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A push for curriculum transparency

Procedures for reviewing class materials vary by district

Photo courtesy of Nicole Wichmann Students at Southview Elementary worked together on a classroom activity. Area school districts, including Marshall Public Schools, say they’re open to talking with parents with questions about books and curriculum materials.

MARSHALL — While school districts in Lyon County don’t have specific policies about making classroom materials available online, administrators said they are willing to talk with parents about the curriculum.

“Our teachers are very open and honest with what they teach,” said Beth Ritter, director of teaching and learning at Marshall Public Schools.

Ritter said MPS does have a form for parents to request to review school materials and voice concerns. She said the district has had parents ask about the review process, but to her knowledge there haven’t been parents who have filed a formal request.

With technology moving more parts of education online, parents may already have access to their children’s textbooks or other learning materials, area school administrators said.

Legislatures in several states across the U.S. are considering bills involving curriculum transparency. Last week, Republican legislators in Minnesota also unveiled a “Parents Bill of Rights” package. The bills in the package would require schools to give parents access to class syllabuses, and to provide instruction materials without cost to parents who request them. Schools would also be prohibited from withholding information from parents about their children’s classes or well-being.

Currently, Minnesota laws already require school districts to have procedures for parents, guardians or adult students to review the content of instructional materials. If the parent, guardian or adult student objects to the content, school districts must also make reasonable arrangements for alternative instruction.

This week, Ritter and other area school administrators encouraged parents to reach out with questions about their children’s education.

“We encourage them to start with a classroom teacher,” Ritter said.

At MPS, concerned parents or community members can also submit a form to a school principal to request instructional materials for review. School policies say a building team made up of teachers, administrators, or other staff will review the request and any proposed solution for the concerns.

MPS policies also include guidelines for discussing controversial issues in the classroom. Some of the guidelines include that controversial issues can be discussed if the issues are related to a student’s course of study or relevant current events, if all sides of the issue can be presented using facts, and if the discussion does not reflect adversely on other people because of race, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or other factors.

MPS policies, including the policies on curriculum review, are available online at https://marshallpub.ic-board.com/.

Ritter said many MPS teachers make classroom materials available to families. As online learning has become more common at the middle school and high school level, textbooks and other curriculum materials may be accessible online. Many Marshall High School teachers also provide course syllabuses for their classes, she said.

Tracy Area Public Schools Superintendent Chad Anderson said parents with questions or concerns about their children’s studies can contact the classroom teacher or the building principal.

“With many of our textbooks already online, transparency would not be an issue. Most teacher-created materials are also posted on Schoology daily for their students,” Anderson said.

He also said Tracy Area Schools posts most of its curriculum on its website, with links to language arts, math, science social studies and spelling curriculum at the elementary level.

“Most teacher-created materials are also posted on Schoology daily for their students. Teachers plan to the (state) standards, so it would be easy to direct parents to the standards, which are already posted on the Minnesota Department of Education website,” he said. “We follow the state standards. If a parent has an objection to a standard that is taught, we could come up with an alternate assignment to meet the standard.”

The Tracy Area Public School District’s policies, which are posted online at http://www.tracy.k12.mn.us/district/school-board/district-policies/, also include policies for considering books and other materials for school libraries, and for handling discussion of controversial issues in the classroom. The policy on controversial issues has requirements to consider factors including a student’s right to study a controversial issue at their level, to recognize that reasonable compromise is important in society, and to respect all opinions.

Lakeview School Superintendent Chris Fenske said parents in the district should also contact their children’s teachers with questions about the curriculum or classroom materials.

“They would be allowed to view materials and decide if it is something they want their child to participate in,” Fenske said. “We are also an iPad school so many students have curriculum materials in Schoology or on their iPads which can be viewed by parents as well.”

Fenske said generally if a classroom topic may be controversial — like learning about puberty — the teacher will send a note home to families.

“If they do not want to participate they can do an alternative assignment,” Fenske said.

Lakeview student handbooks say teachers need to agree to the alternative assignment and work with families, Fenske said.

Some area school superintendents said their districts didn’t have a formalized request process for parents to see school materials, but they encouraged parents to reach out with questions.

“We do not have a formal policy on curriculum review. However, upon request, we are always open to answering parents’ questions about their child’s education,” said Minneota Superintendent Dan Deitte. “We are prepared to carry out any legislation that the Governor and Minnesota Legislature may enact, including any related to curriculum.”

Russell-Tyler Ruthton Superintendent David Marlette said the school district hasn’t had requests from parents to see classroom materials. However, he said the district is also willing to work with parents if there are materials they want to review.

“If parents want more information, we’ll get it for them,” Marlette said. “We’re very open here.”

The process of selecting textbooks and other classroom materials for area school districts is an ongoing cycle, school officials said.

Ritter said MPS is guided by state education standards in selecting new materials. The district selects new curriculum materials on a six-year cycle for each subject area.

For example, she said, this year MPS is on the second year of the cycle for rolling out new science curriculum. Other subject areas, like mathematics and art, music and world languages, are on different points in the cycle.

“At Lakeview, we go by the state approved standards more than just prescribed curricular materials,” Fenske said. At Lakeview, books and other materials also go through a curriculum review cycle, which ends up with curriculum committee members making a recommendation to the school board. “There are two board members on the curriculum committee and the curriculum materials are approved a public meeting.”

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