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This fall, every high school in California was supposed to offer ethnic studies — a one-semester class focused on the struggles and triumphs of marginalized communities.

But the class appears stalled, at least for now, after the state budget omitted funding for it and the increasingly polarized political climate dampened some districts’ appetite for anything that hints at controversy.

“Right now, it’s a mixed bag. Some school districts have already implemented the course, and some school districts are using the current circumstances as a rationale not to move forward,” said Albert Camarillo, a Stanford history professor and founder of the university’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. “But I’m hopeful. This fight has been going on for a long time.”

California mandate in 2021, following years of debate and fine-tuning of curriculum. The class was meant to focus on the cultures and histories of African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans and Latinos, all of whom have faced oppression in California. The also encourages schools to add additional lessons based on their student populations, such as Hmong or Armenian.

The course would have been required for high school graduation, beginning with the Class of 2030.

But the state never allotted money for the course, which meant the mandate hasn’t gone into effect. The Senate Appropriations Committee estimated that the cost to hire and train teachers and purchase textbooks and other materials would be $276 million. Some school districts have used their own money to train teachers and have started offering the class anyway.

Accusations of antisemitism

Meanwhile, fights have erupted across the state over who and who isn’t included in the curriculum. Some ethnic studies teachers incorporated lessons on the Gaza conflict and made other changes put forth by a group of educators and activists called the . That’s led to accusations of antisemitism in dozens of school districts.

Antisemitism has been on the rise generally in California, not just in schools. Statewide, anti-Jewish hate crime last year, according to the California Department of Justice. In Los Angeles County, hate crimes — including slurs— against Jewish people , to the highest number ever recorded, according to the county’s Commission on Human Relations.

Those numbers in part prompted a pair of legislators to addressing antisemitism in California public schools. Assembly Bill 715, which is now headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom, would beef up the discrimination complaint process in schools and create a statewide antisemitism coordinator to ensure schools comply. , which died, would have directly addressed antisemitism in ethnic studies classes by placing restrictions on curriculum.

‘On life support’

But the delays and public controversies have taken a toll. No one has tracked how many schools offer ethnic studies, or how many require it, but some say the momentum is lost.

“It’s already on life support and this could be one more arrow,” said Tab Berg, a political consultant based in the Sacramento area.

Berg has been a critic of ethnic studies, saying it’s divisive. A better way to encourage cultural understanding is to eliminate segregation in schools and ensure the existing social studies curriculum is comprehensive and accurate, he said. “We should absolutely find ways to help students appreciate and understand other cultures. But not in a way that leads to further polarization of the school community.”

Carol Kocivar, former head of the state PTA and a San Francisco-based education writer, also thinks the class may be stalled indefinitely.

“I think the people who supported ethnic studies didn’t realize they were opening a can of worms,” Kocivar said. “Until there’s an agreement on the ideological guardrails, I just don’t see it moving forward on a broad scale.”

Kocivar supports the ethnic studies curriculum generally, but thinks it should be woven into existing classes like English, history and foreign language. That would leave room in students’ schedules for electives while still ensuring they learn the histories of marginalized communities.

Schools moving ahead

In Orange County, nearly all high schools are offering ethnic studies as a stand-alone elective course or paired with a required class like English or history. Teachers use curriculum written by their districts with public input, drawn from the state’s recommended curriculum. They also have the option of adding lessons on Vietnamese, Hmong or Cambodian culture, reflecting the county’s ethnic makeup.

“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Marika Manos, manager of history and social science for the Orange County Department of Education. “Students see themselves in the curriculum and in the broader story of America. … It’s a wonderful opportunity for them to get some joy in their day.”

A handful of districts are waiting to see if the state authorizes funding, but the rest have found their own money to hire and train teachers and purchase materials. There was some pushback against Santa Ana Unified when two Jewish civil rights groups sued, claiming the district’s ethnic studies courses contained antisemetic material. The district settled earlier this year and changed the course curriculum.

Polarized political climate

Camarillo, the Stanford professor, said the national political climate “no question” has had a significant effect on the ethnic studies rollout. Parents might have genuine concerns about what’s being taught, “but we’re also seeing the impact of extremist groups that are fomenting distrust in our schools.”

