Opinion: Mexican American and African American studies should count towards graduation in Texas by Rep. Christina Morales

Praise to Texas State Rep. Christina Morales (D-Houston) for leading on Ethnic Studies for the state of Texas. Her own personal story published by the Houston Chronicle that she shares below is compelling. We should all know our history and experience pride in forming part of the grand American story.

Ample qualitative and quantitative evidence exists that demonstrates strong positive, and consistent academic benefits of Ethnic Studies for all children and students to succeed in school, regardless of ethnicity. If our students succeed academically, increasing achievement and graduation rates as credible data have shown, our children's futures hold enormous promise.

Since Fall 2020 and Fall 2021, Mexican American Studies and African American Studies, respectively, were being taught in Texas schools as elective courses. In 2018 and 2019, respectively, Mexican American Studies and African American Studies additionally met unanimous approval by the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) as TEKS-aligned courses.

By this, we mean that the process of standard-setting has taken place and these are already full-fledged courses in state curricula. Two additional Ethnic Studies courses, namely, Native American and Asian American Studies, are in the process of getting TEKS-aligned.

Now it's time to make Ethnic Studies count toward high school graduation. Join us for a conversation this PM on Facebook Live to get additional details pertinent to the bill and how to support this truly historic effort.

-Angela Valenzuela

Opinion: Mexican American and African American studies should count towards graduation in Texas

Rep. Christina Morales Jan. 20, 2021, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

A detail of new mural titled "Mexican-American History & Culture in 20th Century Houston" by artists Jesse Sifuentes and Laura Lopez Cano in Sam Houston Park on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018 in Houston. The mural features contributions and significant figures in Houston's Mexican-American history.

Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

I am blessed to know my history.

My grandfather attended a segregated school. My grandmother remembers a park in San Antonio with a sign that read “no dogs or Mexicans allowed.” We have come a long way since then, but there is still so much work to be done. Knowledge of my heritage helped me become a leader and play a role in making Texas a better place.

That is why I am introducing a bill in the Texas Legislature to award full credit to high school students for ethnic studies courses and count them towards their graduation requirements. Texas youth deserve to know their history.

When my grandparents moved to Houston in 1931, they moved to Second Ward, which we lovingly call “Segundo Barrio.” There they found the neighborhood with the highest concentration of Latinos, mostly Mexican and Mexican American. This is where they would later open “Morales Funeral Home,” the first Latino-owned funeral home in Houston, and then a cemetery. The funeral services they provided to families were filled with compassion and provided everyone during their time of mourning with recognition and respect for their Mexican heritage.

In 1950 they opened Radio Station KLVL — “La Voz Latina.” For many years, it was the only Spanish language radio station on the Gulf Coast. The radio station was not only a form of entertainment, but it provided news, weather, job listings and talk shows where community members could call in and share accomplishments, celebrations and tragedies. Just imagine being in a foreign country and unable to speak the language. How would you know if a hurricane was coming? How would you find a job? Our history was not taught in schools, seen on TV or celebrated, so how could you remember your heritage, tradition and shared history?

In the years since, commerce blossomed, families thrived, and Segundo Barrio and Houston grew as the Latino population significantly increased.

Now there are many Latino funeral homes and Spanish radio stations across the Houston area. Latinos have grown exponentially in our city and in our state. Our history and contributions, however, are not regularly recognized or celebrated outside of our neighborhoods or the households where families share their customs.

I feel fortunate to be a part of the history of Segundo Barrio. I see our family’s name on our building every day.

I see our family’s name honored in El Paseo Del Segundo Barrio in Guadalupe Plaza Park.

I can hear my family’s last name ring out in the Texas Capitol when I am called as a Texas state representative. I will carry out my family legacy of giving back by championing this ethnic studies bill so that students from our neighborhoods, our cities and our towns can see their family’s contributions in their textbooks, in their curriculum and in their classrooms. This is the Texas-sized version of history that helped create this great state, and we are poised to share it in high schools from Houston to El Paso.

Texans have already united to bring this history forward, and it is time to celebrate its richness to the fullest.

Republican and Democratic Texas State Board of Education representatives voted unanimously to approve Mexican American Studies in 2018 and African American Studies in 2019 as electives.

Now, we must take the next step.

These powerful courses are only offered as electives, relegating our history to second-class, extra or something to overlook.

That is why, according to the Texas Education Agency, just over 1,400 Texas students were able to take Mexican American studies, and less than 100 were able to take African American studies in the 2019-2020 school year.

I am submitting a bill to change that.

