After paying $250,000 to a leftist program called “Woke Kindergarten,” an elementary school in California saw students’ test scores dwindle.
You can’t make this up. A California elementary school spent $250k on a program called “Woke Kindergarten” to try to raise test scores. Test scores fell even further.
This is “Woke Kindergarten’s” homepage. They promote a “commitment to abolitionist early education and pro-black… pic.twitter.com/BOHZVP1mV5
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 4, 2024
Glassbrook Elementary School in Hayward, California, reportedly began struggling after adopting the “woke” program, becoming one of the lowest-scoring schools in the country. To try and boost such scores, the school used federal funds that the federal government provides to the worst-performing schools in America.
Woke Kindergarten is described as a “global, abolitionist early childhood ecosystem and visionary creative portal supporting children, families, educators, and organizations in their commitment to abolitionist early education and pro-black and queer and trans liberation.”
The program seeks to provide elementary teachers with “anti-racism” lessons. The San Francisco Chronicle pointed out that its mission is “to train teachers to confront white supremacy, disrupt racism and oppression, and remove those barriers to learning.”
A professor at the University of California, Berkley, Zeus Leonardo, claimed that the Woke Kindergarten initiative isn’t intended to indoctrinate children. Instead, the professor said the program is about “making politics part of the framework of teaching.”
Unlike the professor, several teachers at Glassbrook Elementary School issued a scathing rebuke of the program, saying it’s “wrongly rooted in progressive politics and activism with anti-police, anti-capitalism, and anti-Israel messages mixed in with the goal of making schools safe, joyful and supportive for all children.”
One such teacher at the school, Tiger Craven-Neeley, said that although he supports discussing racism in the classroom, the Woke Kindergarten agenda’s primary objective is to “disrupt Whiteness.”
Craven-Neeley said that he was temporarily banned from taking part in the program after asking what was meant by “disrupting Whiteness.”
The leftist program’s website contains a so-called “woke wonderings” section that advocates for radical leftist ideas such as challenging the U.S. Supreme Court’s legitimacy, defunding law enforcement, eradicating border security, abolishing money and diverting aid from Israel to rebuild Palestine.
The founder of the “Woke Kindergarten” scheme is Akiea “Ki” Gross, who is described as an “abolitionist early educator, cultural organizer, and creator currently improving ways to resist, heal, liberate and create.”
Upon implementing the radical program, Glassbrook Elementary School saw its test scores plummet, with English and math scores hitting record lows.