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La Lucha por La Educación Culturalmente Receptiva

La lucha por la educación culturalmente receptiva y cursos étnicos en la educación de K-12 ha sido parte de la historia de este país durante más de cien años. A menudo, las victorias clave y los hitos en la justicia educativa no se atribuyen a los padres y estudiantes que lucharon para lograrlo. Esta línea de tiempo se centra en la organización diaria, dirigida por jóvenes y padres, para que sigamos recordando los inmensos legados e historias en las que nos cimentamos cada día, y las posibilidades dentro de cada uno de nosotros.

¿Cómo encaja tu trabajo y lucha por la educación culturalmente receptiva y los estudios étnicos en esta línea de tiempo? Escribe en la historia de tu propio grupo.

Escuela libre Africana de Nueva York (1827-1836)

En 1789, la New York African Free School fue establecida por la Sociedad de Manumisión de Nueva York, un grupo de estadounidenses blancos ricos, en base a la creciente población negra libre de la ciudad. A diferencia de las escuelas de caridad blancas que existían, la escuela se convirtió en un punto central para el empoderamiento y las aspiraciones de los estudiantes negros. En la década de 1820, los líderes de la comunidad negra exigieron una opinión en la determinación de las políticas educativas en las escuelas libres africanas, un conflicto considerado como la primera lucha por el control comunitario de las escuelas públicas urbanas en la nación.

 

 

Escuelas de Idioma Japonés, Hawái (1890-1920)

La primera escuela de idioma japonés se estableció en 1893, con el apoyo de los niños migrantes japoneses y sus padres que trabajaban como plantadores de azúcar, donde los estudiantes podían aprender de la cultura y el idioma japonés. Las escuelas pronto entraron en controversia asociada con el creciente sentimiento nacional antijaponés. Los maestros y directores de idioma japonés fueron algunos de los primeros en ser detenidos durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial y las escuelas fueron cerradas por temor a que promovieran un comportamiento "antiestadounidense".


Padres del Bronx Unidos, Nueva York (1966-1989)

Frustrada por la falta de educación de calidad para los niños puertorriqueños y otros niños de color, Evelina López Antonetty, alias, “La señora del diablo del Bronx", trabajó con los padres para fundar United Bronx Parents en 1965. Organizaron y capacitaron a cientos, tal vez miles, de padres puertorriqueños de clase trabajadora y otros padres de color, para exigir educación de calidad en toda la ciudad, educación bilingue, programas de liderazgo juvenil y mucho más.


¿Cómo encaja tu trabajo y lucha por la educación culturalmente receptiva y los estudios étnicos en esta línea de tiempo? Escribe en la historia de tu propio grupo.

Historia Afroamericana, Distrito Escolar de Filadelfia (1967)

En noviembre de 1967, más de 4.000 estudiantes afroamericanos realizaron una protesta pacífica frente al edificio de la Junta de Educación para hacer un llamado a la enseñanza de la historia afroamericana, y por más maestros y administradores afroamericanos, entre otras demandas. El comisionado de policía llamó a cientos de agentes de policía a escena que luego atacaron a los estudiantes con gases lacrimógenos y batones. Las protestas crearon las bases para los cursos de historia afroamericana y el plan de estudios culturalmente relevante que se implementará en las escuelas públicas de Filadelfia. Los estudios de la historia afroamericana fueron aprobados como un requisito de graduación para todos los estudiantes en 2005.


Frente de Liberación del Tercer Mundo, San Francisco, CA (1968)

El Sindicato de Estudiantes Negros y una coalición de otros grupos estudiantiles conocidos como el Frente de Liberación del Tercer Mundo (TWLF, por sus siglas en inglés) lideraron la huelga más larga en la historia de los Estados Unidos, en la Universidad estatal de San Francisco (SFSU, por sus siglas en ingles) para 5 meses. Exigían igualdad de acceso a la educación superior pública, más maestros de color titulares en la facultad y un nuevo plan de estudios que abarcaría las historias y culturas de todas las personas de color. Como resultado, la primera facultad de estudios étnicos se estableció en SFSU en marzo de 1969, creando la base de los estudios étnicos y un marco para el futuro trabajo de base de K-12 para los estudios étnicos.


