EXPLAINED: The Truth About Critical Race (CRT) Theory and How It Shows Up in Your Child’s Classroom

What is critical race theory?

What does CRT mean, exactly? At its core, critical race theory—often abbreviated as CRT—is an intellectual framework that examines how racism is embedded in the laws, policies, and institutions (schools, for example) of the United States. It’s a way of understanding how racial inequality is built into the systems around us.

What CRT means for education, and for society at large, can be explained through a few key ideas:

• Race is a social construct that doesn’t have anything to do with biological differences among people, including differences in intelligence or physical ability. This became definitively clear after the Human Genome Project.
  
  
• The U.S., and all of its laws and institutions, were founded and created based on the myth of white supremacy—the assumption that lighter skin and European ancestry meant that white people were better and deserved a higher social and economic position than people of color. Because racism is embedded within our systems and institutions, codified in law, and woven into American public policy, this racial inequality is replicated and maintained over time. Thus, systemic racism shows up in nearly every facet of life for people of color. 
  
  
• CRT aspires to empower voices that have been marginalized. Embracing the lived experiences of people of color through research, storytelling, and counter-storytelling—placed in historical, social and political context— is critical to scholarship that examines race and racism in society. 

Where did critical race theory originate?

Critical race theory traces the legacy of racism in America through slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and even the Black Lives Matter movement of today. At its roots, CRT draws from the work of notable Black scholars and activists like Sojourner Truth, W.E.B. Dubois, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. CRT developed into its current form in the late 1970s, when “the civil rights movement of the 1960s had stalled, and many of its gains were being rolled back.”

Many, many scholars have contributed to the extensive body of work that makes up the academic movement, but people frequently name Kimberlé Crenshaw and Richard Delgado as founders and important contributors, as well as renowned legal scholar Derrick Bell. 

Why is critical race theory relevant today?

In a perfect world, educational equity would ensure that all students have access to high-quality curriculum, instruction and funding. But we don’t live in a perfect world, so racial inequality manifests in a number of ways in American education. For example:

• The predominant curriculum centers the white narrative and tends to exclude the histories and lived experiences of people of color.
• Instruction often takes a deficits-based approach, characterizing students of color as being in need of remediation rather than appreciating their talents and giftedness.
• School discipline policies disproportionately impact students of color, often compromising their educational outcomes. In fact, a 2024 CDC study found that 23.1% of Black students reported experiencing unfair discipline at school.
• School districts serving the most students of color receive, on average, 13% less in state funding than those serving the fewest—widening opportunity gaps before students even enter the classroom.
• School funding inequities persist; predominantly white districts receive $23 billion more in funding than districts serving students of color.

CRT provides a relevant, research-based framework through which education leaders and policymakers can think about the social construct of race and the impact of racism on students of color. This framework also provides educators the tools they need to transform current practices in teaching and learning and to examine the attitudes and biases—implicit or explicit—that they bring into their classrooms. 

As debates over what can be taught in schools intensify, CRT offers a path forward—helping educators navigate these tensions with honesty, care, and a commitment to truth. It ensures that students aren’t just seen, but deeply understood in the context of history, power, and identity.

Why has it become so politicized? 

Resistance to critical race theory is not a new phenomenon. However, the term jumped into headlines and social media feeds in recent years when, in a Constitution Day speech at the National Archives, President Donald Trump characterized education that takes a critical lens as “radical” and “ideological poison.” Trump went on to attack the “1619 Project” and announced an executive order establishing the short-lived “1776 Commission” to “promote patriotic education.” He also issued a subsequent executive order banning government contractors from conducting racial sensitivity and diversity training in the workplace. 

This was no coincidence. Conservative activist Chris Rufo had been working behind the scenes to reframe CRT as a catch-all term for anything related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. He appeared on Fox News to promote this strategy, and shortly after, Trump picked it up and issued his executive orders. In a now-famous tweet, Rufo explained his goal: “We will eventually turn [CRT] toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category.”

The executive orders were a reaction to educational initiatives—like the the work of Howard Zinn—designed to examine professional development, pedagogy, teaching and learning through a critical lens, labeling any approach that acknowledges American racism, white supremacy, white privilege, intersectionality, microaggressions, and the like as dangerous, unpatriotic and, ironically, racist. 

• Changing the way history is taught to acknowledge the oppression of millions of people based on race in our country
• Exposing educators to training and professional development that highlight areas of implicit bias and help them develop skills for overcoming it
• Developing new ways to deal with discipline so that Black and brown students are no longer disproportionately targeted
• Rethinking how students are identified for advanced courses, accelerated programs, or elite colleges

These are big changes for school systems that have operated the same way for decades. Some would like to see less change and believe that the steps above are forcing a new worldview on their kids—even calling it “indoctrination.” In Idaho, Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee, for instance, state governments are acting out of direct concern that critical race theory is at the root of these changes. 

Why is critical race theory important in K-12 education?

Let’s be clear: CRT isn’t part of most standard K-12 curricula, and first graders aren’t reading academic law journals.

• Ethnic studies and social justice courses in high schools that encourage students to examine how race and power operate in society
• Curriculum audits that push schools to move beyond Eurocentric materials and include histories and voices of Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and Asian communities
• Restorative justice models that replace exclusionary discipline with community accountability, reducing racial disparities in suspension rates
• Anti-bias and cultural competency training for teachers to address implicit bias and foster affirming classroom environments
• Data-informed equity reviews that question why Black and brown students are underrepresented in gifted programs or advanced coursework—and then take steps to fix it

For instance, in our nation’s schools, we still have sizable and stubborn gaps in academic proficiency between white children and their Black, Latinx and Native American peers. CRT has been helpful to education leaders as they seek to disentangle the systems in our communities and schools that oppress students of color, and hinder their ability to thrive. 

By starting from the well-established fact that academic proficiency is not related to the color of one’s skin, critical race theory pushes policymakers to look beyond the individual students and instead look at the system around them. Shifting our language from "achievement gap" to "education debt" or "opportunity gap" is one step on the journey. In what ways have our systems of education, health, and housing blocked opportunities for Black and brown children? How do we eliminate those barriers?

The Future of Critical Race Theory

Critical race theory remains one of the most polarizing topics in American education—but its relevance has never been more urgent. In early 2025, President Donald Trump issued a new executive order expanding restrictions on CRT-related content in federally funded programs. Under the banner of “patriotic education,” the administration is pushing a revisionist agenda—one that punishes truth-telling, silences dissent, and reframes justice work as a threat.

At the same time, the U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights protections are being hollowed out from within. Massive layoffs in early 2025 eliminated more than half the staff in the Department’s Office for Civil Rights, shuttering most regional offices and leaving thousands of discrimination complaints unresolved. One outgoing staffer called it a “devastating blow” to educational equity, especially for students already facing barriers based on race, disability, language, or gender.

All of this underscores what CRT has long illuminated: that racism operates not only in individual interactions, but through policy decisions, institutional practices, and the systematic erosion of civil rights. CRT equips us to see these patterns, to name them, and to act.

Our kids—and our country—are counting on it.

Last Updated: April 2025