My bill would allow African American Studies and Mexican American Studies courses to count toward high school graduation requirements. These courses currently lack this critical designation. This change would encourage school districts to invest in the teachers, staff and resources to teach these courses long-term. Most importantly, this change will make our history count.

It would also inspire scholars and activists to develop the curriculum for the approval of further ethnic studies courses, including Asian American and Indigenous American studies. Activist, scholars and elected officials have included both of these disciplines since advocates began championing this new era of ethnic studies.

Study after study confirms that culturally relevant courses bridge the educational divide. The Cabrera Study provided this information at the Arizona Supreme Court and was pivotal evidence in overturning the state’s ban of Mexican American Studies. Now, we must unite so that every district benefits from the richness of these courses. This is especially important in the post-George Floyd era where so much attention is focused on dismantling structural discrimination that permeates our lives.

Culturally relevant courses go far beyond the classroom in cultivating a generation of leaders who will diffuse cultural conflicts early on. These same thinkers can also build a Texas where all our contributions are recognized, respected, and celebrated.

Please join me in delivering a Texas-sized history for all our youth and their families.

Morales represents District 145 in the Texas House of Representatives.

The results on college-level Ethnic Studies courses keep turning up positively in terms of their effects for outcomes like college graduation rates.  There is indeed a large and growing body of evidence showing that this isn't "culture wars" or "identity politics" at play, but evidence-based scholarship that should have implications for the university experience, particularly for an increasingly diverse society.

-Angela

The Benefits of Ethnic Studies Courses

San Francisco State University students graduate at higher rates when they pass ethnic studies courses, but not everyone agrees on what this means.

By 

Ashley A. Smith

July 9, 2018

Racial tensions and culture wars on many college campuses have often led some to propose that colleges add ethnic studies, while others have challenged the existence of these courses. Meanwhile, the data show that students in these classes at one university have improved or better outcomes than their peers.

New data from an evaluation of San Francisco State University's ethnic studies courses found that by passing just one class, students improved their overall performance across the campus.

The data compiled by the college's Division of Institutional Analytics found that ethnic studies majors in general graduate at a rate about 20 percentage points higher than non-ethnic studies majors. In 2010, ethnic studies majors had a six-year graduation rate of 77.3 percent, compared to a rate of 52.3 percent for nonmajors. SF State is unique in having the country's first and only freestanding college in ethnic studies.

6-Year Graduation Rates: Ethnic Studies vs. Non-Ethnic Studies Majors

The study also showed that students who enrolled in at least one ethnic studies class graduated at a higher rate than students who took no ethnic studies classes.

Six-year graduation rate by Ethnic Studies classes for non-Ethnic Studies majors, Students who enrolled but did not pass any Ethnic Studies classes graduated 20 percent lower than students who passed. 

Ken Monteiro, the acting director of the César Chávez Institute at the university and former dean of the ethnic studies college, said the data point in one direction: "We would suggest more ethnic studies classes."

There are several reasons why this effect in improved outcomes happens in ethnic studies over other majors, he said.

"Ethnic studies faculty members spend more time on advising and supplemental education than faculty in other areas," Monteiro said. "We partner and try to offer wraparound services. We teach them information that directly relates to them and then teach [students] how to relate the information to them even if it's not literally related. And third, we teach critical thinking strategies to show them they can look at things from a different perspective."

Many of the ethnic studies students are also in SF State's Metro Academies College Success Program, which has seen its own success in increasing completion rates. The Metro program combines student services with a curriculum that emphasizes social justice. At SF State, Metro students have a 60 percent six-year graduation rate compared to 53 percent for the university.

But Matt Malkan, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a member of the California Association of Scholars, which is skeptical of some ethnic studies programs, said correlation shouldn't be confused for causation. Majoring in ethnic studies is easier than other majors like physics, he said in an email.

"One would have to control for the relative difficulty of the major programs chosen by these students to make any serious evaluation of this," said John Ellis, a chair of the California Association of Scholars and professor emeritus of German literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Malkan said he also questions the effects reported at San Francisco State when completing an ethnic studies course is required to graduate. For example, students can satisfy U.S. history requirements for graduation by passing one of a number of courses offered from within the College of Ethnic Studies.

"Any graduation requirement is a clear signpost of progress toward degree completion," he said. "Students who complete that requirement are also showing themselves more likely to finish college, and in a shorter time, compared with those who have still not yet managed to get around to getting that requirement done successfully."

But Monteiro said ethnic studies also works to protect students from the emotional distress they may feel even within the classroom.

