Tuesday, there will be a showdown at the San Francisco school district board meeting over teaching ethnic studies. But it’s not what you think.
Unlike the national controversy over DEI, all the people involved support teaching our children about the challenges and successes of the many cultures in our city.
It’s San Francisco, after all. This is the birthplace of the ethnic studies movement at San Francisco State in 1968. The argument is more nuanced.
A bit of background
The San Francisco school district has been offering ethnic studies as an elective high school course for years. Now, however, the school board is requiring all students to take a mandatory full-year course in the ninth grade. On the agenda is the purchase of a new ethnic studies curriculum.
So what’s the big deal?
Many feel the school board is falling short of meeting the legal requirements for an open process that ensures the material is not discriminatory or biased.
School board is responsible for formally adopting the curriculum
How is this done? The California State Board of Education advises that the process of selecting and implementing new instructional materials should be thoroughly planned, conducted publicly, and well documented.
In San Francisco, although the school board has mandated that students take an ethnic studies course, it has yet to adopt a curriculum for the elective course it has been teaching for years. The curriculum for the new mandatory course that the superintendent is asking the board to spend $100,000 on at the next board meeting has also not been through the formal review process. Oops.
Law protects students from discrimination
Governor Newsom’s education policy advisor has warned school districts about using materials that do not comply with state law:
“We have been advised… that some vendors are offering materials that may not meet the requirements of AB 101 [2021–22]. Before any curriculum or instructional materials for ethnic studies courses are selected, we strongly encourage you to closely scrutinize them to ensure that they meet the requirements.”
California’s Education Code directs governing boards only to adopt instructional materials that “accurately portray the cultural and racial diversity of our society.”
Students enrolled in the ethnic studies course must feel valued and included.
Instruction must not promote a discriminatory bias on the basis of race or ethnicity, gender, religion, disability, nationality, or sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic. California Education Code Section 51500
A local governing board must not adopt instructional materials that contain any matter reflecting adversely upon persons on the basis of race or ethnicity, gender, religion, disability, nationality, or sexual orientation, or because of any other protected characteristic. California Education Code Section 51501
The showdown at the school board meeting will be over whether San Francisco ensures that all children enrolled in the ethnic studies class feel included and valued.
To do this, the district must make sure:
- The ethnic studies curriculum is factual and unbiased.
- Teachers are properly trained and prepared to teach it.
- The school board has engaged the community in a timely and open process to review and adopt the curriculum.
The quote below from the school district will inform you of how open and inclusive the process has been for purchasing the new materials.
Question from a school board member on when the new curriculum called Voices will be available to that board member. (Friday, July 25, 2025).
When and how will Board members be given access to the Voices curriculum?
When and how will the public be given access to the Voices curriculum?
Answer:
Voices is a copyrighted curriculum. Therefore, it is not possible to provide open-source public access. We are planning for office hours for educators, students, and families (prioritizing those with 9th graders in the 20252026 school year) to sign up to review the physical materials provided by publishers.
Did you catch that? The school board member had not been given a chance to review the material.
The school district is between a rock and a hard place.
It has said it is not possible to switch ninth graders out of the ethnic studies classes at this late date.
Should it purchase a curriculum that has not been thoroughly vetted because school is just about to open? ( If the new curriculum is not purchased, the fallback position is to use the old curriculum, which even the superintendent originally wanted to get rid of.)
The superintendent is forcing the board into a choice between buying books that neither they nor teachers have fully vetted or reverting to the curriculum she halted because of its discriminatory components. The Stanford study, which generally touts ethnic studies, points out the dangers of “unintended and negative consequences” that the superintendent risks in doing so.
Should the school board pause the process and not require students to take ethnic studies this year? Is it better to take time to fix the class schedules and fully vet a new curriculum?
What’s the best way to ensure that all children enrolled in the ethnic studies class feel included and valued?
