Definitions

Folks fighting teaching the truth about the past throw around a lot of terms. Below are a few you need to know to support teachers and support diversity, equity, inclusion, and critical thinking in our elementary and secondary schools.

CRITICAL RACE THEORY (CRT) is a body of legal scholarship and an academic movement of civil rights scholars and activists in the United States that seek to critically examine the intersection of race and US law in a way that is an evolving and malleable practice.

It’s a way of looking at American history, American society, and government and legal systems – and power – from a race-based perspective. It’s looking at race and power. 

Listen to Kimberlé Crenshaw explain critical race theory in an interview on MSNBC.

COMMON CORE/STATE STANDARDS are a collection of markers or standards that states adopt regarding the education of kids. That means that the state decides here are the learning goals that students should know and do at different ages. 

CURRICULUM is a plan teachers make to teach students the elements of the common core and of a lot of other things too!