"They see our classes as an oasis where they're not attacked or harmed, and it's easier to learn when you're not feeling under attack," he said, adding that those attacks -- also known as stereotype or identity threat -- can happen in physics or calculus courses where one may assume identity doesn't play a role.

The idea is that if you're a historically underrepresented person in an education setting, then you experience anxiety in that academic setting. So a woman in an all-male high-level math course may underperform if she senses gender bias, even if that bias isn't overt or malicious, said Thomas Dee, a professor and director of Stanford University's Center for Education Policy Analysis.

SF State is a diverse campus where about 30 percent of undergraduates identify as Latino, 27 percent as Asian, 19 percent as white and 5 percent as black. But in a paper published last year, SF State professors found stereotype threat affected black students in psychology courses, where they were in the minority, as opposed to those black students who were enrolled in Africana studies, where they were the majority.

A similar effect of ethnic studies courses improving outcomes for students was found at the high school level two years ago by Dee and other researchers at Stanford's Graduate School of Education. The study examined an ethnic studies pilot program in San Francisco high schools and found students' attendance, grades and number of course credits for graduation increased and improved.

"There is an extensive literature base demonstrating the effects of ethnic studies in K-12 and higher education that goes back a couple of decades," said Nolan Cabrera, an associate professor in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona. "Ethnic studies definitely need to expand. We're still exploring the underlying mechanisms, but the more students see themselves in the curriculum, the better they'll do. The more they see the relevance to their everyday lives, the more engaged they'll be, and that's what makes [ethnic studies] unique."

Despite the multiple studies that show the improvement students make when they take an ethnic studies course, the field continues to be under attack. Cabrera, for instance, has presented evidence defending the efficacy of Mexican-American studies in Arizona high schools, which led to a federal judge ruling that the law banning the courses was created and enforced with anti-Mexican-American hostility.

And two years ago the ethnic studies college at SF State was fighting to survive budget cuts.

"Either it doesn't exist or there are legislators trying to kill it and this data is not changing their minds," Monteiro said. "We say we're a fact-based society and evidence-based society, but we're trained to ignore facts if they don't help our agenda."

Dee said some of these same interventions used in ethnic studies, such as limiting stereotype threat and offering student support services, could apply in other fields to help students.

"This isn't just culture wars or identity politics," he said. "There's a sound theoretical foundation for why culturally relevant pedagogy can be effective."

Read more by 

Ashley A. Smith

The Numbers Won’t Speak for Themselves

Glad to see that Inside Higher Education published our op-ed.  All of this certainly took its toll for all involved and concerned.  Yes, it is incumbent that we as scholars use our privilege and training to advocate for justice for our communities.
-Angela

The Numbers Won’t Speak for Themselves

An high-profile legal case about Mexican-American studies demonstrates why academics should become publicly engaged in issues in contemporary society, argue Nolan L. Cabrera, Stephen Pitti and Angela Valenzuela.

Judge Wallace Tashima

September 12, 2017

There is an old adage that scholars should simply “let the numbers speak for themselves.” But numbers have never told their own stories, and “disinterested” academics have never simply reported on phenomena without interpreting the data. The world’s best scientists, social scientists and humanists have long considered how their scholarship fits into, and might even change, contemporary society. We are proud that our academic field of Mexican-American studies in particular continues to stress a commitment to publicly engaged scholarship.

That commitment has been on display in places like Arizona for years. A few weeks ago, a more than decade-long fight in Tucson ended when a federal judge ruled that the law used to ban Mexican-American studies from the public secondary school curriculum was both created and enforced with anti-Mexican-American racial animus. This is the most high-profile ethnic studies case in the history of the United States, and we were privileged to serve as the three expert witnesses offered by the plaintiffs in support of Tucson’s program.

The first round of evidence came from Nolan Cabrera and co-authors at the University of Arizona, examining the programmatic efficacy of the Mexican-American studies program. They empirically demonstrated that students who took these courses were more likely to pass their state standardized tests after initial failure and were more likely to graduate from high school than their peers not in the program. This showed that state pressure to disband the program caused unconscionable and unlawful educational harm by removing this promising opportunity from its students -- in particular, Mexican-American students.

The second round of evidence came from Angela Valenzuela of the University of Texas at Austin, who established ethnic studies curricula as legitimate forms of education grounded in generations of scholarship and practice. She demonstrated to the court that Tucson’s disbanded Mexican-American studies program had represented a sound approach to K-12 education, that it was not the hodgepodge the state tried to portray and that the program’s educators were skillful and thoughtful teachers.

