Last April, Yolande Beckles stood outside the California State Capitol building and addressed a crowd of thousands. “We are here today to ensure that the governor gets the message that the $300 million in the ‘Equity Multiplier’ goes to black students, not cappuccino, not lemonade, not light coffee, but hot chocolate,” she bellowed in a broad East London accent. The speech was remarkable, not only in its content but also in its symbolic meaning. It represented Beckles’s complete reinvention from disgraced British reality TV star and fraudster — who fled the U.K. for Los Angeles nearly two decades ago with 19 standing court judgements levying almost £70,000 in fines at her defunct businesses and a front-page exposé revealing that she had defrauded underprivileged schoolkids of £12,000, and who was then sued by a landlady in LA who claimed Beckles “ruined her life” by stealing her belongings and refusing to pay almost $20,000 in rent — to respected California education policy consultant.

Beckles, a British woman, spoke at the rally in her capacity as president of the National Association of African American Parents and Youth (NAAAPY), a nonprofit she founded in 2022 to “empower Black Parents, families and Guardians to become educated, trained advocates for their children and students.” The authors of the recently approved California Math Framework (CMF) — most infamous for advocating against teaching most gifted middle-schoolers algebra in the name of equity — consulted her as an “engagement expert,” and last month she was invited to give a talk on “Unleashing Black/Brown Family Power in Students' Math Thinking” at the California Mathematics Council (CMC) annual symposium.

Beckles frequently collaborates with fellow Brit Jo Boaler, the Stanford mathematics education professor who played a key role in shaping the CMF and who has recently come under intense scrutiny for allegedly engaging in academic fraud. (See our write-up on the Boaler allegations here.) Beckles wrote a blurb for Boaler’s forthcoming book “Math-ish,” in which she thanked Boaler for “including us in the math Equity story of change,” and next month the two will co-host a webinar at Stanford University on “Building Mathematical Mindset-Strategies for Parents & Guardians.” Boaler and Beckles also got together in Sacramento last July to “celebrate the unanimous passing of the CMF” and again in Bakersfield at the CMC symposium, where they were both invited speakers.