He pointed to book bans, attacks on “woke” curriculum and other so-called culture war issues playing out in schools nationwide.

But the fight over ethnic studies has been going on for decades, since the first student activists pushed for the course at San Francisco State in the 1960s, and he’s hopeful that the current obstacles, especially the fights over antisemitism, will eventually resolve.

“I hate to see what’s happening but I think there’s hope for a resolution,” he said. “Ethnic studies can help us understand and appreciate each other, communicate, make connections. I’ve seen it play out in the classroom and it’s a beautiful thing.”

‘A really special class’

In Oakland, Summer Johnson has been teaching ethnic studies for three years at Arise High School, a charter school in the Fruitvale district. She uses a combination of liberated ethnic studies and other curricula and her own lesson plans.

She covers topics like identity, stereotypes and bias; oppression and resistance; and cultural assets, or “the beautiful things in your community,” she said. They also learn the origins of the class itself, starting with the fight for .

Students read articles and write papers, conduct research, do art projects and give oral presentations, discuss issues and take field trips. She pushes the students to “ask questions, be curious, have the tough conversations. This is the place for that.”

She’s had no complaints from parents, but sometimes at the beginning of the semester, students question the value of the class.

“When that happens, we have a discussion,” Johnson said. “By the end of the class, students learn about themselves and their classmates and learn to express their opinions. Overall students respond really well.”

Johnson, who has a social studies teaching credential, sought out training to teach ethnic studies and feels that’s critical for the course to be successful. Teachers need to know the material, but they also need to know how to facilitate sensitive conversations and encourage students to open up to their peers.

“It’s a really special class. I’d love to see it expand to all schools,” Johnson said. “The purpose is for students to have empathy for each other and knowledge of themselves and their communities. And that’s important.”

This article was and was republished under the license.

On a rainy Friday afternoon at Santa Monica High School, ethnic studies teacher Marisa Silvestri introduced her class to the rap song “Kenji.” As singer Mike Shinoda narrated his family’s experiences in the Japanese American incarceration camps of World War II, Silvestri’s class fell silent. After the last bars of music filled the room, the class set to work analyzing the song’s lyrics, agreeing that Shinoda humanized a historical event some students previously knew little about.  

Now in her second year of teaching ethnic studies, Silvestri said she has gone through several iterations of her curriculum – and she expects more changes to come in the future. She has studied California’s ethnic studies model curriculum, attended workshops at local universities and sought the advice of ethnic studies teachers from other school districts.

But Silvestri has never received a teaching credential in ethnic studies. Whether that’s important or not is a question California officials are weighing now that the state has become the first in the nation to  before graduation. 

California needs more ethnic studies teachers, quickly. Under the new law, passed in 2021, high schools must begin offering ethnic studies courses in the 2025-26 school year, and students in the class of 2030 will be the first ones subject to the graduation requirement. As many high schools expand their course offerings ahead of schedule, universities are grappling with how to best prepare the next generation of teachers. 

Some advocates and educators have called for the creation of a specific ethnic studies credential authorizing educators to teach the relatively new and politically fraught subject in middle and high schools. They say that without such a credential, the state risks having low-quality classes that can do more harm than good. But others worry that an additional requirement may make it even harder for the schools to find teachers for the subject. 

State regulations allow teachers with a social science credential to teach ethnic studies, said Jonathon Howard, government relations manager for California’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing. However, when ethnic studies is combined with other subjects, such as reading or art, teachers from other subject areas are also eligible.  

“We have all these teachers who have great hearts, who are really social justice minded, who really want to do ethnic studies because they’re thinking about themselves as, ‘I’m a culturally responsive teacher,’” said Theresa Montaño, a professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at Cal State Northridge. “But that isn’t enough to give you the knowledge you need.” 

Ideally, Montaño said, teachers should have an undergraduate degree in ethnic studies, plus an ethnic studies credential that would show them how to translate their expertise into classroom curriculum.

Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo agrees. In February, she introduced  requiring the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to begin creating an ethnic studies credential by 2025.

