Maryland’s largest school district is promoting a so-called “anti-racism” curriculum for kids focused on “white supremacy” and racial and gender identity, according to internal documents.
Newly revealed training materials from Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) detail the “Characteristics of Anti-bias/Antiracist Curriculum” and instruct teachers to focus on topics of injustice, racism, oppression, implicit biases and inequity, parental rights watchdog Defending Education (DE) shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The documents were originally discovered by parent group United Against Racism in Education.
The curriculum was reportedly discussed at a PTA meeting on Jan. 20, 2026, according to DE.
“Schools should be the place where students can analyze the forces which maintain injustice and develop the knowledge, hope and strategies needed to create a more just society for all,” the “Culturally Responsive & Antiracist Teaching Framework for Social Studies” document states as a teacher’s desired classroom outcome, citing anti-racist writer and consultant Enid Lee.
Classes should focus on examining “systems of power and oppression created by white supremacy” and challenge the “Master Narrative, which is a focus on white, Eurocentric versions of history,” the documents state, according to DE. Content is meant to “critically examine resistance to and liberation from white supremacy” and center “the stories and resistance of communities of color and tribal sovereignties.”
Anti-racist instruction also requires teachers to “critically examin[e] how one’s implicit biases show up in the classroom and wor[k] to unlearn assumptions,” “understan[d] and reflec[t]” upon their own identities and the places they “hol[d] privilege in society,” and “understan[d] how historical & present institutionalized oppression, including racism, affects students,” according to documents.
Links included throughout the documents point to resources including a critical race theory framework, a “Guide for Selecting Anti-bias Children’s Books,” a list of “Social Justice” books, and information on “Teaching Tolerance, Teaching Hard History” to the youngest children, from kindergarten up to fifth grade.
Teachers are then asked to examine “What systems of power are shown?” throughout the curriculum.
“What examples are provided of people taking action or pushing back on systems of oppression or abuses of power? Who is centered in examples of resistance? Are the people taking action coming from WITHIN the oppressed groups or from OUTSIDE of the oppressed groups?” teachers should ask when planning lessons, according to MCPS documents.
MCPS did not respond to a DCNF request for comment.
“This internal guidance from Montgomery County Public Schools looks and sounds a lot like Critical Race Theory, despite repeated assurances to parents nationwide that CRT is not in K-12 schools,” Paul Runko, senior director of strategic initiatives at DE, told the DCNF. “Parents have every reason to be concerned that lessons framed around ‘resistance to and liberation from white supremacy’ and that ask students to ‘challenge the current social order’ risk dividing students and indoctrinating them into far-left ideology rather than upholding the American ideal that individuals are judged by their character and achievements, not the color of their skin.”
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