Is there a lot of outrage and or a lot of loud outrage? Nobody knows for sure, but new data makes it clear where one key demographic stands
In multiple ways, the question of what is fact and what is ideology lies at the core of the tenuous future of the San Francisco Unified School District ’s ethnic studies program. A vocal group of critics alleges The City’s high-school ethnic-studies curriculum teaches ideology rather than facts grounded in history.
But defenders of the courses — including many of its teachers — said that argument is based on a false premise. “The idea that ethnic studies is assumed to be ideologically driven while other classes are teaching objective fact, I think, is a misunderstanding of how education works," said David Ko, who has taught ethnic-studies classes at Washington High School for all 17 years of the program’s existence. Ethnic-studies supporters also questioned whether or not the amount of pushback has been exaggerated. At least one newly released dataset appears to show that the course is overwhelmingly popular among San Francisco ninth-graders, who represent the majority of enrollees. According to a poll of the district shared with The Examiner on Monday, 83% of last year’s ethnic studies students said they would recommend other students take the class. Eighty-five percent of student respondents said the course helped them feel “positively” about themselves as a learner, 88% thought it reflected their identities, and 92% agreed it helped them work with people of “other backgrounds.” Still, it’s unclear what the majority of parents feel about the course. The district could only provide statistics on student attitudes. “Instead of a rich, historically grounded look at the lives and contributions of Black, Latino, AAPI, and Indigenous communities in California, this curriculum collapses entire cultures into an oppressor-oppressed binary,” Allene Jue said in a press release sent by a group which called themselves a “coalition of concerned SFUSD parents.” Back-and-forths over the efficacy of the course have dominated discussions about San Francisco public schools in the weeks before and after Superintendent Maria Su announced at the end of June that the district will conduct an audit of its ethnic-studies curriculum over the next year. In the interim, the district will alter the 2025-26 ethnic studies curriculum, largely basing it off the statewide framework rather than the one previously used, which local educators crafted and cultivated for The City. Ko said the last month has been a “difficult” and “unprecedented” stretch for him and his peers with how late the classes’ particulars are getting settled. The new curriculum is still being finalized — though the district released more details Friday. Officials said their upcoming placeholder curriculum “seeks to preserve student choice and access to college prep coursework.” But Ko said teachers are still in the dark on the specifics of what they can teach. The earliest the plan can be approved by the San Francisco Board of Education is July 29. The first day of school in San Francisco is Aug. 18. “Many teachers have traveled during the summer or otherwise don’t read press releases,” he said. “It’s very likely that some teachers will have spent many, many hours of unpaid labor over the summer getting their course ready and then they will find out a week before students arrive that it has to change.” At this point, few people are completely satisfied with the compromised approach from SFUSD. Detractors wanted the course eliminated entirely or struck as a graduation requirement, while supporters wanted it to stay the same. The San Francisco Standard reported that the ethnic studies courses were close to being paused entirely for the year, but Su ultimately chose to protect it. Ko, who is part of the team of educators who built the original curriculum, said he fears taking a non-San Francisco specialized framework will feel more generic and less relevant to students. “I'm confident of the benefits that come with San Francisco's ethnic studies curriculum, and I am not as confident about those coming from outside,” Ko said. San Francisco was one of the first K-12 public school districts in the country to offer ethnic studies as an elective in 2010, a course highlighting the experience of American ethnic minorities, including Asians, Blacks, Latinos and Indigenous people. The district required two semesters of instruction to graduate beginning in 2021, and ninth graders mainly take it as their yearly social studies class. Su said she is “deeply committed” to the course and they are taking “steps to ensure our Ethnic Studies curriculum reflects both educational excellence and our values.” But, she acknowledged she’s heard “concerns” from the community, prompting her to initiate an audit of the course. Ex // Top Stories SF-area startups raise half of all venture dollars to start year Rumors of the region’s death as startup and venture hub have been greatly exaggerated Love on Haight wants to show SF 'the good kind of crazy' Owner Sunshine Powers and her team are spreading positivity, smiles and plenty of glitter at the intersection of Haight Street and Masonic Avenue Sunset Dunes offers west-side skateboarders first new home in years The skate park is the latest addition to an evolving and still controversial new recreational space on The City’s western edge The Jewish Community Relations Council, which bills itself as the largest collective voice of the Jews in the Bay Area, became the latest organization of parents and advocates to accuse the curriculum of forcing progressive ideology onto students. Other groups to come out against the course include the SF Parents Coalition and Parents Defending Education. The latter, a national nonprofit and conservative advocacy organization, has spoken out against what its members see as an imposition of “ideologically driven curriculum with a concerning and often divisive emphasis” on students’ racial, ethnic, gender and religious identities. In a document outlining their criticisms, organizers argued the curriculum “provides training to staff that labels ‘perfectionism’ and ‘individualism’ as characteristics of ‘white supremacy culture’” and “provides training that promotes illegal immigration with the idea that ‘no one is illegal on stolen land.’” The SF Parents Coalition, pointing to the questions surrounding next year’s instruction and iteration of the courses, declined to comment to The Examiner. Proponents of the course who spoke to The Examiner backed Su’s vision and expressed optimism the new district curriculum — whenever it is released — will still fully serve its students.Two previous lesson plans in particular have received the bulk of the rage over the program’s shortcomings, each outlined in a report by The Standard. In one class, they alleged that the red guards in communist China — Mao Zedong’s student military — were similar to the U.S. civil rights and feminist movements. In another class, a teacher allegedly asked students to role-play as Israeli soldiers herding Palestinians into refugee camps. Neither example is specifically laid out, meaning it’s not clear if the lessons were employed by one, multiple teachers or any.“I'm not saying that the lessons in question did not appear in Google Drive somewhere, but in terms of what was actually being taught in classrooms, to my understanding, I have asked lots of folks, and nobody knows where or if those lessons were taught,” he said. Emily Fung, an education advocate with Chinese for Affirmative Action, said such anecdotes are not reason to overhaul the entire course structure. “Rather than vilify and assume that we know that there were bad intentions, I think it would be much more productive for student development if we use it as an opportunity to work through these issues,” she said. “I think we’re letting perfection get in the way of good.”A Stanford University study found that San Francisco high school students who took ethnic studies courses had higher attendance, higher graduation rates and increased enrollment in college compared with students who didn’t take the course. Similarly, a report by the National Education Association determined that well-designed ethnic studies programs increase cross-cultural understanding, foster student empowerment, and improve overall academic performance. “This is one of the most powerful things that you can do for a young person,” said Shakirah Simley, head of the Booker T. Washington center, the longtime Western Addition nonprofit and afterschool program. “For so many Black children, their futures are already written by social determinants of health, by racism, by classism, by their zip code. But education undoes that.”
Ethnic Studies San Francisco Board Of Education Maria Su Chinese For Affirmative Action
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