“The social science credential program does not cover ethnic studies sufficiently,” Carrillo, a Democrat from Los Angeles, said by email. “We maintain that at the present time there is no existing credential that sufficiently covers the depth and breadth of the multidisciplinary nature of Ethnic Studies.”

The commission would need authorization from the Legislature to begin developing a new credential, Howard said.  

However, some school districts say the current flexibility around teacher requirements  has worked to their benefit, allowing them to expand their ethnic studies course offerings ahead of schedule. 

Santa Rosa City Schools has been offering ethnic studies courses since 2020 and currently requires students to take a full year of the subject before graduation. Because several classes, from English to dance, incorporate ethnic studies into the course material, all teachers are eligible to teach the subject, said Tim Zalunardo, the executive director of educational services. He added that this approach makes it easier for the school to recruit teachers who are excited and willing to teach ethnic studies. 

“It provides flexibility on both the students and on the school’s course offerings,” Zalunardo said. 

A controversial subject

Debates around ethnic studies are nothing new. 

Ethnic studies began at San Francisco State University in the late 1960s as students pushed for the creation of classes dedicated to studying the histories and cultures of people of color. As the subject gained momentum – and criticism – across the nation, advocates began to push for its inclusion in K-12 schools.  

In 2021, after two years of drafting and heated debate, the State Board of Education adopted an  that primarily focuses on the untold “histories, cultures, struggles, and contributions” of Black, Latino, Native American and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Although districts are not required to use the curriculum, it provides schools with guidance on how to implement the subject and offers sample lessons. 

Later that year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the new graduation requirement into law, even as parents and school board members denounced ethnic studies in  and other areas of the state. Future teachers still remain divided on the necessity of the subject. 

Christine Soliva, a graduate student in UC Riverside’s teacher education program, said some of her peers critiqued an ethnic studies class they took in the fall, challenging the importance of incorporating an ethnic studies framework into their math or science courses. She added that while she would pursue an ethnic studies credential if it were available, she is unsure if other teacher candidates would be equally receptive.

“It really is just like, are educators willing to take that next step to be able to think outside the box and challenge themselves and their ideals to look at curriculum and content through an ethnic studies lens?” Soliva said. 

Former Assemblymember Jose Medina, who authored the legislation requiring ethnic studies in high schools, said he does not believe the controversy around the subject will prevent state leaders from having necessary conversations about how to best prepare teachers. 

“I think, despite the controversy, the state will be well prepared to have teachers in place by the time of the requirement,” he said. 

But not everyone shares Medina’s optimism. 

As hundreds of high schools begin rolling out new courses in the coming years, the state may face a shortage of ethnic studies teachers, said Lange Luntao, the director of external relations at The Education Trust–West, a nonprofit that advocates for educational equity. Ethnic studies graduation requirements are already in effect at some of the state’s large school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, San Diego Unified and Fresno Unified. 

“I think one fear is that we’re going to open up enrollment for ethnic studies classes, and not have enough educators who have experience with this content,” he said.

Preparing future teachers

In the absence of an ethnic studies credential, California’s universities have developed a range of programs preparing students for teaching the subject. Some offer classes on ethnic studies teaching methods and curriculum development, while others place students in ethnic studies classrooms to gain firsthand experience.

At UC Riverside, students earning their teaching credential can pursue an  made up of elective courses dedicated to ethnic studies teaching methods and curriculum. 

Karl Molina, a UC Riverside master’s student earning his social sciences credential through the program, works as a student teacher of high school economics, sociology and government in the Riverside Unified School District. Earlier in the school year, Molina introduced a sociology lesson named after rapper Tupac Shakur’s poem, The Rose That Grew from Concrete. He instructed his students to analyze Shakur’s poem and reflect on how the concepts of social and familial capital applied to their own lives. In discussions, students decided that capital was more than monetary wealth – it included the languages, cultures and aspirations that shaped their lives, Molina said. 

“They were really, really into it,” Molina said. “I was really excited to get going and move forward.”

But as a student teacher, Molina has limited control over the course curriculum and had to cut his lesson short. If he were teaching in an ethnic studies classroom as part of a formal ethnic studies credentialing program, he said, he might have had more freedom to pursue it.