Decisión de la Corte Suprema de Lau contra Nichols (1974)

En Lau contra Nichols, los padres de Kinney Kinmon Lau y otros estudiantes chinos presentaron una demanda colectiva contra el presidente del Distrito Escolar Unido de San Francisco, Alan Nichols, y dijeron que no estaban recibiendo la ayuda y el apoyo adecuados en la escuela porque no podían hablar inglés. La Corte Suprema dictaminó que la falta de enseñanza de idiomas para los estudiantes que aprenden dentro de un segundo idioma viola la Ley de Derechos Civiles de 1964, y que los distritos escolares deben tomar medidas para prevenir situaciones injustas para el aprendizaje.


La Ley de Autodeterminación y Asistencia Educativa para Indígenas de 1975

Los internados indígenas, establecidos a finales del siglo XIX para asimilar a los niños indígenas americanos a la cultura blanca americana, obligaban a los estudiantes a cortarse el pelo, se les prohibía hablar lenguas indígenas y les daban nuevos nombres europeos, entre otras atrocidades. La Ley, que resultó de más de una década de activismo de base, incluyendo el Movimiento Indígena Americano (AIM) y el movimiento por los derechos civiles, condujo a la descentralización de los estudiantes de grandes internados indios a escuelas comunitarias más pequeñas y alimentó el cierre de muchos internados indios en los años 80 y 90.


Revitalización del Lenguaje Hawaiano, Hawái (1982)

En 1896, la educación en lengua hawaiana en todas las escuelas públicas y privadas fue prohibida. A medida que el número de parlantes con fluidez disminuyó drásticamente, en 1982, un grupo de educadores de idiomas hawaianos restableció las escuelas de educación media hawaianas que centraron el idioma y la cultura hawaianas. Hoy en día, hay un sistema completo de nivel preescolar a nivel de doctorado en Hawái, donde se enseña usando completamente el idioma hawaiano.


Plan de Estudio de la Cultura y el Lenguaje de la Nación Navajo (1984, 2004)

En 1984, la nación Navajo ordenó que todas las escuelas dentro de sus límites incluyeran estudios de lengua y cultura navajo en su currículo K-12. En 2004 abrió sus puertas una escuela primaria de inmersión, Tsé Hootsooí Diné Bi' Olta'. La escuela K-6 enseña lengua y cultura navajo a sus 133 estudiantes en la capital de la nación Navajo.


Estudios México-Americanos, Tucson, AZ (1998)

En 1998, el programa de Estudios México-americanos (MAS, por sus siglas en inglés) surgió en el distrito escolar unificado de Tucson (TUSD) para los estudiantes de primaria, secundaria y superior. En 2011, la gobernadora Jan Brewer aprobó un proyecto de ley que exigía la prohibición del programa MAS del distrito. El programa fue eliminado y reemplazado por programas extracurriculares MASS (Mexican American Student Services, servicios estudiantiles México-americanos). En 2017, un juez de distrito de los Estados Unidos declaró que la ley que prohíbe los cursos de estudios mexicano-estadounidenses violó los derechos de la primera enmienda de los estudiantes al restringir la información y la cláusula de igual protección de la enmienda 14a al aludir a los latinos. La lucha por MAS continúa.


Lucha por los Estudios Étnicos en las Escuelas K-12 de California (2014)

El 17 de junio de 2014, El requisito de estudios étnicos del distrito escolar unificado del Rancho lo convierte en el primer distrito escolar en hacer que los estudios étnicos sean un requisito de graduación de la escuela secundaria. Hoy (a partir de octubre de 2019), otros 15 distritos escolares de California tienen un requisito de estudios étnicos, incluyendo San Francisco y Los Angeles. La lucha continúa haciendo de los estudios étnicos un requisito de graduación en todo el estado.


Estudios Étnicos, Oregón (2017)

En 2017, debido a años de trabajo organizativo dirigido por jóvenes, el Proyecto de Ley 2845 de la Recamara, que requirie que el Departamento de Educación de Oregón adopte estándares de estudios étnicos en las clases de estudios sociales para las escuelas K-12 en todo el estado.


