anti-racist, and racially equitable practices.”
Educators will engage in monthly sessions with Lateefah Id-Deen, assistant professor of mathematics education at Kennesaw State University, which focus on topics like white supremacy in mathematics, racial trauma in mathematics, and creating anti-racist lesson plans.
Id-Deen teaches mathematics methods courses in the Kennesaw State University Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education, emphasizing racial equity and culturally relevant pedagogy.
She is also a frequent speaker at educator conferences and for the local school district.
The Jefferson County Public Schools’ “Anti-Racist Mathematics Pedagogy & Practices” program begins in August 2021 and ends in May 2022.
Along with the monthly 2-hour sessions, participants receive individual coaching and feedback.
Teachers accepted into the program are required to teach four social justice math lessons during the Spring 2022 semester.
They are also expected to “plan for wider dissemination of their learning within their schools and the district.”
The Jefferson County Public Schools Diversity, Equity, and Poverty Department, which is supporting the program, also works to promote equity in other areas.
Another year-long program sponsored by the school district is called “Revisioning History in JCPS.”
It targets the history curriculum, introducing teachers to books like “A Queer History of the United States,” by Michael Bronski and “A Disability History of the United States,” by Kim E. Nielsen.
The district’s Anti-Racist Specialist Aven Cook organizes these programs. Cook did not respond to requests for comment from The College Fix.