“We’re not indoctrinating these students,” Molina said. “We’re just telling them, ‘You have so much wealth. Here’s where your wealth is, and here’s what it does for you.’” 

At San Jose State University, some students already have the opportunity to see ethnic studies taught in real time through an  that places students into an ethnic studies classroom for a full academic year. 

In his residency at Evergreen Valley High School, Eduardo Zamora instructs his students to partner up, facing one another in concentric circles. He first asks students to answer a silly icebreaker – example: “Would you rather be in the history books or gossip magazines?” – before moving onto questions about recent lessons. In one instance, he asked students to share one-minute reflections on the documentary Immigration Nation and how it relates to their discussion on Central American migration and racism in the United States. The circles rotate so students talk to a new partner each  time.

“They’re moving, they’re talking and it’s educational,” said Zamora, a student in San Jose State University’s teacher education program who is pursuing a social sciences credential. 

He said he hopes to bring the same activity into his own ethnic studies classroom one day, adding that his residency has shown him the importance of building community and trust among his students.

Yet, while Zamora believes his residency program is preparing him well, he said an ethnic studies credential may be necessary for a widespread rollout of ethnic studies courses. Currently, San Jose State University’s residency program only takes three to four students a year.  

“One of the students came up to us saying that our class was very diverse, bringing in perspectives of people of color. And then she mentioned that her history teacher … said it’s easier to teach history just through ‘the normal way,’ I guess the Eurocentric way,” Zamora said. “So I think a specific ethnic studies credential is probably needed.” 

Training the current workforce

As universities shape the next generation of ethnic studies teachers, districts are left with the challenge of preparing their current workforce to teach the subject.

In Elk Grove Unified School District, high schools have offered ethnic studies courses since 2020. But Robyn Rodriguez, a parent in the district and former Asian American Studies professor at UC Davis, said she’s concerned that Sacramento-area schools may be placing social studies teachers in ethnic studies classrooms without adequate preparation for the subject.  

“You either see very watered down versions of ethnic studies, or ethnic studies being very nominally implemented,” she said.

Rodriguez’s son is only in second grade, but she said she is already supplementing his language arts curriculum with other reading because the texts assigned were not from diverse authors. As for what ethnic studies might look like by the time her son reaches high school, Rodriguez said, “I’m absolutely worried.”

Silvestri, the Santa Monica High School teacher, said she is torn about the necessity of an ethnic studies credential, adding that she would not want it to prevent interested and passionate teachers from teaching the subject. However, she said, the credential could help streamline the professional development opportunities she has needed to seek out independently over the past few years. 

The University of California’s California History-Social Science Project works to support people like Silvestri who are teaching ethnic studies for the first time. Dominique Williams, the project’s ethnic studies coordinator, offers workshops educating teachers about the history of ethnic studies instruction and shows them how they can teach historical narratives from new perspectives.

Williams draws on her own experience transitioning from teaching English and social studies to ethnic studies in the Sacramento City Unified School District. 

“In hindsight, I think that there is more training that I could have had, that I’m now trying to make sure that teachers are getting as they start their own journeys,” Williams said.

As the debate surrounding ethnic studies teacher preparation continues, Jayla Johnson-Lake, a sophomore at Santa Monica High School, said a passion for teaching is just as important as any credential. Johnson-Lake said Silvestri’s ethnic studies class has surpassed her expectations, introducing her to new facts, such as the details of Japanese internment and how the Black Codes worked to restrict Black people’s rights in the post-Civil War era.

“I believe it’s important to have a teacher who wants to teach the class,” Johnson-Lake said.

Tagami is a fellow with the , a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. This story and other higher education coverage are supported by the College Futures Foundation.

This story was originally published by .

Republican Tom Horne, a 77-year-old Harvard-educated attorney, is returning to the job he held from 2003 to 2011, before completing a four-year stint as state attorney general. His critics worry he will reverse progress made under Democratic incumbent Kathy Hoffman, whom he narrowly beat, and will relax standards around the state’s newly expanded and long fought-over voucher program. 

