AGES Coalition

What is its purpose?

GENup’s Ethnic Studies Campaign aims to use grassroots organizing to integrate an ethnic studies class into public school curriculum on a district-by-district basis. The campaign’s goals are simple, to create a more inclusive school community through bringing up and encouraging productive conversation on race and racism. Whether that is accomplished through the creation of a new ethnic studies class/graduation requirement, or the incorporation of ethnic works into existing curriculum, or something else altogether, is up to each individual chapter. 

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What is Ethnic Studies?

• Ethnic Studies is an interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, and indigenous communities and culture that teaches history through lenses that are frequently ignored in traditional courses.

• Ethnic studies classes were first pioneered by BIPOC students from San Francisco State and UC Berkeley (forming the Third World Liberation Front) who felt their ethnic groups were not properly reflected in the curriculum and faculty at their universities. They demanded that administrators offer classes that taught students cultural competence and how to be actively anti-racist, staging strikes for several months until administrators met their demands.

• Though ethnic studies courses were introduced on many college campuses following the strikes in the late 1960s, they are still not widely available to most high school students, and university students usually have to enroll in the class as an elective. Without allowing all students the opportunity to take an ethnic studies class, our current education system is failing marginalized communities by letting their stories go untold in mainstream history curricula.

• Learning about our diverse histories and experiences is too important to be left up to choice, especially in our rapidly diversifying nation and state.

• Taking an ethnic studies class has a measurably positive impact on students.  A study out of Stanford University shows that high school students at risk of dropping out experienced boosted attendance and academic performance after taking ethnic studies.

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What does the campaign look like?

The ultimate goal of the Ethnic Studies Campaign is to diversify school curricula and to expose students to education on race and racism from an early age. The specific advocacy asks are as follows, and chapters can choose to include/edit any number of them in their resolution based on their understanding of their own School Board and how receptive they would be to each ask:

• To develop an ethnic studies class and make it a graduation requirement for high school students that covers Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Chicano/Latinx, Native American history, culture, and intellectual tradition

• To integrate literature written by authors of color into literature classes

• To integrate ethnic history into social studies classes 

• To develop a Diversity Taskforce composed of minority students, parents, teachers, and administrators whose role is to devise and implement best practices for making the school community more inclusive and welcoming to students of all colors

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What steps can I take?

One sample school board policy proposal to integrate ethnic studies as a graduation requirement within a school district (with a detailed implementation timeline) is linked here. 

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Why should Ethnic Studies be an A-G requirement?

• Learning about our diverse histories and experiences is too important to be left up to choice, especially in our rapidly diversifying nation and state.

• Taking an ethnic studies class has a measurably positive impact on students.  A study out of Stanford University shows that high school students at risk of dropping out experienced boosted attendance and academic performance after taking ethnic studies.

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How can my chapter get involved?

​Get started on this campaign, get access to resources including sample proposals, by using our toolkit, and to get extra help, please email info@generationup.net!

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Updates​

• 2021 - California Passes AB 101, requiring California high schools to have and require a form of ethnic studies education

• 2020 - UC BOARS Passes Ethnic Studies Requirement