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The study, published Sept. 14 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.

“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 approved legislation 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 #CASenate for voting on #AB101 this morning and for the numerous coalitions and caucuses who have come together to make this bill what is is. #CAleg #ethnicstudies #diversifyournarrative @GENupUS pic.twitter.com/nlm8t8R0h7

— Jose Medina (@AsmJoseMedina) September 8, 2021

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.”

• Read more: Ethnic studies could be the ‘low-hanging fruit’ of American education reform, but California showed how creating a curriculum can get sucked into the culture wars

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. Early last month, three San Diego parents sued the state education department, 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 a 2017 report which found 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.”

This article was published in partnership with The 74. Sign up for The 74’s newsletter here.

California education officials have decided that students will take only one statewide standardized test in science this spring, a pilot test based on new standards known as the Next Generation Science Standards. The decision, made in recent weeks, pits state education officials against the U.S. Department of Education, which told California officials in a Sept. 30 letter that they must continue to administer the older science based on standards adopted in 1998 and publish the scores on those tests. By Pat Maio, EdSource

• California awarded nearly $53.6 million to improve low-performing schools, EdSource
• Noose allegedly placed around black high school football player’s neck in Mississippi, Los Angeles Times
• Teachers use election to discuss weighty issues, worries, Associated Press
• Sparking curiosity in STEM, in and outside the classroom, Huffington Post
• What are the main reasons teachers call it quits? NPR
• The Pokémon Go effect: How augmented reality could reshape classrooms via better education apps, The 74
• CCSA ranks a school it vehemently defends as a 1 out of 10, School Data Nerd
• Schools promote safety, respect and responsibility during Digital Citizenship Week, LAUSD Daily

• Getting beyond the buzzwords: Schools improvise as they add art to their STEM schools, KPCC
• Resolution, years later, in boy’s suspension over ‘pastry gun’, Washington Post
• Many Hispanic students never have a teacher who looks like them, Hechinger Report
• Board Member Dr. Ref Rodriguez reminds constituents to exercise their voting rights this election season, LAUSD Daily
• Divisive Trump surrogate draws boos at education conference, The 74
• CPS plans to borrow as much as $840 million for school construction, Chicago Tribune
• Teachers get schooled on talking race, WNYC

California Attorney General Kamala Harris on Wednesday called for the California Department of Education to take over a job that her office has done for the past four years: release an annual data analysis on chronic student absenteeism. The request came as part of a 10-point call for action included in her office’s latest attendance report, In School + On Track 2016. Harris said that, beginning as early as preschool, chronic absenteeism has emerged as an indicator of whether students will be able to read at grade level in 3rd grade. That, in turn, is a predictor of graduating from high school, obtaining employment, paying taxes and staying out of prison. The report found that in 2015-16 about 7 percent of K-5 students were chronically absent, which is defined as missing more than 10 percent of school days. By Jane Meredith Adams, EdSource

• When California schools call cops for small infractions, it disproportionally hurts minority students, civil rights study finds, Los Angeles Times
• California’s rural counties to face heaviest teacher retirement rates, EdSource
• Students don’t find this taste of politics all that appetizing, Pasadena Star-News
• K-12 gets scant attention in final debate: What education issues got ignored? EdWeek
• These states are spending less on education now than before the Great Recession, Washington Post
• Guidance counselors seeking guidance: Inside the movement to improve college advising, The 74
• Educators went to jail for cheating. What happened to the students? NPR

In the mid-2000s, in the midst of a housing boom, the Los Angeles Unified School District realized that skyrocketing rents were fueling teacher turnover. Nearly half of all new teachers in some neighborhoods were leaving the district after three years. L.A. Unified was pouring millions of dollars into training new hires, only to watch them pick up and go. Two below-market apartment complexes were built on unused district land and a third is under construction. Today, both are fully occupied. But not one L.A. Unified teacher lives in them. That fact alone doesn’t mean L.A. Unified’s affordable housing experiment is a failure. By Anna M. Phillips, Los Angeles Times

• Principal of El Camino charter high school will step down, ending drama over the school’s future, KPCC
• Huntington Park leaders voted to ban new charter schools for a year, Los Angeles Times
• LA school board votes to loosen its chocolate milk ban, Los Angeles Times
• Former high school coach exchanged 52,000 text messages with girl he is accused of abusing, prosecutor says, Los Angeles Times
• Once in place, will school accountability system really work? EdSource
• Exploring new pathways to college completion, EdSource
• Northeast Valley community reps prepare to act in life-threatening emergencies, LAUSD Daily
• NYC’s homeless student population reaches a new ‘disturbing’ high, 105,445, or 1 in 10, The 74

