Background

Ethnic Studies has a long history based in liberatory movements, emerging from the 1968-1969 student strikes led by the Black Student Union and Third World Liberation Front at SF State and UC Berkeley. Since its introduction in college and K-12 settings, the movement has focused on uplifting the stories, cultures, traditions, and histories of resistance of communities of color – and growing coalitions, grounded in mutual solidarity, to transform schooling and society. 

After years of expanding its presence in K-12 schools – and defending itself from right-wing, racist attacks – the Ethnic Studies movement has reached a new stage, with districts and states across the country developing new Ethnic Studies requirements for schools.

In October 2021, California became the first state requiring high school students to take Ethnic Studies in order to graduate. Beginning with the class of 2030, all students are required to have  taken one semester of Ethnic Studies. In order for that to happen, all high schools are required to offer an Ethnic Studies course by the 2026-2027 school year. Across the state, including Santa Cruz County, school districts are working to establish ethnic studies programs to meet this upcoming deadline. High schools in Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, and San Lorenzo Valley are developing and piloting new courses over the next two years.

Pajaro Valley Unified School District has been leading the way. For over 5 years, PVUSD teachers, administrators, and community members have been growing a robust, highly impactful Ethnic Studies program. Drawing on the expertise of Ethnic Studies scholars and a committed group of teachers, the district has integrated Ethnic Studies frameworks across disciplines like English Language Arts, History, and Art, across all three comprehensive high schools (Watsonville, Pájaro, and Aptos).   
Now, Ethnic Studies at PVUSD – the district serving the highest proportion of students of color in Santa Cruz County – is under attack. Local groups including the Tobera Project and MILPA are defending the program and need our solidarity.

“The Vision of Ethnic Studies in Pajaro Valley Unified School District is to provide rich learning experiences that center experiences, stories, and knowledge of Ethnic Studies groups while also shaping a lens to understand and critique dominant power structures, ultimately to eliminate racism and intersectional forms of oppression.” – PVUSD website

Defending Ethnic Studies at PVUSD

In the fall of 2023, PVUSD came under fire for its ongoing consulting agreement with Community Responsive Education (CRE) and its founder, Dr. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, a leading scholar and highly respected educator in the field of K-12 Ethnic Studies. PVUSD was heading into the final year of a three-year project with CRE to provide guidance and support for the sustainable development of the district’s Ethnic Studies program. The plan that had been developed collaboratively and strongly supported by district leaders, administrators and teachers.

At the September 13, 2023 PVUSD School Board meeting, following a glowing report on the district’s Ethnic Studies program, two community members accused Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales and CRE of bigotry and antisemitism. (The two community members are part of a coordinated right-wing effort to discredit and defund Ethnic Studies.) Following these unfounded charges, a motion to vote on the renewal refused to get a second, no vote was taken. The contract with CRE was thus suspended by the inaction of the Board.

Following this vote, 12 PVUSD Ethnic Studies teachers wrote a letter demanding the renewal of the CRE contract. Sixty-five organizations and more than 1,600 individuals signed an October 2023 petition in support of Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales and CRE. Many teachers, students, and community members continue to ask for the issue to be put back on the Board’s agenda – without success, so far.

While Ethnic Studies classes continue at PVUSD high schools, the district’s Ethnic Studies educators have argued that the Board’s decision completely ignored empirical evidence as well as the opinions of teachers, students, and administrators, and represents a genuine set-back to this critically important program.

More background: Struggles over the CA Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum

The local attacks on PVUSD’s Ethnic Studies Program and Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum in general are directly related to the national attacks on African-American Studies, Critical Race Theory (CRT), and teaching about Palestine. 

Back in 2016, the California legislature authorized the development of an Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) – a resource for schools who would be developing and teaching Ethnic Studies courses. As a model, the ESMC offers guidance and sample lesson plans. Districts are allowed to decide independently the specifics of their Ethnic Studies programs.  A committee of leading Ethnic Studies scholars and practitioners, including Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales, created a first draft of the ESMCs. However, in November 2020, despite progressive Jewish support for the draft ESMC, conservative Jewish groups, with support from State Senator Scott Weiner, succeeded in efforts to revise the curriculum to marginalize Arab Americans and erase any mention of Palestine (more here).   

This highly controversial rewrite was met with widespread opposition, including by progressive Jewish groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, as well as the authors of the original curriculum and all 20 members of the original Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Advisory Committee, who asked to have their names removed from the revised curriculum. Despite this opposition, the revised Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) was adopted by the State Board of Education on March 18, 2021. Today, only the Liberated Education Studies Model Curriculum includes substantive lessons about Arab American Studies or any honest conversation about Palestine.   

Get involved! Take action!

Understanding and defending Ethnic Studies is as important now as it ever was. Email SURJ SCC here to be notified about opportunities to show up in support. Write to the PVUSD School Board members; attend the next Board meeting, with these demands:

1. that the CRE contract decision be added to the Board’s next agenda for review; 
2. that the Board vote again, this time in support of the CRE contract renewal, which would empower students by lifting the voices and histories of Ethnic Studies Groups racially marginalized or erased by our educational institutions.