“I haven’t tried to explicit tell my kids at all what to think. I just try to give my students the space to share what they know, talk about what they’re feeling and why, and to provide them with primary sources to help them draw conclusions for themselves as to what happened here in Rochester,” said Wiegand.

Now, districts in Monroe County and other neighboring counties could be implementing the courses. In a letter from the Monroe County Council of Superintendents Wednesday, superintendents pledged to develop a curriculum which focuses on how race, class, and inequalities shaped Monroe County.

Wiegand is now working on helping develop the curriculum across the area.

“We don’t want to preach some doctrine to kids. We want kids to just learn the facts about their community,” said Wiegand. “Now that we know better, we have to do better; that’s what I would say to parents.”

Wiegand is working with other teachers and education leaders across the area, as well as the Pathstone Foundation, to develop the curriculum, which he says will be taught to students throughout their K-12 experience.

“Racial equity is not a one-time conversation or a one-time lesson in a classroom,” said Wiegand. “It has to be a part of student’s learning experience from Kindergarten to 12th grade.”

Wiegand says the curriculum could be ready by September.

A newly-launched petition to “diversify and modernize” Pittsford Central Schools’ curriculum to include similar studies has already garnered thousands of signatures.

Pittsford Central School District Superintendent Michael Pero said:

As an organization that prides itself on continuous improvement, we know we are not perfect and that we must continue to learn and grow. Despite making tremendous inroads with our initiative to provide an equitable learning environment that celebrates and leverages differences in all forms, there is still work to be done.

One example of our commitment to inclusivity is a two year “Diversity Audit” that our K-12 librarians conducted at our nine school libraries. Working with Dr. Tokeya Graham, an English/Philosophy professor at MCC, who specializes in diversity, and drawing upon the expertise of Cheryl Kreutter, an Education professor at SUNY Geneseo, who specializes in children’s literature, our librarians developed a spreadsheet and a process of reviewing each title in their library.

They identified and recorded multiple characteristics related to diversity including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, gender, culture, religion, neurodiversity, and gender identity of the author, main characters, and supporting characters in the book. They also examined the theme and setting of the book. This labor-intensive process required the librarians to take each book off the shelf, review it for each of the identified characteristics, and then record the data for each title to their shared spreadsheet. In total, 24,891 titles were included in this audit.

Many benefits have already emerged from this project including an increased awareness of titles within our collections that represent both shared and unique experiences of our students and staff members enabling more thoughtful choices when procuring new titles. As classroom teachers expose students to more diverse titles and authors, our librarians are able to guide that process by selecting and showcasing particular titles.

In addition to the library audit, other examples of curricular modifications include:

A new Board of Education policy that requires the examination of diversity in any new textbook selection

Teacher training (with regular, timely reinforcement) regarding how to teach and respond to racially sensitive texts

PCSD is also partnering with BOCES and the University of Rochester Center for Urban Education Success to develop common units of study that will focus on how race, class, and inequities have shaped Monroe County from 1964 to today

Beyond PCSD, we have joined together with all Monroe County school districts to:

Assess policies and practices in order to ensure equality in hiring practices, provide access to high quality instruction, and decrease disproportionality in student achievement and discipline

Accelerate professional development in areas including culturally responsive education and restorative practices

Participate in the Regional Equity Network to promote equity in schools across the county

Listen and respond to the voices of our students and families of color, respect and value their experiences and perspective

Continue to engage our students in student-led change initiatives (i.e., ROC2Change which was hosted by PCSD in 2019)