His re-emergence alarms those who remember how he proudly dismantled bilingual education in the state earlier in his career and pushed to ban an ethnic studies program credited for better engaging Hispanic students by teaching them about their own history. Now, Horne is fixated on another topic, a new iteration of one of his older concerns: critical race theory. 

The catch-all term used by conservatives to describe the teaching of systemic racism is, in Horne’s view, an extension of the problem surrounding ethnic studies, in which children, he argues, are taught to view each other through the lens of race.

“What matters is what we know, what we do,” Horne told ����Ӱ��. “Race is entirely irrelevant. My opponents say race is primary. I don’t want to teach kids that race is primary, but that they have to treat each other as individuals.”

A court ruled in 2017 that the ethnic studies ban he lobbied for against the Tucson Unified School District was and But Horne disagrees, maintaining the same position more than a decade later. 

Horne, who calls himself “the opposite of a racist,” said he supports teaching history in totality, including “the horrors of slavery, Jim Crow…[and] what happened in Oklahoma,” a reference to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. He advocates for a curriculum that teaches every student about the contribution of all groups, he said.

A former state legislator who also served on the board of Phoenix’s Paradise Valley School District from 1978 to 2002, Horne has made numerous other pledges which he believes will bolster student performance and make campuses safer. 

He vowed to renew the state’s focus on testing, turn away from social-emotional learning, push for more guns on campus, impose stricter school discipline — and amp up newly expanded universal Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, signed into law by outgoing Gov. Doug Ducey in July. The program gives families approximately $6,500 a year per student to spend on private school tuition or other educational costs, like tutoring. It was initially offered to only a limited number of students, including those who attended failing schools or were in foster care, but is now available to all.

Critics say the new program will benefit the rich, not the poor as Horne has previously stated. But parents across the country, frustrated by school closures and disastrous distance learning efforts, are pushing for greater flexibility in their children’s education: A ballot measure to kill the voucher expansion in Arizona failed to gain enough signatures this election cycle.

Beth Lewis, co-founder and executive director of Save Our Schools Arizona, which formed in 2017 to oppose universal vouchers, has worked in education in the state for 12 years, with half of that time spent as a teacher in a Tempe elementary school. She said Horne’s plan will exacerbate inequality. 

“I’ve always taught in extremely low-income schools,” she said. “I see the impact of defunding public education … to not have counselors, aides, books and computers … and to have that money go [instead] to families already sending their kids to elite private schools — and who make millions — is painful,” she said. “It’s outright lying.”

Prior to the expansion, just 12,127 children participated in the ESA program, state education officials said. The figure shot up to 42,842 by early December: Approximately 67% of the applicants did not have a prior record of public school enrollment. It’s unclear how many were already enrolled in private school or who were being taught at home. 

But the voucher program is not Lewis’s only concern: She worries Horne’s election will mark a major regression in other, critical ways. 

“There is a fear we will take 10 or 20 steps backward,” she said. “He has an antiquated belief system. It’s not just that he’s conservative but an extremist, authoritarian. He’s all about forcing guns on campus. It’s all about the tests, this grind culture, punishment — a punitive nature around school. As a teacher, I just don’t think that’s what our kids need or deserve.”

Nicky Indicavitch, a parent and volunteer in her local school district, said Horne’s vow to dismantle social-emotional learning — he calls it “a front for CRT” — will take away a critical tool teachers use to help students manage their stress, bolster their performance and improve the classroom environment. 

“I have seen firsthand what happens when young people are not given the skills they need to manage complex social settings and how disruptive their behavior can become,” said Indicavitch, who has experience in social work. “Tom Horne vowing to remove this valuable piece of education will only cause our children, their classmates and educators to struggle more.” 

Controversial record perhaps forgotten

Bill Scheel, a long-time political consultant, said Horne has always been a divisive candidate centering on race-based issues. 

“He really has not changed his stripes or tactics in 20 years,” he said.

Horne was wise to stay away from the public spotlight since he last held office in 2014, Scheel said. Prior to that, he was investigated by numerous entities, including the FBI, for . 

He paid a $10,000 fine and no criminal charges were filed: Horne said he was .