• Torlakson calls for an end to the high school exit exam, Cabinet Report
• LAUSD would harm thousands of kids with charter denials, Speak UP
• California high school graduation rates close in on national average, EdSource
• The homeless student population is exploding. Will new focus on performance save them? The 74
• A misguided attack on charter schools, New York Times
• Overcoming adversity to become a success, LAUSD Daily
• Obama: High school education these days is not enough, Bloomberg

• LAUSD board weighs next step in possible revocation of El Camino Real’s charter, Los Angeles Daily News
• Huntington Park: Tiny city becomes battleground in larger war over LA charter school expansion, KPCC
• National coalition offers framework for K-12 computer science curriculum, EdSource
• What you need to know about the $9-billion school bond on the ballot, Los Angeles Times
• The NAACP takes a major stand against the growth of charter schools, Huffington Post
• Defining his education legacy, Obama touts climbing graduation rates, USA Today

In an unexpected response two weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Education rejected California’s application for a federal waiver from having to administer the California Standards Tests in science, a multiple choice test based on outdated science standards adopted nearly two decades ago. What makes the latest run-in with the administration so head-scratching is that it comes in the waning months of the Obama administration — over a relatively small piece of a student’s standardized testing regimen, at least compared to the Smarter Balanced math and English tests aligned with the Common Core standards. By Louis Freedberg, EdSource

• Torrance High wrestling coach found guilty of molesting 25 boys, Daily Breeze
• 12-year-old accuses El Sereno Elementary teacher of sexual harassment, City News Service
• These are the 100 U.S. school districts that are actively pursuing socioeconomic integration, Washington Post
• The NAACP’s charter-school test, Wall Street Journal
• LAUSD may take back control of a charter school even though it’s doing well academically, Los Angeles Times
• A new generation of all-girls schools, The Atlantic
• Newly retired Vin Scully has grade-school speaking gig, Fox Sports
• What U.S. public education might look like with a Clinton or Trump presidency, Washington Post
• 3 Gulen schools in LA face closure, Asbarez Armenian News
• Mariachi Haddon puts the ‘A’ in STEAM with cultural relevance, LAUSD Daily

The N.A.A.C.P., the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, has struggled in recent years to win over younger African-Americans, who often see the group as out of touch. The N.A.A.C.P.’s board will reinforce that impression if it ratifies an ill-advised resolution — scheduled for a vote this weekend — that calls for a moratorium on expansion of public charter schools, which receive public money but are subject to fewer state regulations than traditional public schools. These schools, which educate only about 7 percent of the nation’s students, are far from universally perfect, and those that are failing should be shut down. But sound research has shown that, when properly managed and overseen, well-run charter schools give families a desperately needed alternative to inadequate traditional schools in poor urban neighborhoods. The Editorial Board, New York Times

• LAUSD board will vote whether to escalate battle over El Camino’s charter, KPCC
• It’s magnet school application time — and some schools are so hard to get into, Los Angeles Times
• In school reform, relationships are key, say principals, teachers and students, EdSource
• Trump’s ‘locker room talk’ is a teachable moment for our kids, Huffington Post
• LA charter schools proving NAACP wrong, Guest Commentary, LA Daily News
• The 74 fact-check: Are teachers really burning out because of tougher tests and evaluations? The 74
• ‘Middle School: The Worst Years’ provides one of the best days for Thomas Starr King students, LAUSD Daily
• Technology taskforce reconvenes focusing on education technology, cyber safety and the future of teaching and learning, LAUSD Daily

Three Los Angeles charter schools could be shut down, largely because of their practice of bringing in teachers from Turkey, The Times has learned. The schools are part of a group of 10 campuses operated by locally based Magnolia Public Schools, which has relied heavily on using temporary work visas to import Turkish teachers. The three charters now under review have five-year operating agreements that are expiring, and the L.A. Unified School District must either approve or deny their renewal applications. The official word, with no accompanying explanation, reached their campuses by email Tuesday afternoon: School district staff will recommend denial. By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times