Finally, Stephen Pitti of Yale University provided evidence that the history of anti-Mexican-American racism in the Southwest shaped 21st-century debates about Mexican-American studies. He told the court that Arizona policy makers who attacked the program used racial code words to galvanize support from white Arizonans who feared the state’s “Mexicanization.” Racial animus, he emphasized, played a key role in the elimination of the Mexican-American studies program.

Our collective testimony identified the contours and nuances of how certain policies of the state of Arizona limited opportunities and racially discriminated against the Mexican-American community in Tucson. To reach this end as expert witnesses, we worked hard to share our academic expertise in ways that would be helpful to the court and to put our scholarly training at the service of the judicial process.

But it was challenging. Testimonies took many hours to prepare. Each expert report had to be meticulously argued and produced in a short amount of time. The trial preparation was grueling, and testifying proved both exhausting and nerve-racking. In addition, for Cabrera, it involved testifying against the same state that employs him, in a racially hostile environment.

We were impressed by the broad public interest in the educational and political issues discussed throughout the trial, and we took heart in knowing that many other Mexican-American studies scholars have worked on past civil rights cases related to education, voting rights, immigration and much more. We are proud to work in an academic field in which generations of scholars have worked to inform -- and at times, even shift -- public policy and discourse.

The numbers never speak for themselves, and we were gratified beyond measure when Judge A. Wallace Tashima ruled that “the state of Arizona acted contrary to the Constitution of the United States” by eliminating Tucson’s Mexican-American studies program. Many in the Tucson community -- educators, students and others -- had already reached a similar conclusion, but we are pleased that our efforts as scholars also played a role in overturning the unconstitutional elimination of this successful educational program.

Such involvement is crucial for academics. Some people mistakenly think that the case in which we involved had ramifications exclusively for K-12 education. But it’s important to understand that there are those who would eliminate ethnic studies programs in colleges and universities as well. During the move to ban Mexican-American studies in the Tucson Unified School District, the state superintendent of public instruction, John Huppenthal, also wanted to use his position to eliminate Mexican-American studies at the University of Arizona.

Earlier this year, Republican State Representative Bob Thorpe of Flagstaff tried to outlaw university offerings in the state that involved social justice, which would likely have included ethnic studies programs. In other words, this is part of a larger assault on critical multiculturalism, and institutions of higher education are not immune. In fact, they may very well be the next targets.

In these trying times, it is to our detriment that we as academics often remain cloistered in our ivory towers. The work that we do has great value to society at large, and it is incumbent upon us to make the case for that value and then to act on it.

Bio

Nolan L. Cabrera is an associate professor in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona. Stephen Pitti is a professor of American studies, history, and ethnicity, race and migration at Yale University. Angela Valenzuela is a professor in the educational policy and planning program within the department of educational administration at the University of Texas at Austin; she also holds a courtesy appointment in the cultural studies in education program within the department of curriculum and instruction at the university.

These Ethnic Studies Courses are Great Policy for Texas and the Nation

Happy to wake up to these news in the Austin American-Statesman (April 21, 2017).  These Ethnic Studies courses discussed yesterday in the Texas State Board of Education's (SBOE) Committee on Instruction are great policy for Texas and the nation (link to Action Item 7).  

This Action Item, if passed—and we are certainly hopeful that it will—creates 11th and 12th grade, full-credit, Ethnic Studies Literature Foundation (as opposed to "Enrichment" or elective) courses that will count toward graduation and that can substitute for English III and English IV for high school juniors and seniors throughout the state of Texas.  The courses do not actually have a name yet, so I'm simply calling them "Ethnic Studies in Comparative Literary Perspective."

This happens, of course, on the heels of the successful #RejectTheText battle in the September and November, 2016, meetings of the SBOE which speaks to the powerful and important role of advocacy and a unified voice, together with persistence on a cause that promises to breathe life into our state curriculum that will benefit ALL of our youth.  

Hats off to SBOE Georgina Perez for her stellar leadership, as well as to the rest of the SBOE—especially SBOE Members Rubén Cortez and Marissa Perez—for their unflagging leadership and support.  Erika Beltran (Dallas), also on the Committee on Instruction, gave voice to the significance of Ethnic Studies.  While it made an important difference in her life, her exposure to it was negligible, not unlike how it generally is for our youth statewide today.

University of Arizona Tucson professor, Dr. Nolan Cabrera, who testified alongside me on his data and analysis out of Ethnic Studies in the Tucson Independent School District shared data from his published piece titled, Missing the (Student Achievement) Forest for all the (Political) Trees: Empiricism and the Mexican American Studies Controversy in Tucson, published in the top education journal in the field, namely, the American Education Research Journal (AERJ). 

