Cal State Long Beach faculty teach high school students in new ethnic studies course

The class, U.S. Diversity and the Ethnic Experience, is an elective on Saturdays, providing three college credits and 10 high school credits, said Chris Steinhauser, superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District.

But the program took a while from conceptualization to actualization, according to Armando Vazquez-Ramos, CSULB professor of Chicano and Latino studies. Vazquez-Ramos, administrative coordinator of the new program, said he wanted to have such a class decades ago. However, he began campaigning last year for this partnership between CSULB and LBUSD.

“It’s about time,” Vazquez-Ramos said. “We need to teach about our community.”

The ethnic studies class includes the history, culture and contemporary issues of four groups — Asian/American, American Indian, African and Chicano/Latino. Course objectives include defining and comprehending critical and essential theories of race, ethnicity and discourse/debates about those theories. Objectives also include comprehending critical differences between racial prejudice and racism as social practice, as well as differences between individual and institutional racism.

Several other California school districts, including Los Angeles, El Rancho and San Francisco, recently added similar ethnic courses, Vazquez-Ramos said. Those districts were ahead of the State Legislature, which recently passed a law requiring them.

Assembly Bill 101, authored by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Salinas, is awaiting the signature of Gov. Jerry Brown. If the bill becomes law, it will help create a model ethnic studies program for optional use statewide. The bill was amended from its original version, which required public high schools to offer ethnic studies courses.

Vazquez-Ramos said to help him create the local course, he connected with El Rancho Unified School District, which recently passed an ethnic studies class requirement beginning with the class of 2016.

Vazquez-Ramos said Steinhauser and other LBUSD officials were open to the idea when he presented it to them.

“Steinhauser didn’t resist,” Vazquez-Ramos said. “He said, ‘I want to do it, but I want to do it big.’”

Steinhauser and the school board agreed to pay for classes every semester for the next five years, for a total of about $1 million.

 

“I’m very excited about the concept,” Steinhauser said. “(LBUSD) could be a very good role model to other districts.”

So far, classes are offered either Saturday mornings or afternoons at all six LBUSD high schools. Students may take the course in lieu of their economics requirement, Steinhauser said. To graduate, LBUSD students must successfully complete government and economics classes, Steinhauser said — more than many universities’ entrance requirement.

Additionally, the class offers the opportunity for students who are enrolled in advanced placement courses to potentially have a year of college completed by the time they graduate high school, Vazquez-Ramos said.

Steinhauser said he hopes the district can offer more courses that build on this one in the future, so students may add to their knowledge of ethnic studies.

“We’re developing the plane as we fly it,” Steinhauser said.

Emily Thornton is a staff writer for Gazette Newspapers. She can be reached at ethornton@gazettes.com.