Kudos to SFUSD Superintendent Su for saying it out loud. The district’s controversial homegrown ethnic studies curriculum needs to be scrapped. It was riddled with problems. Discriminatory content kept popping up. It was never approved by the Board of Education.
Whew. Cross this controversy off the long list of SFUSD problems.
Not so fast
In place of the much-maligned homegrown curriculum, the school district announced a plan to pilot a new curriculum.
“Pilot” is a great word. It lends a sense of well-planned research.
When a school district pilots a new curriculum, it means it conducts a small-scale test before full-scale implementation.
For example, before SFUSD chose a new literacy curriculum, it selected seven different language arts programs to review. After narrowing the programs down to four, SFUSD educators, leaders, parents, and community members reviewed and selected two language arts core curricula for classroom teachers to pilot during Spring 2023 and Fall 2023.
A straightforward approach is to cut the ethnic studies courses from one full year to a one-semester course.
That’s not what is happening with ethnic studies.
This upcoming school year, the district will use one curriculum not approved by the school board or reviewed by the community for the ninth-grade full-year ethnic studies course. (There is an opt-out option.)
SFUSD will be using a curriculum that the school board has literally never seen. Never reviewed. Never discussed at a public meeting. Never approved.
What’s happening is a far cry from the definition of a pilot program.
Cart before the horse
After the district mandates a single curriculum for the coming year, it will then undergo a comprehensive audit of ethnic studies.
SFUSD promises to engage with educators, families, and community members during the development of a comprehensive ethnic studies curriculum. It will then be submitted for adoption by the San Francisco Board of Education.
Ahhh … so let’s mandate an unapproved curriculum for this year and then backtrack and start to follow the process that should have been followed in the first place.
One more wrinkle: Time to review the one-year required course.
The district continues to mandate a full year course of ethnic studies for graduation.
– This is not required by the state. The state only requires a one semester course.
– This is not required by the University of California or the California State University.
– Here is a sample high school schedule in SFUSD.
After SFUSD adopted its one-year ethnic studies graduation requirement, the state later added one more graduation requirement. (Schools must offer a one semester course in personal finance, for pupils graduating in the 2030–31 school year.)
It’s time for the SFUSD school board to review its one-year ethnic studies graduation requirement to ensure students have the time to take electives in their areas of interest.
The one-year ethnic studies requirement means students may not have the time in their schedule to take elective advanced courses in math, arts, English, lab sciences, foreign language, or social sciences.
A straightforward approach is to cut the ethnic studies courses from one full year to a one semester course. This would align SFUSD with the state requirement.
Multiple choice question: The use of the word pilot in describing the new curriculum is:
– A literary sleight of hand.
– A way to pull the wool over your eyes.
– An effort to avoid the legal requirement that the curriculum must be approved by the board of education.
However you answer the question, SFUSD is continuing to follow a practice of poor school governance.
