Panorama, SEL’s CASEL Push Critical Race Theory Into Classrooms
By Carole Hornsby Haynes October 13, 2021
Attorney General Merrick Garland sent a memorandum directing the FBI to target parents who protest at school board meetings. This was a response to the National Association of Secondary School Principals’ letter that characterized parents who stood up to school boards about mask mandates and the teaching of CRT as “domestic terrorists.”
Now it seems there is far more to this story than meets the eye.
Garland’s daughter is married to Alexander “Xan” Tanner, co-founder and president of Panorama Education, an educational data mining company that promotes Critical Race Theory tenets.
In June 2020, Panorama co-founder and CEO Aaron Feuer penned in a company blog post, “Panorama’s Stand Against Systemic Racism:”
….“We are angered and heartbroken by the murder of George Floyd last week, yet another act of violence against a Black person in America, and yet another consequence of this long history of systemic racism in America.”
….“We strongly denounce racism, and we commit to fighting against it. We commit to dismantling systemic racism, we commit to embodying and spreading anti-racist practices, and we commit to building systems of opportunity and possibility for students of color.”
Deceptively, the company’s website tries to distance itself from CRT, “Panorama Education does not sell critical race theory (CRT) to schools. Panorama is not connected to critical race theory (CRT) and is not a tool for teaching critical race theory (CRT).”
Despite their denial, Panorama produces data mining surveys for students and conducts professional development training teachers in the areas of equity and inclusion. There is no mention that diversity, equity, and inclusion are commonly used Critical Race Theory words.
In describing its survey, the company states,
“The Panorama Equity and Inclusion Survey provides schools and districts with a clear picture of how students, teachers, and staff are thinking and feeling about diversity, equity, and inclusion in school.”
The collected survey data is used to plan social and emotional learning (SEL) lessons. “Panorama was ranked the #1 SEL measurement tool in a report from Tyton Partners and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”
The company boasts that it supports “over 13 million students in 21,000 schools, 1,500 districts, and 50 states.” Its corporate partners include Dallas Independent School District. Even though Panorama obviously supports CRT, Dallas ISD Trustee Dustin Marshall made this statement.
“When people ask me if we’re teaching Critical Race Theory in Dallas ISD schools, I tell them ‘No, we’re not – we’re having a healthy discussion about history and about facts and about how our society got to where it is today – and now there are institutional barriers to opportunity for Black and brown kids.”
Further proof that DISD supports Critical Race Theory is its Racial Equity Office.
Although school districts typically claim they don’t have a CRT curriculum, it’s being taught in SEL lessons under various euphemisms. The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), a leading SEL provider, lists several Critical Race Theory terms in its five core “Competencies with Equity Focus” including cultural competency, diversity, inequity, equity, racial equity, and inclusive.
Psychological manipulation of a student’s values and thinking is found in the “Self Awareness” core competency with the explanation, “awareness of beliefs, mindsets, and biases” and “how they influence one’s behavior.”
Soviet-style collectivist worker training that was brought to American schools by socialist John Dewey is found in the “Relationship” core competency: “collaborative problem-solving” (Project Based Learning).
Left wing indoctrination is also found in Panorama surveys. Parents Defending Education Director of Outreach, Erika Sanzi, reported in her Substack column about a Panorama school climate survey that her son was given. Question 67 asked, “Do you know that Rhode Island state law allows Rhode Island residents who are US Citizens to pre-register to vote at age 16?”
In 2015 the Every Student Succeeds Act codified Common Core at the federal level and changed the primary purpose of education from academic to social and emotional learning. ESSA mandates the inclusion of SEL in schools, making it a very convenient vehicle for implementing Marxist indoctrination with Critical Race Theory.
Garland’s attack on the free speech of parents, who oppose Critical Race Theory, along with the exposé of his connections to Panorama, which supports CRT, has pushed the anger level of the grassroots to new highs. They are banding together and fighting back.