Proposed Law in California Could Expand Ethnic Studies Electives
By Anthony Cody.
In California, legislators will soon have a chance to approve AB 101, a new law that would task the state superintendent with developing a plan to promote the creation of elective courses in ethnic studies across the state.
Ethnic studies is clearly important for students of color, who find themselves marginalized in society, and in our curriculum as well. Students need to see themselves and their ancestors represented in the history they learn. This is a basic human right – not to be made invisible, but instead to be seen and have their stories told. Ethnic studies is also of great potential benefit to all of society, in that learning about systemic racism allows us to confront it directly. Research has shown that ethnic studies and diversity courses benefit students of color and whites as well.
Jose Lara, vice president of the El Rancho Board of Education, explained this:
Studies show that Ethnic Studies empowers students to preform academically and think critically. It is an educational justice demand teachers and students have been making since the modern civil rights movement. It is our duty as board members to listen to the people and follow the research that says Ethnic Studies improves academic achievement and a more equitable society.
Some of the research that Lara is referencing was done in Tucson, Arizona, where a strong program in Mexican American Studies (MAS) was dismantled a few years ago by Republican state leaders (as Iwrote about in 2010). Four University of Arizona professors investigated the program to determine its impact, and what they found was remarkable. Their report, available here, discovered that the program had a strong positive effect on students:
The MAS students had significantly lower 9th- and 10th-grade GPAs as well as 10th-grade AIMS scores than their non-MAS peers. However, they had significantly higher AIMS passing and graduation rates than their non-MAS peers, which seems counterintuitive. Decades of findings from education research would lead us to expect higher 9th- and 10th-grade GPAs and higher 10th-grade standardized test scores to be positively correlated with higher graduation rates (Alexander, Entwisle, & Horsey, 1997; Rumberger, 2011). Instead, we found the MAS students outperformed their non-MAS peers in terms of AIMS passing and graduation despite having 9th- and 10th-gradeProposed Law in California Could Expand Ethnic Studies Electives - Living in Dialogue:
ETHNIC STUDIES NOW Website