Raza Studies Now Conference at Santa Monica College July 13
Press Release - Please post and forward
The Association of Mexican American Educators in conjunction with local educators and groups will host the second annual Raza Studies Now Conference at Santa Monica College, from 9am to 2pm in the Humanities Complex. Two panels overview the field of Chican@ Studies, its relevance to high school instruction, and one discusses the purpose of Chican@ Studies at the Community College level. Three workshops will address the role of students, family/community participation, and high school-level Raza Studies instruction. Dr. Cintli, an author and professor at the University of Arizona, who has been involved in the struggle to defend the Raza Studies department in Tucson, will deliver a keynote address. The conference, lunch and parking are all free.
The Raza Studies Now Conference comes out of a need to address the achievement gap in local schools and broadly. Students of color historically score well below Anglo and Asian students, and studies show the need for more culturally relevant and responsive curriculum. Locally, the Santa Monica Unified School District revived the Intercultural District Advisory Committee which developed recommendations for an Ethnic Studies Department at the high school level. One Ethnic Studies course is scheduled to be offered to seniors next Fall. The Raza Studies Now group brings together educators, students and community currently teaching Chicano and Ethnic Studies at the high school level and groups hoping to implement such programs at their schools.
The IDAC proposal explains in one section: “Traditionally, students of color are viewed from a deficit perspective in public schools. This historically took the form of Indian boarding schools, segregated schools, Americanization programs, corporal punishment, language discrimination, and exclusion of People of color histories and contributions. Under these conditions, Ethnic