![]() 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. Santa Rosa City Schools has been offering ethnic studies courses since 2020 and will require students in the class of 2025 to have taken a full year of the subject before graduation. 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. The commission would need authorization from the Legislature to begin developing a new credential, Howard said. “The social science credential program does not cover ethnic studies sufficiently.” Asssemblymember wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) “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 social science credential program does not cover ethnic studies sufficiently,” Carrillo, a Democrat from Los Angeles, said by email. In February, she introduced legislation requiring the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to begin creating an ethnic studies credential by 2025. 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.Īssemblymember Wendy Carrillo agrees. “But that isn’t enough to give you the knowledge you need.” “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. However, when ethnic studies is combined with other subjects, such as reading or art, teachers from other subject areas are also eligible. 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. ![]() But others worry that an additional requirement may make it even harder for the schools to find teachers for the subject. ![]() They say that without such a credential, the state risks having low-quality classes that can do more harm than good. 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. As many high schools expand their course offerings ahead of schedule, universities are grappling with how to best prepare the next generation of teachers. 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. ![]() 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 require that high school students take at least one semester of ethnic studies before graduation.Ĭalifornia needs more ethnic studies teachers, quickly. 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.īut Silvestri has never received a teaching credential in ethnic studies. 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. 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. 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. But do educators need a special credential to teach ethnic studies? Some ethnic studies advocates say allowing any social science teacher to instruct the subject will lead to watered down and ineffective courses, while school districts argue that flexibility is important if they’re going to fill the roles. That means the state needs lots of new ethnic studies teachers. California high school students will be required to pass an ethnic studies class to graduate, starting with the class of 2030.
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