On September 3, 2025, the National Academy of Education (NAEd) filed an amicus brief with the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit opposing Oklahoma’s classroom censorship law.
Oklahoma’s law (H.B. 1775) limits public school curricula, pedagogy, and dialogue related to race and sex—running counter to well-established research on how students learn. The Act’s disruption of evidence-based pedagogical strategies severely restricts educators’ ability to teach core concepts, thereby denying students’ First Amendment right to access information that supports their learning. The Act clearly denies the next generation of Oklahomans access to inclusive curricula and pedagogical practices that further their successful cognitive, social, and emotional development, academic achievement, and preparation for democratic civic engagement.
The NAEd brief supports a multiracial group of students and educators – including the Oklahoma State Conference of the NAACP and the American Indian Movement Indian Territory – represented by the ACLU, the ACLU of Oklahoma, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and McDermott Will and Schulte LLP in their efforts to quash this harmful legislation.
“The robust body of interdisciplinary research evidence is clear that all students learn best and are best prepared to participate in a diverse and multicultural democracy with inclusive curricula and pedagogy. The research was so vast that space limitations precluded us from including all of it,” says Amy Stuart Wells, NAEd member, “This powerful brief reminds us all of why we do the work we do – and why it matters now more than ever.”
Numerous NAEd members and friends provided invaluable assistance in the formulation of this brief, and the NAEd Board extends its gratitude to them all. The NAEd Board is especially grateful for the leadership of Amy Stuart Wells on this critically important project and wants to recognize the extraordinary early-career scholars who worked with her, including Diana Cordova-Cobo, Talia Leibovitz, Xinyu S. Pan, and José Luis Vilson. The NAEd Board is grateful for the legal expertise and guidance provided by NAEd Deputy Director, Amy Berman, and the counsel of NAEd members Carol Lee and Janelle Scott. The NAEd thanks Holland & Hart, who represented it pro bono in this lawsuit, particularly Stephen Masciocchi, Mary Beth Beasley, and Julia N. Oksasoglu. Finally, the Board thanks the William T. Grant Foundation for its support of the scholarship that informed the brief.
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