NYU Metro Tweets Support for CRT and Makes Partisan Attacks

T he ideological and political orientation of the NYU Metro Center has been among the greatest sources of concern for our local parent group, represented publicly by wp06880.com. NYU Metro is of course the organization that has been retained by Westport Public Schools to conduct the ongoing “equity study” which will help shape the district’s upcoming Strategic Plan. WP06880 was largely inspired by the urgent need to call attention to NYU Metro’s approach and alert the community to its promotion of Critical Race Theory and associated perspectives, which the advocates of the study have publicly disclaimed.

Despite NYU Metro’s obvious and extensive commitment to CRT, the WP06680 website has been condemned or denounced by various public figures around Westport for delivering “misinformation” and “fear-mongering.” It remains clear to us that these public figures have broken the public’s trust and misled the Westport community. CRT is, in fact, here in Westport because the organization working with Westport schools exists largely to advance CRT principles. This is evident with reference to and quotes from its own published materials and from blogs and tweets from its leaders.

On November 19, NYU Metro tweeted a new blog post in which it attempts to defend the value of CRT in understanding structural racism in K-12 education. NYU Metro has a tendency to generate disturbing content, but this blog is particularly noteworthy.

In its blog post NYU Metro makes clear it is a politically partisan organization. In the first sentence, the authors write:

This comment alone should immediately disqualify NYU Metro as a vendor working at the behest of our bi-partisan Board of Education. Not only is NYU Metro wrong to dehumanize Republicans or any American citizens for their objections to its ideology, its statement is also misleading since a majority of Americans hold an unfavorable view of CRT.

Not only is the blog politically partisan, the study referenced in it is inherently flawed and inconsistent. Of the 82 full days of classes observed, the 8 high income schools were included only in the last of the three years, whereas the 24 low-income schools were observed over a three-year period.

Furthermore, the authors present a series of data points for 47 kindergarten classes (each being observed on average less than twice) which do nothing to support their conclusion that structural racism is embedded in our schools starting in kindergarten. They suggest that the disparities between low and high income schools can be explained by the following (inconclusive and contradictory) observations:

These findings are confusingly offered as proof of “the continued dominance of white privilege” in education, given that the low-income schools have larger minorities than the high income schools, though both groups are majority minority schools. In other words, the data itself is immaterial. Regardless of the data, NYU Metro seems to come to the conclusion that, as with CRT, structural racism is the cause of the disparities. Since CRT is the framework through which NYU Metro assesses equity study data, one may reasonably assume that NYU Metro is now applying this intellectually anemic framework here in Westport.

Given Metro’s use of CRT in assessing Westport schools, we can already guess the result of their analysis of our high performing schools - no matter what the data may reveal, racism will be the inevitable conclusion. Anyone with common sense understands there are a range of potential explanations, some of which transcend what happens in the schools themselves. With its narrow racial equity lens and habit of circular reasoning, NYU Metro appears incapable of doing much more than calling school systems racist whenever disparate outcomes are detected. It is difficult to imagine how this restrictive mindset will add value to or improve the quality of Westport schools.

One of the primary objectives of WP06800 has been to demonstrate and discuss the CRT-inspired content on the NYU Metro website. We have correctly represented and carefully criticized this content, so other Westport parents could be informed and draw their own conclusions. Public figures in Westport who have baselessly attacked our efforts are deceiving the Westport community. Westport's citizens may agree or disagree with the CRT perspective, but there is abundant evidence that CRT is indeed fundamental to NYU Metro and its understanding of equity. This is accurate information that members of our community should thoughtfully consider as the recommendations derived from NYU Metro’s equity study are formed and communicated. We urge all leaders in our community to start being truthful and acknowledge the important role of CRT as a driving force behind Westport’s equity study.