IDRA Presents Preliminary Findings Showing Negative Impact of Classroom Censorship

As states established classroom censorship policies, IDRA has been monitoring and analyzing the impacts of these policies through direct educator surveys and focus groups, student and family engagement, published reports from other organizations and media outlets, and an extensive legal review of egregious actions taken by some school districts to comply with the new state policies.

In testimony before the Texas House Public Education committee recently, Chloe Latham Sikes, Ph.D., IDRA Deputy Director of Policy, addressed the charge to monitor public school curriculum and materials, and she described the impacts of state classroom censorship policies. The committee held the interim hearing to review the state’s new classroom censorship bill, Senate Bill 3, leading up to its 2023 session.

IDRA found four main negative impacts to schools and students from classroom censorship bills:

  • Weakened quality curriculum;
  • Lower teacher, staff and student morale;
  • Limited real-world learning and leadership opportunities for students; and
  • Threats to students’ civil rights and safe school climates.

[©2022, IDRA. This article originally appeared in the August 19, 2022, edition of Knowledge is Power by the Intercultural Development Research Association. Permission to reproduce this article is granted provided the article is reprinted in its entirety and proper credit is given to IDRA and the author.]

Share