Action Steps

Suggested Timelines: 2020-2021, 2022-2023 

• Ensure that your district, school board, and site administration support the development and implementation of an ethnic studies program.
• Verify that your local governing board is briefed on the ethnic studies requirement and introduce a resolution to be adopted by your school board.
• Develop a definition of what ethnic studies means to your district.
• Ensure alignment of the district course(s) to state and local policy, district resources, and community needs are including in the planning process.
• Include students, teachers, families, community institutions, grassroots advocacy groups, local nonprofits and private businesses in the discussions.
• Identify the underlying purpose, values, themes, outcomes, and benefits of implementing an ethnic studies course to your local community.
• Provide multiple opportunities for the public to provide comments and recommendations to the proposed program.
• Conduct study sessions with committee members on AB 101, Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, and the K-12 History-Social Science Framework.
• Provide background resources and materials for committee members such as the following documents:
  • AB 101 establishing an Ethnic Studies Course Requirement
  • Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum
  • CA History-Social Science Framework K-12

Suggested Timelines: 2021-2022, 2022-2023

• Provide guidance and perspectives through data for establishing profiles that reflect both the district’s and community’s needs.
• Provide data-based resources for community and steering committee members to use for informed decision making.
  • District Local Control Accountability Plan
  • District Demographic Data
  • Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Data
  • District California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) Data
  • Community Census Data
  • Community Demographic Data
  • Community Data: business, civics, education, health, housing, municipalities, recreation, safety, social services

It is important to engage steering committee and community members in the curriculum development process. In order to develop a curriculum that is culturally and community relevant and responsive, district members need to be familiar with both their student population and their community dynamics. The team developing the curriculum must seek to understand how the lived experiences of their student population affect the knowledge and attitudes that they bring to the classroom and that students have just as much as educators to bring to the table for mutual learning. With that knowledge in hand, it will be easier to develop a curriculum that engages students as peer learners and with mutual understanding and appreciation from the community they reside in.

Suggested Timelines: 2022-2023, 2023-2024

Option One

Ethnic studies implemented as a stand-alone course: If so, will it be implemented as a one semester course, as a one year course, as a series of courses, or as an elective available at more than one grade level (in grades 9 to 12)? Refer to the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, Chapter 3, pages 47-51, for guidance on stand-alone course.²

Option Two

Ethnic studies integrated into an existing courses: If so, in which content areas and in what grade levels with it be integrated? Refer to the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, Chapter 3, pages 51-52, for guidance on integrated courses.

Option Three

Ethnic studies can be taught as a combination of thematic and comparative approaches. Refer to the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, Chapter 3, pages 52-53, for guidance on thematic/ comparative courses.

Option Four

Ethnic studies can be taught as a grade level approach, combining elements of Options 1, 2, and 3. Refer to the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, Chapter 3, pages 53-54, for guidance on thematic/ comparative courses.

Suggested Timelines: 2023-2024, 2024-2025

• Select the course option that best suits your district’s and community’s needs
• Create a course development process time and review plan for the calendar school year
• Identify a team of district educators who will help develop the course
• Establish a budget plan for the development of the curriculum
• Identify instructional materials, pedagogy, curriculum resources, and assessment measures needed
• Review the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, Chapter 1, pages 1-27, regarding the principles, values, and outcomes to help guide your selection of a curriculum option and resources to select.
• Review the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, Chapter 4, in its entirety for guidance on developing sample lessons, themes, and outcomes.
• Review the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Plan, Chapter 5 in its entirety for additional lesson resources.
• Provide discussions for committee members, district teachers, students, parents, and community to review the outline of ethnic studies course
• Factor time to make corrections, inclusions, or deletions gathered from the previous discussions and comments phase of development
• Recommend an initial pilot plan with to district board members, with specific information on meeting A-G requirements

Suggested Timeline: 2023-2024, 2024-2025

• Decide on the ethnic studies pilot course being offered as a one-semester course, course options that will be selected for the pilot, schools that will pilot the program, the grade level(s) which will host pilot program, and the types of data that will be gathered from the pilot program.
• Compile data from the pilot program, arrange the data into relevant formats, and submit the data for committee and community review.
• Provide review and discussion sessions with committee and community members of what the pilot data is indicating.
• Gather district feedback from students, teachers, and administrators about the data pertaining to the ethnic studies pilot program.
• Identify the strengths, successes, and positive aspects of the initial pilot program based upon the gathered data.
• Identify any deficiencies, negative feedback, barriers, or improvements needed to the initial pilot program based upon the gathered data.
• Identify additional factors needed, such as materials, resources, training, pedagogy, or funding that may support the success of the pilot program.
• Ensure adjustments to the pilot program to include A-G requirements are made.
• Adjust the ethnic studies pilot program according to data gathered and the feedback garnered, and have committee members submit the revised program to school board members for review.
• Plan the public presentation process of the initial program data gathered and the program revisions recommended to be made to the community.
• Include in the public presentation additional funding sources, personnel, and resources needed to support the revised program.
• Plan for ethnic studies program implementation.

Suggested Timeline: 2025-2026, 2026-2027, 2028-2029, 2029-2030

(IV) A locally developed ethnic studies course approved by the governing board of the school district or the governing body of the charter school. The proposed course shall first be presented at a public meeting of the governing board of the school district or the governing body of the charter school, and shall not be approved until a subsequent public meeting of the governing board or governing body at which the public has had the opportunity to express its views on the proposed course.

- Pupil instruction: high school graduation requirements: ethnic studies, Cal. Assemb. B. 101 (2020-2021), Chapter 661 (Cal. Stat. 2021).

• Key Points - it is vital to the success of an ethnic studies course implementation to ensure the following aspects have been accounted for:
  1. community members are cognizant of the ethnic studies content and purpose of the course
  2. school leaders are prepared to respond to any questions and concerns the community may have
  3. before instruction begins, parents, guardians, and families are familiar with the ethnic studies course
  4. teachers possess the content knowledge of the subject matter and pedagogical expertise to deliver instruction in a respectful and effective manner
  5. ensure the ethnic studies course meets all A-G requirements and CA State high school graduation requirements for Ethnic Studies
• Include Ethnic Studies as an official course offering for the 2029-2030 high school graduating class