WHAT'S HAPPENING?
WE ARE FACING AN URGENT ISSUE! The California Department of Education has been engaged in a process to develop an Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) for the state of CA. This Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, overseen by the Instruction Quality Commision (IQC), will serve as a guide for the CA K-12 system and Ethnic Studies courses across the state. The curriculum has gone through multiple revisions and is set to be completed by March 2021. Our young students deserve to see themselves in school curriculum and for far too long we have been erased from the texts and classroom discussions. We are in a crucial moment and we must take a stand.
MORE BACKGROUND: Ethnic Studies was founded upon educators, students, and organizers such as the Black Student Union and Third World Liberation Front in the 1960s - pushing for an anti-imperialist, anti-racist, relevant education. As Pacific Islanders, we have benefited from their work and have fought for representation, inclusion, and leadership in education. We must continue to do so, especially here in the California K-12 system.
While there are multiple communities represented within the ESMC, there are also many who have been left out - including our community and the Arab American community, who we fully support to be included. We support the fight for Ethnic Studies at the K-12 level across the state of California, but we also believe that we must be represented on all levels of this change for California education. It is imperative that our Pacific Islander voices and stories be included in the creation of and within the ESMC.
WE NEED TO ACT NOW! We are in a crucial moment. Decisions and revisions are being finalized now and we need to step in and bring awareness to this gap in the curriculum.
CAMPAIGN UPDATES
On November 6th, State Superintendent Tony Thurmond released a statement that Arab American Studies would be moved to an appendix of the curriculum - which is a reversal of his promise from the August 13th IQC Meeting. Also, our additional resources (previously removed from the PI lesson plan) are on a list of over 400 line edits to be discussed in the upcoming IQC Meeting on November 18th and 19th.
On September 24th, campaign organizers attended a meeting with the CDE and our fellow Pacific Islander educators and community leaders to discuss the current draft and process regarding the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC). Since the public comment period on the current draft closed on September 30th, we are waiting to hear more information about the updated draft and are continuing to ask the IQC to do the following:
- Reconvene the original advisory committee in the ESMC process moving forward
- Include a Pacific Islander Studies lesson plan that covers the complexity and diversity of the Pacific alongside critiques of power and systems of oppression seen in the work of Epeli Hau'ofa, Lisa Kahaleole Hall, and Kerri Ann Borja’s UN Testimony on the Question of Guam
- Communicate with the Pacific Islander community, ensuring that the final PI curriculum is vetted and approved by Pacific Studies educators
- Work with Arab American educators and community on the development of Arab American studies curriculum, with content inclusive of Palestine
To learn more about the Save Arab American Studies campaign, please visit: https://savearabamericanstudies.org