Estudios Étnicos, Indiana (2017)

La Ley 337 inscrita en el Senado se firma y convierte en ley, que requiere que las escuelas secundarias de Indiana ofrezcan oficialmente estudios étnicos y raciales como una electiva al menos una vez al año escolar.


¿Cómo encaja tu trabajo y lucha por la educación culturalmente receptiva y los estudios étnicos en esta línea de tiempo? Escribe en la historia de tu propio grupo.

The Fight for Culturally Responsive Education

The fight for culturally responsive education and ethnic studies in K-12 education has been part of this country’s history for over a hundred years. Key victories and milestones in education justice are often not attributed to the parents and students who fought to make it happen. This timeline centers everyday organizing, led by youth and parents, so that we continue to remember the immense legacies and histories we stand on each day, and the possibilities within each of us.

 

How does your work and fight for culturally responsive education and ethnic studies fit into this timeline? Write in your or your own group’s history.

 

New York African Free School
(1827-1836)

In 1789, the New York African Free School for the city’s growing free Black population was established by the New York Manumission Society, a group of wealthy white Americans. Unlike white charity schools that existed, the school became a central point for the empowerment and aspirations of Black students. In the 1820s, Black community leaders demanded a say in determining educational policies at African Free Schools, a conflict considered to be the first struggle for community control of urban public schools in the nation.

Image: African Free School. Photo from Columbia University Libraries

 
 

Freedmen’s Book & the Freedmen’s Torchlight (1865)

Freedmen’s Book is a series containing biographies of African-American leaders and Freedmen's Torch is a publication of lessons that instilled African-American pride in students and spoke of the need to take control of African-American schools. They were developed by Lydia Maria Child, an author, abolitionist and activist for Native American, womens’, and African American rights. Both were used in Black schools in the South, exemplifying the use of culturally-responsive teaching and culturally relevant materials to support the curriculum.

 
 

Image of The Freedman’s book. Photo from commons.wikimedia.org


Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Language School, South Dakota (1888)

Red Cloud Indian School, originally named Holy Rosary Mission, was founded by Chief Red Cloud of the Oglala tribe on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in partnership with Jesuit and Franciscan Sisters. In 2007, the Lakota Language Project was developed to revitalize the language and culture, resulting in four required years of Lakota language classes. The school also has a Spiritual Formation curriculum that reflects culturally responsive education and builds students’ self-esteem, and a Lakota Ethnic Studies curriculum.

Image of Jacob Rosales, graduate of Red Cloud Indian School. Photo courtesy of Red Cloud Indian School

 

Japanese Language Schools, Hawaii
(1890-1920s)

The first Japanese language school was established in 1893, with encouragement from Japanese child migrants working as sugar planters and their parents, where students studied Japanese culture and language. The schools soon became embedded in controversy associated with growing national anti-Japanese sentiment. Japanese language teachers and principals were some of the first to be detained during WWII and the schools were shut down for fear they promoted “anti-American” behavior

 

Image: Koloa Japanese-language School graduation. Koloa, Kauai, Hawaii. Circa 1934-35. Photo by Herbert Isonaga

 

 

United Bronx Parents, New York
(1966-1989)

Frustrated with the lack of quality education for Puerto Rican children and other children of color, Evelina López Antonetty, a.k.a the “hell lady of the Bronx,” worked with parents to found United Bronx Parents in 1965. They organized and trained hundreds, perhaps thousands, of working-class Puerto Rican parents, and other parents of color, to demand quality citywide education, bilingual education, youth leadership programs, and much more.

Image: Mural of Evelina Lopez Antonetty, founder of United Bronx Parents. Photo from CUNY Graduate Center.

 
 

 

African American History, School District of Philadelphia (1967)

In November 1967, over 4,000 African American students held a peaceful protest in front of the Board of Education Building to call for the teaching of African American history, increased African American teachers and administrators, among other demands. The Police Commissioner called hundreds of police officers to the scene who then attacked students with teargas and clubs. The protests created the groundwork for African American history courses and culturally relevant curriculum to be implemented in Philadelphia public schools. African American history was passed as a graduation requirement for all students in 2005.