I very much encourage you to read this path breaking research, alongside the equally path breaking study by Thomas Dee and Emily Penner based on data gathered out of the San Francisco Unified School District's Ethnic Studies program that was recently published in the AERJ.

My testimony largely underscored how extant multicultural standards that I culled through various sources are precisely about the positive negotiation of difference in our diverse society and world, as well as to how these courses help prepare youth for college.

Kudos, as well, to the numerous students, scholars, parents, teachers, legislators, community leaders, and organizations that have weighed in over the years.  In this vein, I invite you to read Dr. Emilio Zamora's recent post titled,  The Mexican Fight for Ethnic Studies in Texas: The Biography of a Cause to which yesterday's testimony is another important addition. 

We're not there yet, but we're getting very close, thankfully.  The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words resonate today, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

Peace/Paz,

Angela Valenzuela
c/s

State board mulls integrating ethnic studies in high school curriculum

By Julie Chang - American-Statesman Staff

Posted: 5:33 p.m. Thursday, April 20, 2017

---

Highlights

A State Board of Education member has proposed integrating ethnic studies into high school English class.

The class would be optional but could fulfill the English 3 or 4 requirement.

In what could be the first step in integrating ethnic studies into Texas high school curriculum, the State Board of Education is considering a new English class that examines works of authors from different ethnic backgrounds.
Board member Georgina C. Pérez, D-El Paso, has proposed a comparative literature class for juniors or seniors that would include works by authors from diverse backgrounds.

SBOE Member Georgina Perez, Dr. Nolan Cabrera, and me

The optional course would fulfill students’ English 3 or 4 requirement and would follow established curriculum, so the board wouldn’t have to take on the complicated and lengthy process of creating new curriculum standards.
“The definition of comparative literature is not exclusive of one ethnic group or one cultural group,” Pérez said. “It’s comparative literature of a variety of ethnicities and cultures and historical periods, but the most important thing for a successful comparative literature course is that it is responsive and reflective of the students in the classroom as well as the community.”
A committee of the board started discussing Thursday the possibility of creating a comparative ethnic studies literature course with hopes that the full board would consider it as early as its June meeting.
The board in the past hasn’t been amenable to ethnic studies courses. In 2014, the board rejected a push to create an elective Mexican-American studies course, fearing that it would teach divisiveness. The board offered instead to approve textbooks for districts who want to offer African-American studies, Native American studies and Asian-American studies courses.


Three lawmakers have proposed bills this session that would allow ethnic studies English and social studies elective courses to be taught in middle and high school. The bills, sponsored by Democrats, haven’t gained traction.
Pérez said that more students would take ethnic studies if it is offered as an English or history class rather than an elective. She is hopeful that the course will win board approval because it doesn’t require new curriculum standards and is inclusive. She envisions the course as the first step to integrating more ethnic studies into other core courses in lower grades.
“This sounds like something that even in the elementary years would be something to get started … and start working the way up. I think that would be excellent,” board member Sue Melton-Malone, R-Robinson, said during Thursday’s meeting.
According to a study by the University of Arizona, Tucson students who took Mexican-American studies courses were more likely to pass all state standardized tests, including math. Students started performing better because they saw their cultural background reflected positively in the material that they were learning, Angela Valenzuela, a University of Texas education professor, told the committee.
“A positive social identity, a positive sense of self, a positive sense of society, so it’s really these pro-social values that are so important,” Valenzuela said. “What they did in Tucson is that they really promoted a sense of ‘we-ness’ and not this othering of people who are different.”

April 20, 2017 TCEP Brown Bag—Brown Lives Matter: Educational Equity, Tucson Unified, and the National Movement for Ethnic Studies

Free and open to the public

What: TCEP Brown Bag lecture, featuring University of Arizona Tucson Professor Nolan Cabrera His talk is titled,

"Brown Lives Matter: Educational Equity, Tucson Unified, and  the National Movement for Ethnic Studies" 

When: Thursday, April 20, 2017, 12-1:30PM

Where: Chicano Culture Room, Texas Union (UNB 4.206)

If you are coming from off campus, parking is available in the San Antonio Garage (SAG) located at 2420San Antonio St.

Light refreshments will be served. 

I also encourage you to read Dr. Cabrera's pertinent publication based on his path breaking research in Ethnic Studies at TUSD titled, Missing the (Student Achievement) Forest for all the (Political) Trees: Empiricism and the Mexican American Studies Controversy in Tucson, published in the top education journal in the field, namely, American Education Research Journal.

Angela Valenzuela