Study to gauge effects of ethnic studies on students
Tracy Smith sees her class as “adding back some fibers that were taken out of the cloth of American history.”
Smith teaches African American studies at Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy — a Dallas Independent School District campus named for the first Black woman to serve on the school board. Her students analyze art from the Harlem Renaissance, study historically Black colleges and contemplate their roots.
Ariah Barnes, 17, said the class opened her mind.
“You just get to understand history better, from not just the point of view of the struggle, but also the positive moments,” she said.
Amid a highly politicized climate about the way public schools teach history, Texas is considering expanding course offerings that explore the history, culture and experience of diverse communities. State education officials have heard from students and families about the power of these ethnic studies courses — yet the specific and quantifiable effect of the lessons is unknown.
Now a group of researchers and professors wants to explore that effect.
The Blackstar Research Collaborative is conducting a longterm study expected to run through 2028 that will examine the ways ethnic studies courses influence students’ grades, attendance, discipline rates and college enrollment.
Researchers from Texas A&M University-san Antonio and Prairie View A&M University are leading the work, in collaboration with the Dallas ISD Racial Equity Office.
For those involved in the research, ethnic studies already have proved to be transformative.
Marlon James was a C student when he graduated high school. He thought college was his pathway toward playing football, and his contribution to the world would be in running plays like the Detroit Lions’ Barry Sanders.
As a freshman at Western Illinois University, he enrolled in an ethnic studies course. The lessons reshaped his life, motivating him to double down on his education, join the military, become a professor and now, launch a major study into the type of course that inspired him.
“We need research that can answer the question, ‘do ethnic studies make a difference in the lives of young people?’ ” said James, a professor and assistant dean for the Brailsford College of Arts and Sciences at Prairie View A&M University. “And if it does make a difference, exactly what difference does it make?”
While the definitive answer to that question is years away, it could carry big implications for Texas schools.
The researchers’ work will unfold alongside fights over what students learn about the nation’s complex past and present. Some conservative parents and politicians have accused public schools of promoting a “woke” agenda, pressuring teachers to constrict lessons about race and racism. Some have argued the lessons are teaching children to hate their country.
James pushed back on that idea.
“I joined the military after a year of ethnic studies courses because it actually made me say, ‘America is worth the full investment of my talent, my energy, my commitment to this social experiment,’ ” he said.
The study will focus on what can be measured in the classroom.
“While it is taking place within this political context, our research has to remain objective,” James said.
They will hold teacher and student focus groups, compare lesson plans and analyze transcript data.
Lawrence Scott, an associate professor at TAMU-SA, is another lead researcher. He helped create the African American studies course approved in Texas in 2020 and heard from teenagers about the power it held for them.
“We saw students of all races talking about, ‘Now I understand why these disparities and inequities exist, and I have more empathy for my brother from another race, my sister of another race,’ ” he said.
Diversity in Texas
Advocates say the state’s diversity is not always reflected in schools’ history lessons. Children need to see themselves reflected in the story of their country, James said.
The Texas State Board of Education adopted Mexican American studies standards in 2018, after years of advocacy. The African American studies class — largely modeled after Dallas ISD’S innovative course — gained approval two years later. Both are elective courses.
More than half of Texas’ 5.5 million public school students are Hispanic. White students make up about a quarter of enrollment, while Black students constitute about 13% of those attending Texas schools. About 5% of public school students are Asian.
“If you want people to find their purpose in helping to perfect America, they actually have to see the role that their ancestors played in the country,” James said.
Over the past year, several students and parents have asked the State Board of Education to expand its ethnic studies offerings.
Education officials are preparing a proposal for a statewide American Indian/native Studies elective, which was piloted in Grand Prairie. Many people urge the creation of an Asian American studies course; a Round Rock ISD high school is piloting a class now.
Too often, advocates say, diverse communities are mentioned in history books only because of atrocities inflicted on them. These ethnic studies courses take a different approach.
It’s easy to get students hooked, DISD’S Smith said. Her classes do immersive projects, such as creating a “museum” of Texas’ historically Black colleges and universities to display in the school’s library.
On a recent Friday, her students began a lesson about the
Harlem Renaissance. Smith guided them through Langston Hughes’ poetry, played them Bessie Smith’s music and showed them Jacob Lawrence’s paintings.
“The writers, the artists and the musicians are going to focus inward. They’re going to focus on themselves — the African American community,” she told her students. “They’re not asking themselves, ‘Will every single group enjoy it?’ They’re simply making it for themselves. And then, of course, everyone else can enjoy it.”
Roughly 1,920 DISD students take African American studies. About 2,360 are in Mexican American studies.
For 16-year-old Madison Jackson, Smith’s lessons take her much deeper than other history courses.
“Whenever I was younger, it was more surface level. You just go through the timeline of what happened: slavery, Civil Rights Movement,” she said. In Smith’s classroom, “we go through the other events that actually happened.”
The findings that stem from the researchers’ study could help shape the debate over the future of ethnic studies in Texas.
Statewide, nearly 10,800 students enrolled in Mexican American studies last year, while about 8,400 took African American studies.
Pressure for more
There appears to be a hunger for more. During a State Board of Education meeting last year, students and advocates asked for lessons that break down stereotypes and show role models within the Asian community.
State Board of Education member Aicha Davis, a Dallas Democrat, is a staunch advocate for these classes.
Still, Davis is cognizant of the politicization of history lessons, with conservatives across Texas tapping into anti-critical race theory rhetoric.
Critical race theory is an academic framework that probes the way policies and laws uphold systemic racism. Conservative pundits in recent years have decried it, conflating it with diversity and inclusion efforts, anti-racism training and multicultural lessons.
Texas passed an “anti-crt” law in 2021. Rep. Steve Toth, Rthe Woodlands, told his House colleagues his legislation was necessary “at a time when racial tensions are at a boiling point” and that “we don’t need to burden our kids with guilt for racial crimes they had nothing to do with.”
Some Black history classes were in the political crosshairs. Last year, for example, Florida barred a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies. Republican Gov. Ron Desantis said the lessons were pushing a political agenda.
“Ethnic studies have nothing to worry about as long as they teach history,” Toth said in an emailed statement. “There is no place for revisionist history in Texas classrooms. Let’s give the brutal facts. Let’s not blame people for things they had no control over — like the color of their skin or what their great, great, great, great, grandparents did.”
Sherry Sylvester, with the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, noted Texas laws do not ban the teaching of Black history. The anti-crt law, she said, ensures social studies classes don’t teach the 1619 Project and “the premise that every American institution is rooted in racism that hopelessly persists throughout our society today.”
The 1619 Project is an awardwinning initiative of the New York Times that reframed American history around slavery’s consequences and the contributions of Black people.
Davis said she hears positive feedback from students enrolled in the various courses delving into diverse experiences and cultures.
“Overwhelmingly, I hear the same things: The course helps the students to open their mind and be more respectful to all of those around them,” she said.