 

Image: Police officers clash with peaceful student protesters. Photo from Bob Mooney/ Inquirer


Third World Liberation Front, San Francisco, CA (1968)

The Black Student Union and a coalition of other student groups known as the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), led the longest strike in U.S. history, at San Francisco State University (SFSU) for five months. They demanded equal access to public higher education, more senior faculty of color, and a new curriculum that would embrace the histories and cultures of all people of color. As a result, the first College of Ethnic Studies was established at SFSU in March 1969, creating the foundation of Ethnic Studies and a framework for future K-12 grassroots work for Ethnic Studies.

Image: Students on strike at San Francisco State, 1968. Photo from socialistworker.org

 

East LA Walkouts “Chicano Blowouts”, Los Angeles, CA (1968)

An estimated 15,000 Mexican-American students in seven East LA high schools organized a walk-out highlighting educational inequities. The students’ efforts forced The LA Unified School District to listen to their demands.This event was the catalyst to improved educational equality in the LAUSD including the A-G resolution, passed June 14, 2005, requiring by 2012 all entering freshman pass A-G courses (college preparatory courses) to earn their degree.

 

Image of students gathering for East L.A. walkouts (1968). Photo from L.A. Times.


Lau v. Nichols Supreme Court Decision (1974)

In Lau v. Nichols, the parents of Kinney Kinmon Lau and other Chinese students filed a class action suit against San Francisco United School District president Alan Nichols and said they were not receiving adequate help and support in school due to their inability to speak English. The Supreme Court ruled that the lack of language instruction for students learning within a second language violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and that school districts must take action to prevent unfair learning opportunities.

Image: Six Chinese children who had recently arrived in New York City in 1964 with their teacher hold placards with their Chinese names and the names to be entered in official school records. Photo from Library of Congress/ SF Public Press

 

Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975

Indian boarding schools, established in the late 19th century to assimilate American Indian children into white American culture, forced students to cut their hair, forbade them from speaking Indigenous languages and gave them new European names, among other atrocities. The Act, which resulted from over a decade of grassroots activism including the American Indian Movement and the Civil Rights Movement, led to the decentralization of students from large Indian Boarding Schools to smaller community schools and fueled the closure of many Indian Boarding Schools in the 1980s and ‘90s.

 

Image: Children in Indian boarding schools were forced to cut their hair into European styles, speak English only, and renounce their cultures. Photo from PBS


Hawaiian Language Revitalization, Hawaii (1982)

In 1896, Hawaiian language education in all public and private schools was outlawed. As the number of fluent speakers drastically declined, in 1982, a group of Hawaiiawn language educators re-established Hawaiian Medium Education schools that centered Hawaiian language and culture. Today a complete preschool to doctoral-level system in Hawaii is taught entirely using the Haiwaiian language.

Image: Preschool students at Pūnana Leo, the first Hawaiian school. Photo from MPR News

 

Navajo Nation Culture and Language Curriculum (1984, 2004)

In 1984, The Navajo Nation mandated that all schools within their boundaries include Navajo language and culture studies in their K-12 curriculum. In 2004, an elementary immersion school, Tsé Hootsooí Diné Bi’ Olta’, opened its doors. The K-6 school teaches Navajo language and culture to its 133 students on the capital of the Navajo Nation.

 

Image: Fourth-grade teacher Gwendolyn Begaye at her school, Diné Bi’ Olta’, where teachers are encouraged to speak Navajo to students in each subject, each day. Photo from Taylor Notah/ Cronkite News


Association of Raza Educators, San Diego, Sacramento, Los Angeles, CA (1994)

A.R.E. was formed in 1994 and has grown into the largest teacher activist group in California. They are committed to using education as a tool for liberation of their community by organizing and mobilizing teachers and developing curriculum. They raised a successful campaign to include ethnic studies requirements for high school graduation in CA per AB-331 which states that by the 2024-25 school year a one-semester course in ethnic studies is required.

