By Anthony Cody.

In San Francisco a recently implemented Ethnic Studies course has been startlingly successful in boosting student attendance, GPA, and earned credits. That is the conclusion of a Stanford University study, done by Emily Penner and Thomas Dee. I wrote about these courses back in 2014, when the San Francisco school board voted to approve them. Last year, the California legislature approved a law tasking the state superintendent with developing a plan to make such courses available statewide. Unfortunately, Governor Jerry Brown refused to sign this into law.

The results in San Francisco should encourage Governor Brown to take a second look. While we know there are no silver bullets in education, this research shows effects too large to ignore. The report states:

We find that ES [Ethnic Studies] participation had large, positive effects on each of our student outcomes. Specifically, ES participation increased student attendance (i.e., reduced unexcused absences) by 21 percentage points, cumulative ninth-grade GPA by 1.4 grade points, and credits earned by 23 credits.3 These GPA gains were larger for boys than for girls as well as higher in math and science than in ELA. We find that these surprisingly large effects are robust to a variety of model specifications as well as checks for possible confounds related to the treatment contrast we study (e.g., unobserved teacher effects, the possibly independent effects of an at-risk designation, “heaping” of the assignment variable). We also argue that these large effects are consistent with the hypothesis that participation in the course reduced the probability of dropping out in addition to possibly improving the performance of enrolled students. Overall, our findings indicate that a culturally relevant curriculum implemented in a strongly supportive context can be highly effective at improving outcomes among a diverse group of academically at-risk students. However, we also note that the effectiveness of this ES course may reflect other theoretical mechanisms (e.g., buffering students against “stereotype threat”) and that there are potentially serious challenges of successfully replicating and scaling up this curriculum.

The authors also report:

We note evidence that these large effects appear to reflect both reductions in the probability of dropping out as well as improvements in the performance of enrolled students. We also find that the effects of this course were concentrated among males, Hispanics, and to a lesser degree, Asians.

This corresponds with positive effects found in the outlawed Tucson Mexican American Studies (MAS) program. This 2014 report showed that

The MAS students had significantly lower 9th- and 10th-grade GPAs as well as 10th-grade AIMS scores than their non-MAS peers. However, they had significantly higher AIMS passing and graduation rates than their non-MAS peers, which seems counterintuitive. Decades of findings from education research would lead us to expect higher 9th- and 10th-grade GPAs and higher 10th-grade standardized test scores to be positively correlated with higher graduation rates (Alexander, Entwisle, & Horsey, 1997; Rumberger, 2011). Instead, we found the MAS students outperformed their non-MAS peers in terms of AIMS passing and graduation despite having 9th- and 10th-grade academic performances that were significantly lower (see Table 2). These results corroborate findings that ethnic studies can lead to increased student development (see, e.g., Astin, 1993; Bowman, 2009, 2010a, 2010b; Sleeter 2011).

The primary opposition to this program in Arizona was ideologically based. When he vetoed the California law, Jerry Brown stated “Creating yet another advisory body specific to ethnic studies would be duplicative and undermine our current curriculum process.”

These results speak for themselves and suggest this should be revisited by Governor Brown and other leaders. A 21% reduction in absences is phenomenal. That alone would represent millions of dollars in increased revenue for large school districts. An increase of 1.4 in GPA is likewise amazing. An additional 23 credits earned, again, these are life-changing results.

When I asked college student Hannah Nguyen about the value of Ethnic Studies she said this:

A curriculum that includes ethnic studies exposes students to the stories and ideas of different cultures and backgrounds fosters a learning environment that is both diverse and accepting. This is a curriculum that will not only create good students but also good people with open minds and hearts. An ethnic studies curriculum teaches its students to see the one another’s humanity, to feel empathy for one another’s struggles, and to cultivate a passion for social justice. But most importantly, it adds significance to the education of children of color, who will no longer feel invisible and ignored but rather engaged and empowered in their own learning as they learn their own histories and use that understanding to connect to the larger community.

As I have explained, I sought out Ethnic Studies courses as a student, starting in high school. This gave me a far richer understanding of our nation’s history than I might have gotten from more traditional courses. As our society becomes “majority minority” it is all the more important to understand the history and contributions of all, and embrace curriculum that is culturally relevant. Clearly, these courses are having dramatic effects at combatting inequities, and should be actively supported.

What do you think? Have you seen positive effects from culturally relevant curriculum such as this Ethnic Studies program? Is it time to expand these programs?

Featured image by the True Colors Mural Project.