How 'anti-racist' ideology hurt the students it was supposed to help

"Anti-racism" is the Lord Voldemort -- he who must not be named -- of academia in 2025. DEI is like Bruno in Encanto. We don't talk about DEI, no, no, no. Not if we want federal funding.

In 2019, students at Ascend's 15 charter schools -- nearly all of them living in poverty -- were "reading Shakespeare in the middle grades, studying the Dutch masters, and outperforming city and statewide averages on standardized tests," writes Ginia Bellafante in the New York Times. Then, founder Steven F. Wilson came out for high expectations in a an essay titled The Promise of Intellectual Joy, and was fired for "white supremacist rhetoric."

Wilson is back in the fray with a book titled The Lost Decade: Returning to the Fight for Better Schools in America. He tells Bellafante that anti-racist education failed students. At one school that went anti-racist, "the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards on the math section of the SAT plummeted from 41 percent in 2017 to 4 percent in 2024," he says.

Anti-racist programming failed, says Wilson, because "indoctrination is boring."

Committed to "social justice," progressive "educators turned away from the commitments that drove their success — high expectations, relentless attention to great teaching, and safe and orderly classrooms," he argues. "New conceptions rooted in critical theory — trauma-informed pedagogy, a culture of student fragility, and racial essentialism — overtook the K-12 sector." Students were told they were oppressed and incapable. "Outcomes nosedived."

In an interview with Rick Hess, Wilson calls for refocusing on teaching and academic learning. "Urban charter school networks, by single-mindedly focusing on the quality of classroom teaching, were closing achievement gaps at scale," he says. Asking teachers "to function as therapists and as proselytizers" was a huge mistake. When social justice became the priority, "many formerly high-flying schools saw student discipline collapse and student outcomes plummet."

Ascend charters offered a liberal arts education and a "joyful culture," Wilson recalls. Ten years after the first school opened in Brooklyn in 2008, "our students had caught up with their more privileged peers statewide — and were pulling past them."

All that was imperiled when the criterion for decisions changed from what will best advanced student achievement to "which action is the most anti-racist, he tells Hess.

One top-performing charter network dropped an award-winning writing program because its two authors were white women. It piloted a new social-justice-themed math program, saw weak results and adopted it anyhow, replacing a more effective math program.

"When culture systems, including merits and demerits, were judged racist and removed, discipline collapsed," Wilson says. Veteran staffers, "newly deemed white supremacists," gave up and quit. Scores fell. Now, many network leaders are "trying to restore discipline and return the focus to academics," but they've shattered their school culture and "lost much of their top talent."

School leaders need to be honest about what's working and what isn't, Wilson says. "Ditch the hiring essays where candidates must signal their ideological purity. Instead, screen for teachers who know their subjects and are infectious in their enthusiasm. And who have the drive and perseverance to become great teachers."