Flyer by Association of Raza Educators (Sacramento)

 

Mexican American Studies, Tucson, AZ (1998)

In 1998, the Mexican American Studies (MAS) program came into existence in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) for elementary, middle and high school students. In 2011, Governor Jan Brewer passed a bill which called for a ban on the district's MAS program. The program was eliminated and replaced with MASS (Mexican American Student Services) after-school programs. In 2017, a U.S. district judge declared the law banning Mexican American studies courses violated students’ First Amendment rights by restricting information and 14th Amendment equal protection clause by targeting Latinos. The fight for MAS continues.

 

Image: Community members gather to protest the state law that resulted in closing the Mexican American Studies program in Tucson Unified School District, 2011. Photo from The Associated Press


Filipinx Studies, San Francisco, CA (2001)

What started as lunchtime discussions held by a San Francisco State University professor and her students at Balboa High School surrounding representation in curriculum, teachers, and faculty, soon transformed into a year-long Filipinx Studies course petitioned by the newly established group, Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP). The program soon expanded to serve credited classes at elementary, middle, and high schools in the district.

Image of Original PEP Teachers in 2001. Photo from pepsf.org

 

Indigenous Charter School, Los Angeles, CA (2002)

Xinaxcalmecac Academia Semillas del Pueblo was organized to resist the English-only laws in California that prohibited studying maternal language education, and has since grown into the Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory of North America. Their curriculum focuses on maternal language, Indigenous culture, autonomous education, and universal access for Indigenous children to national and international education institutions.

 

Photo of students from Semillas Community Schools provided by semillas.dignidad.org


Asian Prisoner Support Committee, Ethnic Studies, California (2002)

The Asian Prisoner Support Committee (APSC) founded the Restoring our True Selves (ROOTS) program, a weekly class held inside San Quentin State Prison, modeled after existing Ethnic Studies curriculum. The class has had over 250 participants. The curriculum includes immigrant and refugee history, intergenerational trauma, leadership development, and reentry planning. APSC was created to support Asian Pacific Islander incarcerated people and raises awareness about the disproportionate number of APIs being detained and imprisoned.

Logo for the Asian Prisoner Support Committee (APSC). Image from asianprisonersupport.com

 

Indigenous Studies and CRE in Albuquerque, New Mexico (2006)

The Native American Community Academy (NACA) is a charter school serving a student body that identifies as 90% Native American. It was founded in response to community demand for schools that address the identity, wellness, and college readiness of Native American and Indigenous students. The school grew into the NACA Inspired Schools Network (NISN), which is an Indigenous Education Network that strives to expand its culturally responsive and community led model.

 

Image of NACA High School Staff provided by nacaschool.org


Hmong Studies, St. Paul, Minnesota (2010)

The Phalen Lake Hmong Studies Magnet School was established as an elementary school in the St. Paul school district that uses a two-way language immersion curriculum of English and Hmong. The school also has a comprehensive Hmong Studies program that includes Hmong culture and ethnography, and a Hmong Dual Pre-K program. The St. Paul school district serves a student body that is consistently over 30% Asian, and at Phalen Lake Asian Americans make-up 90% of the student body.

Image of Phalen Lake Elementary School from spps.org

 

Freedom University for Undocumented Students, Athens, Georgia (2011)

In 2010, the Georgia Board of Regents passed two policies banning undocumented students from Georgia’s top five public universities as well as in-state tuition fees. The following year, Freedom University was founded by a coalition of undocumented students, allies, immigrant rights activists, and University of Georgia professors, with support from the Economic Justice Center and the Athens Latino Center for Education and Services.

 

Photo of Freedom University flyer from freedom-university.org


Fight for Ethnic Studies in California K-12 Schools (2014)

In June 17, 2014, El Rancho Unified School District Ethnic Studies Requirement became the first school district to make Ethnic Studies a high school graduation requirement. Today (as of October 2019), 15 other California school districts have an ethnic studies requirement, including San Francisco and Los Angeles. The fight continues to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement statewide.

