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The critics appeared to strategize with the state officials to go after Mystic Valley. But according to a trove of emails the school obtained through a public-records lawsuit, DESE employees were secretly coordinating with the school’s critics, including the Henrys, the NAACP and local racial-justice activists unconnected to the school.
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Such reviews are supposed to be unbiased and free of outside influence. Mystic Valley has sued the state over the cultural-responsiveness criteria, which it fears could put its charter in jeopardy. A draft report issued in September marked the school as not fully meeting the new standard.
Yet in May, when regulators conducted an interim performance review, they informed the school that it was only “partially conducive to learning” because of its approach to culture and identity. When administrators expressed concerns that its charter was incompatible with the new cultural standards, the state insisted there was no issue. To Mystic Valley, this new criterion seemed like an attempt to impose race consciousness on a proudly egalitarian school. Read More: Inside the Fight Over What Kids Learn About America’s History. A few years ago, as national debates about racism and history intensified, DESE added a new “cultural responsiveness” standard to its evaluation of charter schools, defined as “an approach to viewing culture and identity as assets” in order to “acknowledge and actively draw upon diverse backgrounds identities.” Yet to avoid perpetuating racism, many educators, administrators and parents now believe it’s insufficient to ensure that everyone is treated the same. As set out in its state-approved charter, it aims to “embrace the melting pot theory by highlighting our citizens’ and students’ commonality, not their differences.” The school’s educational mission focuses on “the fundamental ideals of our American Culture,” with an emphasis on the nation’s founding documents. But Mystic Valley’s future as an institution is now in doubt because of an approach to teaching that has fallen out of fashion. Under Massachusetts law, charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately operated, are supposed to be judged solely on their academic success, faithfulness to their charter and organizational viability. The school’s 1,500-person wait list is nearly as large as its K-12 enrollment, and attrition is so low that few students are admitted past kindergarten. Charter-school rankings place it in the top percentiles nationally. Its students are disproportionately lower-income kids from communities of color, yet its test scores and graduation rates routinely rank among the state’s best. “How long have these books been in the curriculum?” Stroud forwarded the concerns to a supervisor, Benie Capitolin, who called the matter “heartbreaking.” “If our system can’t protect Black and brown students from unsafe environments,” Capitolin wrote, “how can it possibly educate them?”įor 23 years, Mystic Valley’s academic record has been undeniable. “This is horrible,” wrote Olympia Stroud, a program coordinator at the Massachusetts department of elementary and secondary education (DESE).