“Under the First Amendment, if you run for public office, people can lie about you without any consequence,” he said. “There is a lot of lying that goes on.”

Horne also was criticized for hiring an assistant attorney general, Carmen Chenal, despite her : He said recently that she was amply qualified and did an excellent job, particularly by utilizing her skills as a Spanish speaker. 

Horne also was alleged to have left the scene of a in 2012, an incident that led to yet another scandal: Chenal was with Horne when the accident occurred in a parking lot near her apartment. The two married in 2020. 

As for the damages done to the other vehicle, Horne said at least some of it can be attributed to the vehicle  

All of these incidents come decades after the released damning findings about Horne’s previous business, allegations he dismissed in a recent email because they happened in the 1970s.

“He kept himself under the radar and I guess, to his credit, he did not attach himself to the Trump ticket,” Scheel said. “That kept some of that fire away from him.”

Trump-backed candidates across the country, including in Arizona, suffered : Kari Lake, a MAGA Republican who narrowly lost the race for governor of the state, has . Attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh, another Trump pick, is just hundreds of votes behind his Democratic opponent and is .

Raised and spent over a $1M 

Horne stuck with CRT longer than others, but it’s not clear if his desire to limit classroom discussions of race — along with his opposition to bilingual education — were persuasive in a year when Arizona voters also approved a measure .

Beyond the low profile nature of the race, Scheel noted Horne far outspent Hoffman. The former preschool teacher and speech language pathologist was not a career politician, he said: She was elected amid a swarm of similar victories for . 

“He raised and spent over $1 million,” Scheel said. “She had $300,000.”

Hoffman’s nearly non-existent campaign allowed her challenger to be largely unharmed by a revelation that might have leveled another candidate. Horne was found to be in close ties with disgraced former state Rep. David Stringer, who was accused, in 1983, of with him. 

Stringer rather than disclose documents related to the case. 

Most recently, . Horne initially Stringer but later stepped away from him, telling ����Ӱ�� he paid Stringer cash to return his in-kind contribution to the campaign. 

The issue never really gained traction with voters. 

“That’s where more money could have elevated that current scandal and really damaged him,” Scheel said. 

Douglas Cole, chief operating officer of HighGround, a Republican-leaning political consulting firm, said Horne has long remained focused on the issues. 

“He’s a policy wonk,” Cole said. “He always has been. He was that way as a [state] legislator, in the House of Representatives. He takes on controversial issues he believes in and fights for them. He gets pretty passionate about where he thinks things should go.”

No matter his ambitions for schools, his is a supervisory and regulatory position: Scheel isn’t sure how far Horne will get with a Democratic governor and, likely, attorney general. Cole agreed. 

“If he wants to make sweeping changes, he would have to convince 16 senators, 31 members of the House and a governor of the opposite party,” Cole said. “He’s operating in a different paradigm. He’s not a lawmaker.”

Despite this, Horne, a lifelong pianist who plays with local orchestras and supports funding for the arts, is determined to make change. 

He promises to investigate and quash any ethnic studies programs that have cropped up since he last held the post, saying the situation is much worse now than it was a decade ago: The teachings, he said, are more widespread.

“I have been fighting CRT since 2010, for 12 years, and for a long time felt like a voice in the wilderness,” he said. “It wasn’t until the last couple of years that the rest of the world caught up.”

The , published Monday in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that a ninth-grade ethnic studies course in San Francisco was associated with significant, long-term benefits, including improved high school graduation and college enrollment rates. The results, which were released during a moment of divisive backlash to schools’ use of what’s broadly referred to as critical race theory, suggest that students who struggle in class become more engaged in school when lessons reflect their lived experiences.

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“That really lifts the curtain for students,” said report co-author Sade Bonilla, an assistant education professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Ethnic studies courses like the one in San Francisco give students a stronger understanding of society, she said, and how long-standing issues like oppression and racism affect their lives and the world around them. The course also offers students tools to combat racism and build more just communities.

“The way in which these topics are discussed is not just telling students, ‘The world is bad out there and it’s going to be tough,’” Bonilla said, but instead offers lessons on issues like school segregation and housing discrimination while highlighting people who responded to injustices.