Flyer by Ethnic Studies Now! Coalition

 

Indigenous Education, Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota (2016)

The Pine Ridge Girls’ School, Anpo Wicahpi, began as a middle school providing curriculum grounded in Oglala Lakota Nation philosophy and practice and working against the education of the boarding school era for young Indigenous girls. Their educational model is grounded in Lakota culture, language, and values, emphasizing the leadership role that women often occupied in Lakota matriarchal traditions. The school is welcoming their first graduating class in 2022.

 

Image of flyer for Pine Ridge Girls’ School


Ethnic Studies, California (2016)

Governor Jerry Brown signed law AB2016, requiring California’s Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) to create a guide to teaching classes on ethnic studies. It also requires the state to create, review, and adopt a model curriculum by the end of 2019. Ethnic Studies Now had been working with multiple school districts, starting with El Rancho Unified, as well as Assemblyman Luis Alejo prior to this law and developed templates for citizens to contact their representatives as the legislation was going through the State Congress.

Photo of student led protest. Courtesy of diverseeducation.com

 

Ethnic Studies, Rhode Island (2016)

The campaign #OurHistoryMatters, founded by the Providence Student Union, drove the movement that created the Providence Public Schools Department’s pilot program that offers a year-long ethnic studies course in five of their high schools. PSU was joined by Direct Action for Rights and Equality, the Providence Youth Student Movement, and the Providence School Board in a rally outside of the Providence School Department demanding these courses by the following school year.

 

Photo of #OurHistoryMatters campaign from rifuture.org


Ethnic Studies, Oregon (2017)

In 2017, because of years of youth-led organizing, House Bill 2845 passed, which required the Oregon Department of Education to adopt ethnic studies standards in social studies classes for K-12 schools statewide.

Image: Students part of the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon call on lawmakers to pass standards for ethnic studies in public schools. Photo from APANO/ Public News Service

 

Ethnic Studies, Indiana (2017)

Senate Enrolled Act 337 is signed into law, requiring Indiana high schools to officially offer ethnic and racial studies as an elective at least once a school year.

Image from NYC Coalition for Educational Justice

 

Ethnic Studies Constitutional Win, Arizona (2017)

U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima overturned the 2010 ban that the Arizona State Government had enacted to prevent Mexican American ethnic studies courses in Tucson schools, ruling that it violated students’ First and Fourteenth Amendment Rights.

 

Image of Student Protest. Courtesy of pbs.org


Indigenous Studies, Oregon (2017)

Senate Bill 13: Tribal History/Shared History was signed into law, mandating the development and implementation of Indigenous studies into all K-12 public schools in Oregon. This legislation was heavily carried by the longstanding advocacy of Indigenous educators throughout the state that testified on its behalf, including Brenda Brenaird, director of the NATIVES Program in Eugene SD 4j, and Leilani Sabzalian, and Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies in Education and the Co-Director of the Sapsik’wałá Teacher Education Program at the University of Oregon.

Photo by Brent Wojahn

 

Seattle Public Schools Ethnic Studies Task Force (2017)

After a resolution by the NAACP, Seattle Public Schools created a task force to define ethnic studies and develop ethnic studies curriculum. The task force generated guiding principles and from there the Ethnic Studies Working Group was formed. In June, 2018 to the present the Working Group is commissioning educators to write Secondary social studies curriculum. Curriculum reviews are ongoing and professional development, implementation and curriculum adoption are in continuous development.

 

Photo of student-led protest provided by iamaneducator.com


#CopsOuttaCampus Campaign, Arizona (2017)

Students in the Phoenix Union High School District are campaigning to end police presence in schools. Students fear that police in schools increases the likelihood that they may be deported or incarcerated. This campaign was coordinated by the organization Puente Arizona, which states that they want an end to the school to prison/deportation pipeline.

More than a dozen students held signs in support of the #CopsOuttaCampus campaign in central Phoenix. Image from azcentral.com

 

Culturally Relevant Curriculum, Ohio (2018)

Hashim Jabar, director of Racial Justice NOW!, was successful in a campaign to introduce a culturally relevant curriculum in the Dayton Public Schools, winning a change in the course of study to implement the two books, Mis-Education of the Negro and Up from Slavery. As a parent organizer, Mr. Jabar began working with the West Dayton Youth Task Force (WDYTF) and RJN! to bring CRC to schools and their teachers.

