Elmhurst D-205 Reverses Secrecy Decision

ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst School District 205 has backtracked on its decision to keep secret the records for teachers' equity training.

Late last week, the district released to Patch a total of 32 pages of documents associated with training for teachers last year. The program cost the district $46,000.

The release happened more than a week after the district decided to keep the records in question under wraps. It originally cited the exception for trade secrets under the state's open records law.

The district said Corwin, a publishing company, owns or holds all the rights to the materials provided in the training.

In an email Thursday, District 205 spokeswoman Tonya Daniels said the school board values transparency in education.

Because of that, she said, the administration worked "diligently with the service provider to release these materials."

"I am happy to say that, after continued requests, we have just now received their approval to release the documents to you," Daniels said.

A couple of days earlier, Tom Chavez, the leader of a local parents group, accused the district of keeping parents in the dark about the training for teachers, known as "Deep Equity."

He asserted Deep Equity's core premise is that "white people are collectively bound and unavoidably complicit" in a system that favors whites. He said the program advances the idea that student achievement is "suppressed by white privilege."

In February, resident Katie Vreeland went further than Chavez, labeling the Corwin program as being "racist and bigoted."

"Students are being divided and segregated due to the Deep Equity training," Vreeland said. "Students are being bullied into silence and made to believe if they don't go along, they put their future at risk for fear of a lower grade or a bad recommendation."

Vreeland provided no evidence for her assertions.

According to the training documents, the program's aims are "overcoming past resistance to 'diversity work'" and "transcending the rhetoric of shame and blame."

The training includes a "cultural bingo" with questions such as "Who has lived on a farm?" and "Who has attended a Cinco de Mayo celebration?"

The training also asks teachers, "To what extent have we established the necessary tone and trust among the adults in our school to be able to have real and authentic conversations about difficult issues related to equity, diversity, social justice and improving our professional practice?"

Teachers were given a scale of 1 to 10 to answer the question, with 10 considered the highest.

The program also requests participants gather in small groups and share something about their cultures.

Teachers are then asked, among other things, "How do the different elements in your personal culture inform/influence/motivate the work you do, how you do it and why you do it?"

Then the participants take part in an activity called "Culture Toss," with categories such as "race/ethnicity," "religion/spirituality," "language," "life value," "vocation" and "possession."

They are asked, "How do you see students in your school experiencing pressure to give up aspects of their own identities, or not be fully who they are? Which identities are being targeted?"

The training requests participants tell which "lens of difference" has been the greatest challenge in their lives.

Twenty-one categories are provided, including age, race, body size, politics, sexual orientation, language and personality.