The V.I. Education Department and Board of Education have one year to develop local history courses for every grade of public school after a Superior Court judge ruled the current curriculum does not follow the law.
Superior Court Judge Alphonso G. Andrews Jr. detailed his decision in a memorandum opinion issued Friday that ends a long-running case that began in October 2013 when Mary L. Moorhead, Kendall Petersen and Gregory E. Miller Jr. filed a petition for mandamus against then Gov. John P. DeJongh Jr. and Acting Education Commissioner Donna Frett-Gregory.
The plaintiffs sought an order requiring Education to develop a curriculum to instruct all elementary and secondary school students in Virgin Islands and Caribbean history, as mandated by the passage of Act 7167 in 2010. Prior to that, the Education Department had the Virgin Islands Social Studies Curriculum Guide, created in 1986, that included a content outline for each grade relative to V.I. and Caribbean history.
The V.I. Board of Education and the V.I. Education Department will be working collaboratively to address the recent court ruling mandating changes to the curriculum. Kyza Callwood, chair of the Virgin Islands Board of Education, emphasized Wednesday the significance of the ruling and the need for both entities to work together to implement the changes effectively.
“Now that the judge has ruled, we have to structure instructional time so that other courses aren’t affected – including vocational education,” Callwood stated on Wednesday. He explained that two primary challenges must be addressed: the potential impact of adding extra courses on the existing schedule and instructional time, and the need for highly qualified teachers as per V.I. law. “It could be that the department would also need to either hire additional qualified teachers or provide current teachers with extra professional development to meet the training requirements,” Callwood added.
Education Department officials echoed this sentiment on Wednesday, noting that they are beginning to read through the ruling and are putting their heads together to determine the next steps to ensure a smooth integration without compromising the quality of education in other areas.
Plaintiff Mario Moorhead could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
The case had endured through an initial denial of the petition, which was reversed on appeal to the Supreme Court and remanded for further proceedings; a failed mediation; three judge recusals; the death of Petersen; filing of a complaint and second amended complaint; and the replacement of Mario Moorhead for Mary Moorhead as a plaintiff and Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. and Racquel Berry-Benjamin for the original defendants. The complaint finally went to trial on March 21, 2022. Afterwards, both sides filed post-trial briefs and then three supplemental briefs each in 2023 when the V.I. Legislature amended the V.I. Code regarding history instruction.
In an eloquent 37-page opinion that rigorously explored the definition of the words “course,” “history,” “curriculum,” and “culture,” Andrews rejected the argument by the Education Department and Board of Education that they were following the intent of the law by integrating history and culture instruction into the social studies curriculum for grades K-8.
“Based upon the evidence presented, this Court finds there is no structured curriculum that guides the teaching, or evaluates student comprehension, of [Virgin Islands and Caribbean History] in a systematic manner for all Virgin Islands students,” Andrews wrote.
“Testimony from DOE corroborated the absence of a course for, or structured teaching of, V.I. History (except for 9th Grade) in the public schools,” he said, referring to the history course in the first year of high school that is a mandatory credit to graduate. Otherwise, high school history courses are optional, and are rolled into social studies instruction in the lower grades, he noted.
Efforts were made through the years to carry out Section 41 of Title 17, Virgin Islands Code through the adoption of rules and regulations, including one set that required a history course for eighth grade, but none was ever promulgated or introduced in regulations format, Andrews said.
And, despite the most recent post-trial amendment to Section 41(c)(1) in June 2023 with Act 8730 — the statute now reads that history courses “shall be part of the curriculum” in grades K-8, and “specific courses” in high school — the issue is not moot, said Andrews.
“Even after passage of Act 8730, they maintain Defendants are still not teaching VICH in accordance with the law, i.e., Section 41(c)(1), because they have: 1) failed to promulgate the requisite regulations pursuant to 17 V.I.C. § 41(d); 2) failed to teach VICH in each grade from Kindergarten through grade 12; and 3) failed to institute a process to assess scholastic proficiency in VICH in grades K-8,” Andrews wrote.
“To the contrary, DOE maintains Act 8730 requires that instruction in VICH must merely be ‘offered’ in grades 9 to 12; and DOE’s instruction exceeds these requirements,” he said. “Similarly, the Board maintains that the current teaching practice with regards to VICH exceeds the requirements of the amendment.”
However, contrary to their position, the statute does not allow for teaching local and Caribbean history as subjects or topics integrated into a social studies course in the elementary grades, he said, writing that a course “is more than merely embedding or incorporating a subject or topic into another course. Such embedding or incorporating of VICH into a Social Studies course does not constitute a Virgin Islands or basic Caribbean History course.”
Likewise, the placement of the word “specific” before the word “courses” regarding instruction for grades nine through 12 “is simply an adjective requiring that, for the high school grades, the course shall be focused on a particular aspect, area, or time period of VICH,” said Andrews.
“The absence of the term ‘specific’ for K-8 implies that VICH may be taught more generally with less detail or depth and would hence be more easily comprehensible. It does not support the argument that teaching may occur in a manner other, or less, than a course,” he said. “The foregoing conclusion is supported by the requirement that the courses shall be part of the curriculum. A curriculum is comprised of courses,” the judge wrote, providing several examples of the definition of the word.
“Hence, the requirement that VICH be part of the ‘curriculum’ supports the conclusion that VICH must be taught as a course,” Andrews wrote. If compliance with the law is too burdensome, he said, the defendants’ recourse is with the Legislature.
“The situation is somewhat disturbing as the Court presumes all parties agree historical memory is the key to self-identity, and hence the ancient proverb, ‘know thyself.’ The Court further presumes the parties’ agreement that ‘a people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots,’” Andrews said, quoting Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. “Such knowledge helps one to understand their present circumstances, to positively guide future conduct and avoid pitfalls as they thread through the forest of life. Under these circumstances the delay in properly implementing Section 41(c) is perplexing,” he wrote.
While Andrews concluded that the defendants are not teaching Virgin Islands and Caribbean history in compliance with the law, he stopped short of issuing an injunction to force adoption of a curriculum by the new school year, as the plaintiffs had asked, calling it premature.
“The new law, Act 8730, requires instruction in every grade from K through 12. To require immediate compliance therewith would be impossible and unreasonable. Equity demands that Defendants be permitted a reasonable time to comport their teaching to the new law. That deadline is June 14, 2025,” said Andrews.
“The Court recognizes that generations of time have elapsed since the passage of Act 4844 and commencement of the current litigation. It is nonetheless anticipated that this decision will serve to encourage all stakeholders to engage harmonious efforts to expedite compliance with the statutory requirement to teach VICH to the territory’s students. Their best interest should ride at the forefront of this cooperative endeavor,” the judge wrote.