Similar courses could soon make their way to schools across California. On Wednesday, the state Senate that would require all districts to offer at least one ethnic studies course and make it a graduation requirement by the end of the decade.

We did it! Grateful to the for voting on this morning and for the numerous coalitions and caucuses who have come together to make this bill what is is.

— Jose Medina (@AsmJoseMedina)

To reach their findings in San Francisco, researchers examined the high school transcripts and college matriculation records of more than 1,400 San Francisco high school freshmen between 2011 and 2014, including teens who were assigned to the ethnic studies course because they struggled academically in eighth grade. Researchers found that students enrolled in the ethnic studies class were 16 to 19 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school than their peers and were 10 to 16 percentage points more likely to enroll in college.

The ethnic studies course focuses on issues related to social justice, stereotypes and social movements in the U.S. between the 18th century and the 1970s. Many of the lessons are not traditionally covered in typical social studies courses, such as the genocide of Native Americans in California.

Though the report has been in the works for years, it doesn’t shy away from the reality that anti-racist teaching has been caught up this year in the national culture wars. It acknowledges that some have accused ethnic studies courses of offering nothing more than “politically charged indoctrination” that promote a form of “reverse racism” against white students.

But the debate over such instruction, which has been loosely characterized under the critical race theory umbrella, is “pretty dishonest” and politically motivated, Bonilla said. “The agenda they are pushing” in ethnic studies classes, she said, is a genuine conversation about the historical realities of racism in the U.S. “Frankly, I think it’s promoting some honesty for students about the historical past.”

In California, ethnic studies has been a thorny issue for several years. In March, state education leaders approved an ethnic studies model curriculum that was years in the making and had faced accusations of antisemitism, promoting “woke” left-wing propaganda and sewing further racial division by teaching white children to feel guilty about past injustices. Controversy surrounding the curriculum has been unrelenting. Just last week, three , accusing officials of violating the California constitution’s establishment clause requiring the separation of church and state by including an Aztec prayer in the model curriculum. The model curriculum isn’t a mandate and simply encourages California districts to offer ethnic studies, but that could change under the new legislation.

The latest research is a follow-up to positive short-term benefits for high school freshmen who enrolled in the city’s ethnic studies course. That report found the students had better school attendance, higher grades and passed more classes during their 9th-grade year than those who did not enroll in the course. To measure the course’s long-term effects, the latest study examines the educational outcomes of the same group of students through high school and into college.

Thomas Dee, a professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education and the study’s co-author, has spoken highly of the previous study’s findings, going so far as to say he’s “never been so surprised by a result” in his career. He quipped that “innovative curriculum,” including the San Francisco ethnic studies course, is the “low-hanging fruit of education reform.” The latest study, he said, further backs up that assessment.

“It continues to surprise and intrigue me that we see the educational potency of this sort of culturally relevant pedagogy,” Dee said. While many historically underserved students “perceive their classrooms as hostile and threatening environments,” a course that allows them to see the world as they do can change those perceptions with ongoing educational benefits, he said. Emily Penner, an assistant education professor at the University of California, Irvine, also contributed to the report.

“Pedagogy that engages students, that can promote belongingness within school settings, has the capacity to unlock their motivation,” Dee said. “And I think in particular the fact that we’re seeing these sustained gains is evidence of that.”

Yet the researchers were quick to highlight the limitations of their research and to discourage people from falling prey to “the common trope of the silver bullet.” For one, it remains unclear how ethnic studies courses affect the educational outcomes of high-achieving students. Additionally, Dee said that San Francisco’s ethnic studies teachers were highly trained and motivated to teach the class.

“I do worry sometimes a kind of feckless, low-quality rollout of this curriculum won’t generate similar findings,” he added.

If California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose education policies are expected to play a key role in a Sept. 14 recall vote, signs the legislation to require ethnic studies statewide, Dee said it’s important that districts are given adequate time to develop robust programs and ensure that educators are carefully trained.

“Teaching ethnic studies calls for teacher professionalism of a particularly high order,” Dee said. “We’re asking teachers to go into the classroom and have potentially difficult, critical discussions with their students and I think it requires really careful craft to do that well.”