 

Flyer to promote culturally relevant curriculum and culturally responsive schools from rjnohio.org


AAPI Ethnic Studies, California (2018)

Senator Janet Nyugen wrote and introduced Senate Bill 895, proposing ethnic studies curriculum that would be integrated into history/social studies classes about Vietnamese-American diaspora and refugee experiences, the Cambodian Genocide, and Hmong cultural studies. The bill was chaptered in September 2018, providing AAPI studies to the largest community of Vietnamese Americans outside of Vietnam, who reside in Nyugen’s district.

Photo of student protest. Courtesy of searac.org

 

Puerto Rican Studies, Holyoke, Massachusetts (2015-2019)

Ethnic studies was implemented in the 8th grade in 2015 by teachers, students, and the Ethnic Studies Advisory Board of Holyoke, focusing on the Puerto Rican diaspora and the colonial landscape of Holyoke. The program gradually expanded to other grades before encompassing 7th-12th grades by 2019 where the curriculum offered Intro to Latinx Studies, Puerto Rican Studies, and Comparative Ethnic Studies. The program developed after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, with over 2,200 families displaced in Holyoke, MA and the drop-out rate rose to 50%.

 

Photo by Ben James


Black and Latinx Studies, Connecticut (2019)

Connecticut high schools will be required to offer an elective course on Black, Puerto Rican, and Latinx history by 2022, largely advocated by mobilized students, educators, and advocacy groups including Students for Educational Justice, Connecticut Education Association, CEA’s Ethnic Minority Affairs Commission, and more. Over 200 supporters gave testimonies at the public hearing in March 2019 prior to the bill's passing.

Benie N'Sumbu, a senior at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School in New Haven and a member of Students for Educational Justice, was one of dozens of students who testified in support of H.B. 7802 in March 2019. Image from wnpr.org

 

Culturally Responsive Education Campaign, New York City (2019)

The NYC Coalition for Educational Justice spearheaded the Culturally Responsive Education Campaign that began in 2016 and included students, educators, families, and advocacy groups that called on the city’s DOE to continue anti-bias teacher training as well as revise the curriculum to include culturally responsive education. The city allocated $23 million into the DOE budget to accommodate these demands, allowing for the training of tens of thousands of school staff. Currently, they are organizing around changing NYC’s K-8 ELA curriculum to be culturally responsive.

 

Photo from NYC Coalition for Educational Justice


Ethnic Studies Task Force & Curriculum, Seattle (2017-2020)

In 2017, due to a proposal by the NAACP, an ethnic studies task force worked to develop recommendations for ethnic studies, evaluate the status of ethnic studies currently being taught, and form a working group to begin to develop ethnic studies curriculum in Seattle Public Schools. Currently, the Ethnic Studies Working Group is commissioning educators to write curriculum for secondary social studies in conversation with what they have developed thus far with the Ethnic Studies Task Force. The district aims to have ethnic studies in each content area for students from grades preK-12.

Photo by Mike Siegel

 

AB-1460 Graduation Requirement, Ethnic Studies (2019)

The Bill AB-1460 was amended February 22, 2019 to include an undergraduate requirement of a one-semester, 3 unit course in Ethnic Studies by California State Universities by the commencement of the 2024-25 academic year and CSU to provided courses in ethnic studies at each campus by the commencement of the 2020-21 academic year. These amendments will add Section 89032 to to the Education Code, relating to the California State University.

 

Flyer urging state senators to pass AB1460


AB-1393 Pupil instruction model curriculum: Laotian history and cultural studies Win, California (2019)

The Bill AB-1939, passed by Senate in Sept 3, 2019, is a legislation that requires Laotian history and cultural studies be added to the Hmong model curriculum with an emphasis on the roles of Lao refugees, and was established to amend Section 33540.6 of the Education Code, relating to pupil instruction.

Members of LaoSD advocating for inclusion of Laos history in California’s curriculum. Courtesy of LaoSD

 

How does your work and fight for culturally responsive education and ethnic studies fit into this timeline? Write in your or your own group’s history.