Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1437090
E T H N I C S T U D I E S (ES) has been taught in some California classrooms for years. The ethnic studies movement famously began in California, where students protested in the late 1960s at San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley to demand courses in African American, Chicano, Asian Ameri- can and Native American studies. Efforts to teach ethnic studies to younger students fol- lowed. In 1976, the Superintendent of Public Instruction published an analysis of curricula for "ethnic heritage pro- grams" to help teachers incorporate ES in K-12 classrooms. As a February 2021 Education Next article reports, state bud- get constraints impeded growth of these programs for years. Activists and educators brought the issue to the fore again in the 2010s. Teacher Jose Lara won a school board seat in the small district of El Rancho Unified, east of Los Angeles, on the promise to deliver ethnic studies as a graduation requirement. In 2014, ERUSD became the first district in Cali- fornia to adopt the requirement. Lara helped found the Ethnic Studies Now Coalition, which lobbied the LAUSD school board to adopt an ES grad- uation mandate in 2014. The plan was overruled for financial reasons, and the district instead created a yearlong elective in 2016. Almost a third of the city 's 150 public high schools already offered at least one related elective in fields such as Afro American history, American Indian studies, Asian litera- ture and Mexican American studies. In San Francisco in 2010, 10 social studies teachers launched a pilot ES curriculum in five high schools, later expanded to all 19 SFUSD high schools. In 2014, Stanford University professor Thomas Dee and a colleague began to study the impact of an ES course on 1,405 SFUSD ninth graders, who were at risk of dropping out and who had been assigned to the course. The data showed that enrolling in the elective improved general academic performance, measured by attendance, grades and credits earned. A follow-up study, published in 2021, found that the ninth grade ethnic studies class has had a prolonged and strong positive impact on students, increasing their overall engagement in school, probability of graduating, and likelihood of enrolling in college. The study was cited by Gov. Gavin Newsom in his support for the state's Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. School districts, however, are not waiting for the state mandate, but setting their own, including in LA, Fresno and Riverside. And the number of districts offering ES courses has been increas- ing to reflect California's demographics and history. Ethnic Studies' Long and Winding Road 37 D E C E M B E R 2 0 21 / J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 2 Dr. Kristen Walker, '20 Doctorate in Educational Leadership (K-12) (805) 493-3325 clugrad@CalLutheran.edu CalLutheran.edu/GSOE Financial Aid and Scholarships Available • Preliminary Administrative Services Credential • M.A. in Educational Leadership • M.Ed. in Teacher Leadership • Doctorate in Educational Leadership (K-12 or Higher Ed) DON'T JUST ADVANCE YOUR CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR. ADVANCE EDUCATION.