• Obama administration releases long-delayed regulations for teacher-preparation programs, Washington Post
• Prop. 58 would restore bilingual education in California, but some say the issue is ‘dead and forgotten’, Los Angeles Times
• LA community colleges closely watching two ballot measures, KPCC
• 5 students injured after being hit by vehicle in parking lot of school in Sylmar, KTLA
• Prop. 55: Initiative to extend income tax increases benefit to schools, EdSource
• A ‘Founders’ excerpt: USC Hybrid High, a Los Angeles breakthrough, graduates its very first class, The 74
• Nasty campaign rhetoric puts parents and teachers in a tough spot, NBC News
• Black children are more likely to get hit by school teachers, report says, Huffington Post

• California poll shows strong support for Common Core standards, EdSource
• Deadline deal: Teachers strike avoided with late-night agreement, WBEZ
• Massachusetts Court: School choice is not a ‘civil right’, Huffington Post
• At an L.A. continuation school, a farm offers refuge for students and animals, Los Angeles Times
• Race, school ratings and real estate: A ‘legal gray area’, NPR
• 186th Street principal shares national recognition with students, faculty, LAUSD Daily
• An autistic girl in the Cumberland Mountains: One family’s brutal fight for meaningful special ed, The 74
• In Chicago, who should bear the burden of dwindling education money? Christian Science Monitor
• Here’s how schools can soften the blow of sixth grade, NPR
• Study: To raise graduation rates, increase number of adults in community, USA Today
• For New York City’s homeless children, getting to school is the hard part, New York Times

• Polls show support for three education initiatives but passage for bond measure in doubt, EdSource
• Stakes different this time as teachers, city face strike, Chicago Tribune
• Bradford: Press tuned in to the school choice split in the black community — and that’s a good thing, The 74 
• How America outlawed adolescence, The Atlantic
• Improving science for students in the south district, LAUSD Daily
• St. Louis teachers may soon find affordable housing by living in a school, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• Race, school ratings and real estate: A ‘legal gray area,’ NPR

• Cash for College lays the groundwork for millions in available financial aid, LAUSD Daily
• Early ed, crucial for Latino children with learning disabilities, New America Media
• When does charter school politicking cross the line?, Boston Globe
• Mites likely source of skin irritations at OC school: health officials, NBCLA-4
• Teachers in over 200 cities protest public school funding, Think Progress
• ‘I told you his hair wasn’t orange,’ first-grader on Donald Trump, Los Angeles Times
• How do you fight chronic absenteeism? Put a nurse in every school, Chalkbeat
• Review: ‘Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life’ is a fine diversion for the not-a-kid-not-yet-an-adult in your life, Los Angeles Times
• Is school choice the black choice? Leaders gather in D.C. to disagree on education policy, The 74
• Travon Grant of Republic Services ramps up recycling efforts in the L.A. Unified School District, Waste360
• Teachers encouraged to add media literacy to classroom instruction, LAUSD Daily

The governing board of El Camino Real Charter High School announced Wednesday night that Marshall Mayotte will no longer be the school’s chief business officer by the end of December and that Executive Director David Fehte is taking a cut in both salary and length of contract. The “letter to the community” was posted online following a four-hour closed session board meeting in which possible “discipline/dismissal/release” of one or more employees was discussed amid a controversial probe by LAUSD. By Brenda Gazzar, LA Daily News

• El Camino Real high school students rally to ‘save our charter’, LA Daily News
• LA area schools make the grade with filming fees worth $20 million in past 10 years, Deadline Hollywood
• State officials push alternative ways to report test scores, EdSource
• California denied bid to pilot new science tests in place of current tests, EdSource
• ‘We want this to stop immediately’: Creepy clown pranksters spread fear, annoyance, Los Angeles Times
• The Yale study on pre-K teachers and bias didn’t find what you think it found, The 74
• How the education gap is tearing politics apart, The Guardian

Embattled El Camino Real Charter High School has formally denied requests to release an investigative report by an outside firm into administrator spending and reimbursement policies. The governing board of the Woodland Hills charter school commissioned the independent probe after the Los Angeles Unified School District warned the school of possible financial violations last October. Since then, LAUSD’s Board of Education has unanimously approved a “notice of violations” — the first step to potentially revoking the school’s charter. The report, estimated to cost $20,000, is “exempt from disclosure” under the California Public Records Act partly due to “attorney-client privilege,” according to a law firm. By Brenda Gazzar, LA Daily News

