This presentation has been made possible by the California-Mexico Studies Center, El Rancho Unified School District and LEAD, as co-conveners of the Campaign to Promote Ethnic Studies Summit on October 18, 2014, at CSU Long Beach.
The CPES Summit was webcast by LEAD throughout its worldwide network and prompted the Los Angeles and San Francisco school districts to adopt policies similar to the historic El Rancho USD’s resolution approved in June 2014, as the first Ethnic Studies graduation requirement by a local school board in California. Since the CPES Summit, 15-20 more
local school boards have adopted comparable Ethnic Studies policies throughout California, including the Santa Ana, Montebello, Bassett and Woodland school districts.
This panel will present on the progress that has been made at El Rancho USD, to build upon their landmark resolution a comprehensive Ethnic Studies curriculum, and the also precedent-setting Long Beach Ethnic Studies Program (LB-ESP) that has created a model for school districts to offer ethnic studies H.S. and college-credit courses on Saturdays. The LB-ESP builds upon the nationally recognized Long Beach College Promise relationship between the LBUSD and CSULB, supported with a 5-year funding commitment by LBUSD, to offer high school students at least 12 college-credit Ethnic Studies courses every semester.
The panelists will discuss in detail how these initiatives came about, their benefit and replicability, and answer questions related to the Campaign to Promote Ethnic Studies’ goal to promote Ethnic Studies for all students in the K-12 curriculum, throughout California and the United States.
- Idali Lopez, San Bernardino High School Program Specialist and SBCUSD Ethnic Studies Committee Facilitator
- Dr. Aurora Villon, School Board President, El Rancho Unified School District
- Prof. Armando Vázquez-Ramos, President, California-Mexico Studies Center
- Tino Gutierrez, El Rancho USD, Ethnic Studies Curriculum Master Teacher
