Moment puts a spotlight on ethnic studies in San Mateo-Foster City district

The effort is in alignment with a state initiative to establish core course curriculum intended to advance better understanding of African American, Latino and Asian cultures as well as other historically underrepresented races and ethnicities.

Kalimah Salahuddin, immediate past president of the county School Boards Association, said she believes offering ethnic studies classes can be a meaningful first step in building greater cultural awareness.

“For me, ethnic studies is the tool that needs to be given to our students so they can disrupt the systemic racism in which our country is rooted,” said Salahuddin, who is also president of the Jefferson Union High School District Board of Trustees. The board last week also endorsed a motion similar to the one before San Mateo-Foster City officials.

But adopting the courses alone is insufficient, said Salahuddin, who called for a continued emphasis on applying the guiding principles of ethnic studies when cultivating a school community.

Such a philosophy can be executed in assuring library books tell the stories of the communities that make up the school, or that the artwork in classrooms reflect the values of the students filling them, she said.

“How easy is it for [students] to find a book that is reflective of their culture? If the answer is not easily, that is something you can work on right now,” she said.

Hector Camacho, president of the San Mateo County Board of Education, agreed that these concepts should be woven into fabric of a school’s approach.

“We can’t fall into thinking of ethnic studies as a particular course,” he said. “It’s a philosophy for education.”

To that end, Camacho urged educators to push beyond solely adopting ethnic studies courses by thinking about ways that inclusive lessons can be blended into core curriculum like math and science.

“These are things that are at the forefront of everything we have to do,” he said.

Such a holistic approach could yield comprehensive change assuring that future generations do not feel ignored or forgotten in the same ways that African American, Latino, Asian or other students have in the past, he said.

“We know how to fix this and it is really by looking at these systems that have perpetuated inequity,” he said.

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond acknowledged that California’s schools have not done a good enough job teaching the stories of all the students they serve, and hoped the new ethnic studies model would better achieve that goal.

“The curriculum taught in our schools has not done enough to highlight and preserve the contributions of people of color and has actually minimized the importance of their role,” he said in a press release earlier this year. “A movement to create a better model of inclusion to be taught in our K-12 system was established in the hopes of teaching a history that is more representative of what actually occurred.”

State officials committed to building an ethnic studies course prototype in 2016, and are planning to consider adopting a final draft proposal next March, according to the state Department of Education. Once the framework is adopted, high school districts will be expected to introduce the courses, with amendments to reflect local communities.

Some local school districts have already adopted the curriculum, including the San Mateo Union High School District and South San Francisco Unified School District.

In South San Francisco, school board President Pat Murray said the ethnic studies course is an elective at the district’s high schools. The amount of classes offered were recently increased and she said officials may look to eventually mandate the classes.

“Equity is one of our goals so it is very, very important to us,” said Murray, who added her district recently passed a resolution supporting the state’s initiative as well.

For her part, Salahuddin said even more needs to be done to expand and accelerate the effort, which is being partially led by the county School Board Association’s Equity Network. The initiative is a collection of local school administrators and officials dedicated to improving education opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds.

She was also hopeful that the momentum established by Black Lives Matter rallies protesting the killing of George Floyd and others could be built on to introduce more lessons about race, inequality and other social issues.

Salahuddin measured that sentiment against a recognition that school administrators are already preoccupied assessing the challenges of reopening schools amid a pandemic. While grappling with an unprecedented difficulty, introducing comprehensive curriculum overhaul may seem overwhelming, she said.

Camacho was more confident though, noting the nature of COVID-19 response will require officials to reconsider a variety of educational pillars, potentially clearing the path for introducing new curriculum.

“Now that we are restarting, let’s restart it correctly,” he said.

Salahuddin agreed, sharing optimism that the power of the moment could jump-start progress.

“Let’s tap into this to the extent we can while people are open to change,” she said.

austin@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 105