• Final tally on key education bills in 2016, EdSource
• Can a school district help diversify a fire department? NPR
• City Year welcomes 288 new members as it celebrates 10 years in LA, LAUSD Daily
• What’s in a name: Do school buzzwords matter? School Data Nerd
• Prop. 58 might be most important question on ballot, Orange County Register
• Supreme Court preview: What you need to know about the 3 new school cases at the high court, The 74
• Application window opens for new Center for Enriched Studies, 224 other magnet programs, LAUSD Daily
• Oakland schools targeted in social media clown threat, San Francisco Chronicle

• State could lose federal funds if rules for child care eligibility don’t change, EdSource
• Are kids at risk? Scores of Chicago-area schools allow cell towers on their buildings, grounds, NBC Chicago
• Kids and experts blend health and tech in new CTE program, Cabinet Report
• Does restorative justice work better than traditional school discipline? The 74
• Chicago Schools cites drop in enrollment for new layoffs, Associated Press
• Protest started by Colin Kaepernick spreads to high school students, New York Times
• National Education Association aims to tie bullying to Trump, USA Today
• The desegregation and resegregation of Charlotte’s schools, New Yorker

• School bonds used to be as controversial as mom and apple pie. Not anymore under Gov. Jerry Brown, Los Angeles Times
• Brown vetoes bill requiring charters to comply with conflict of interest, open records laws, EdSource
• The unintended consequences of taking a hard line on school discipline, New York Times
• Chicago’s struggling schools made Wall Street $110 million from $763 million in bonds, Wall Street Journal
• Coming up empty on the other end of the school-to-prison pipeline: Overage, under-credited, unwanted, The 74
• What happens when two separate and unequal school districts merge? Hechinger Report

• School choice fans should pump the brakes on Trump’s plan, advocate says, EdWeek
• McDonald’s asked teachers to serve fries for free. Now the teachers are fighting back., Mother Jones
• Why California’s charter school sector is called ‘the Wild West’? Washington Post
• Neighbors demand solution to high school rat infestation, NBC4
• New California accountability system signals progress, EdWeek
• Food, friends and funds: 7 delectable deeds dished out at school lunchrooms in September, The 74
• Watch out for those Anteaters – UCI plans to win big in e-sports, Orange County Register
• Fitness grants create a ‘sound body, sound mind’ for thousands of L.A. Unified students, LAUSD Daily

More than 50 teachers and parents protested outside El Camino Real Charter High School before classes Wednesday, demanding top administrators be held accountable for a credit-card spending controversy in an effort to “save our charter” while nearly two dozen other staff members gathered to express their support for the school’s leadership. Demonstrators held up signs at the “silent protest” that read “Step down” and “Our students, not steaks.” By Brenda Gazzar, LA Daily News

• LA targets full-time community college students for free tuition, Los Angeles Times
• How to make technical education a game-changer for California’s young workers: guest columnist, San Gabriel Valley Tribune
• Where does 6th grade belong — elementary or middle school? School Data Nerd
• What a Holocaust survivor has to say to South LA school kids — and how she uses art to connect, Los Angeles Times
• Here are students’ candid responses to their U.S. education, The 74
• California is trying to keep Muslim and Sikh students from being bullied, Huffington Post
• UC is joining Boys & Girls Clubs to boost university enrollment, EdSource

Gov. Jerry Brown Jr. on Tuesday signed into law a bill that begins a three-year planning process to expand computer science education for all grades in California’s public schools, beginning in kindergarten. Authored by Assemblymember Susan Bonilla, D-Concord, the bill, Assembly Bill 2329, requires State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson to create by September 2017 a 23-person advisory panel to be charged with developing a long-term plan to make computer science education a top priority in the state. By Pat Maio, EdSource

• Where is LA Unified going? Superintendent releases her plans, but board also wants ‘100 percent graduation’, KPCC
• A bold new approach to English proficiency for kids: Lean on their first language, KPCC 
• LA charter school says it’s ‘cured alleged violations’ over credit card spending, LA Daily News
• LAUSD meets with parents after student sickened by poisonous mushrooms, ABC7
• Students urged to #Takebackthevote by registering for election day, LAUSD Daily
• Analysis: Now critics, unions supported build-up of police in schools for years, The 74
• School adopts gender-neutral homecoming court, so there might be no ‘king’ or ‘queen’, Washington Post
• Next target for IBM’s Watson? Third-grade math, New York Times