Ethnic studies to get another look
California gets about 7,000 comments from public on its first draft of a new curriculum.
California’s first draft of its new ethnic studies curriculum “falls short,” and a team of educators will undertake substantial revisions following criticism from Jewish and other ethnic groups, as well as some who see lessons rife with politically correct jargon.
Crafting California’s model curriculum has attracted widespread interest — as well as controversy — because Sacramento lawmakers are poised to make the course a high school graduation requirement. The state Department of Education received about 7,000 public comments before the window closed Thursday.
While there appears to be broad support to mandate such a course, the draft curriculum sparked opposition and calls for changes from Jewish and pro-Israel groups, and organizations representing Armenians, Greeks, Hindus and Koreans, who want the curriculum to be inclusive of their American experience.
“There’s no limit on groups who have experienced oppression,” Tony Thurmond, the state superintendent of public instruction, said at a news conference Wednesday in Sacramento.
Thurmond urged the commission writing the curriculum to “provide examples that better reflect the experience of the Jewish American people, the contributions of Jewish Americans, and the high levels of anti-Semitism that have existed historically and that still do now.”
The draft did not meet the goals to be “accurate, free of bias, appropriate for all learners in our diverse state, and align with Gov. [Gavin] Newsom’s vision of a California for all,” state Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond, Vice President Ilene Straus and board member Feliza Ortiz-Licon said in a statement last week.
Some critics say the draft curriculum is filled with too much jargon, including the glossary, which includes terms such as “herstory and “hxrstory” instead of “history” and “cisheteropatriarchy.”
Yet such precise words are vital to the academic language of the field, said R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, who cochaired the ethnic studies model curriculum advisory committee.
“‘Cisheteropatriarchy’: a system of male, straight, conforming-to-assigned sex system of power. What’s a better term to describe that? Or does naming the experiences of those who experience this marginalization still not matter?” said Cuauhtin, who co-wrote the book “Rethinking Ethnic Studies.”
With the public comment period over, officials at the California Department of Education will be the first to review the letters and make a series of recommendations on how to revise the curriculum. The board is scheduled to approve a final version by March.
State Sen. Ben Allen (DSanta Monica), chairman of the Legislature’s Jewish caucus, said he was grateful that Thurmond addressed the concerns raised by the caucus in a letter to the state’s Instructional Quality Commission last month.
One of the major points of friction among Jewish groups involves inclusion in the curriculum of the movement to push boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel for the Jewish state’s treatment of Palestinians. Some Jewish groups, such as Jewish Voice for Peace-Bay Area, support its inclusion while others, such as the American Jewish Committee, oppose it.
Allen raised questions about why the curriculum included the movement when it is international rather than domestic, as are the other social movements mentioned. But if it is to be included, he said, it should be presented in a more balanced way.
Allen said he supports an ethnic studies requirement for high school graduation and believes it is appropriate for the focus to remain on California’s four major communities of color: African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos and indigenous communities.
The draft has received strong endorsements from the Council on Ethnic Studies of the Cal State University system, the Black Lives Matter movement and from Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus. These groups object to revisions that would erode the intent of ethnic studies, which is “to decenter ... the privileged white narrative of the American experience,” the Cal State council said in its letter.
California lawmakers also are debating a bill to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement in the 23-campus Cal State University system.
If both bills are approved, requiring ethnic studies at high schools and Cal State would affect more than 6.5 million California students.