Policies Restricting Teaching About Race and Gender Spill Over into Other States and Localities: Findings from the 2023 State of the American Teacher Survey

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Woo, Ashley

Contributor:

Diliberti, Melissa Kay

Steiner, Elizabeth D.

Language:

English

Other Title:

Policies Restricting Teaching About Race and Gender Spill Over into Other States and Localities

Place of Publication:

RAND Corporation 2024

Summary:

Public debates around whether and how teachers should discuss topics related to race and gender in the classroom have turned classrooms into political battlegrounds. Between April 2021 and January 2023, 18 states passed policies restricting teachers' instruction. Many of these state policies restrict teachers' instruction on topics related to race and gender; some also address how teachers can discuss current events or controversial topics. In the 2023 State of the American Teacher survey, 65 percent of teachers nationally reported deciding to limit discussions about political and social issues in class. This is nearly double the share of teachers who are located in states that have enacted restrictions. This finding raises the question of why the share of teachers who have decided to limit their instruction exceeds the share of teachers who teach in states where they have been explicitly directed to do so. In this report, the authors explore how the impact of state policies restricting teachers' instruction is spilling over into places where no such restrictions exist, and why teachers who are not subject to state-level restrictions are choosing on their own to limit their classroom discussions of political and social issues. The authors also examine how teachers' instructional decisions are associated with their state and local policy contexts and local political climate.