High
school students in Long Beach are learning about diversity and ethnic
studies from Cal State Long Beach faculty this fall in a new program
that local officials hope will become a model for the state.
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.
A word about the Long Beach Ethnic Studies Program…
We
sincerely appreciate the LBUSD and Superintendent Chris Steinhauser
for
his leadership; trust and vision that have made it possible to
establish this historic model,
built upon the Long Beach Promise, as a unique collaboration between the CSULB Ethnic Studies Departments and the Long Beach Unified School District.
And
most important, for making possible the launching of this program to
impart a vast amount of Ethnic Studies knowledge to over 400 LBUSD High
School students, currently
enrolled in 12 sections of the course U.S. Diversity and the Ethnic Experience at 6 LBUSD high schools during the 2015 Fall semester.
Undoubtedly,
the interest in our community is huge, given that close to 1500
parents
and students attended the orientations at each H.S. campus; and
that we
had 731
students registered for 420 seats (35 per class) in
the 12 classes.
This
exceptional opportunity will plant the seeds for future generations of
young people of all ethnicities and cultures, to increase their
appreciation of each other,
and foster tolerance, understanding and a
brotherhood across racial,
social and economic differences.
As
we embark upon this unprecedented 5-year commitment made to the Long
Beach Ethnic Studies Program by Superintendent Steinhauser, we are
challenged to produce results
that will match and surpass his pledge,
with great success as a
national Ethnic Studies Model that other school
districts and
universities can replicate throughout California and the
U.S.
Prof. Armando Vazquez-Ramos, Administrative Coordinator
Long Beach Ethnic Studies Program
Towards Ethnic Studies for all !
LBUSD-CSULB Long Beach Ethnic Studies Program Team
Seated (from left to right): LBUSD Superintendent Chris Steinhauser, LB-ESP Administrative
Coordinator Prof. Armando Vazquez-Ramos, CSULB Africana Studies
Department chair Maulana Karenga, American Indian Studies program
director Craig Stone, Chicano and Latino Studies Department chair Jose
Moreno. Asian and Asian American Studies chair Teri Yamada and Prof.
Barbara Kim (not pictured).
Standing (from left to right): Prof. Matthew Cabrera, LBUSD Director of Equity Robert Tagorda, Prof.
Truc HaMai, Prof. Elaine Bernal, Prof. Natalie Sartin, Prof. Larry
Hashima, Prof. Yvette Moss, CCPE Program Manager Tracy Palacios, Prof.
Elizabeth González Cardenas, Prof. Joseph Morales, Prof. Anna
Nazarian-Peters, Prof. Jose Luis Serrano Najera, Prof. Becky Sanchez.
(Photo credit: Lidieth Arevalo)
_____
“ The
function of the university is not simply to teach breadwinning, or to
furnish teachers for the public schools, or to be a center of polite
society; it is, above all, to be the organ of that fine adjustment
between real life and the growing knowledge of life, an adjustment which
forms the secret of civilization.”
― W.E.B. Du Bois
