Letter of Concern to SDUHSD Board

Asian America Parent Alliance and The Parent Association

SDUHSD Board Meeting - Thursday, September 12, 2024 5:00pm

Item 10 G: Unit 1 Proposed Ethnic Studies Curriculum

The Board should delay the vote on Unit 1 because the review process has not been thoroughly or properly conducted, there was no district-wide communication about the community engagement night, and there has been inadequate time to receive and reflect on public input. The instructional materials are not only incomplete, but also controversial and fail to comply with Board Policy 6144 on Controversial Issues.

The current lack of transparency and good faith engagement with the community’s concerns can still be addressed.

We urge the Board to allow more time for reviewing our concerns, create additional listening opportunities for public input, and ensure full compliance with BP 6144 before proceeding with the vote.

TRANSPARENCY AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

1) The first community engagement meeting for Unit 1 curriculum was not properly noticed to encourage community participation. In fact, it appears there was an effort to minimize the publicity about the meeting, and the curriculum was not shared in advance. The effect is that the community could not engage.

2) It is unfair to all district stakeholders to only allow 3-4 business days to review this much curriculum content. The remaining review periods should be increased to at least two weeks so parents can review all the material thoroughly and give quality feedback, instead of being rushed.

3) Openly accessible links to all resources in the curriculum should be provided, instead of forcing people to look all of them up on their own. Some links are working, but many links still require permission to access.

4) All slides that will be used in the course should be provided for review before the vote as well. Some are now accessible, but it's not clear if all are. There is an abundance of missing instructional material related to each lesson.

5) If the District is sincere about working together with families, then we must have transparency on the development of the required ethnic studies course.

6) Delay the vote so the community has a reasonable amount of time to review the proposed material and until the Board can learn more from the community about their concerns regarding Unit 1. Commit to being fully transparent and open to the concerns of the community going forward.

9TH GRADE ENGLISH IS NOT AN APPROPRIATE OPTION FOR IMPLEMENTATION

7) The District has a lot of choices about how to implement the Ethnic Studies graduation requirement. The Board should have had a public discussion about the options and voted on the implementation of this curriculum in 9th grade English. This is by itself a very controversial decision and should be considered in public, not unilaterally decided by staff. Delay the vote until that decision can be discussed at a public meeting as it should have been.

8) What is the current 9th grade English curriculum (regular and honors) and what will be eliminated to make time for ethnic studies curriculum? The District has refused to make public the existing curriculum and syllabus for 9th grade English (regular and honors) at each school site. The board would be negligent to vote on Unit 1 without understanding what it will replace in such an important foundational class as 9th grade English. Delay the vote until the District specifically explains how Units 1-4 will impact 9th grade English (regular and honors).

9) Ethnic Studies is a complex and advanced topic if it is done well. It should be obvious to professional educators that a foundational understanding of American History and World History are a prerequisite for understanding the context of much of the Ethnic Studies curriculum. Ninth graders have had neither US History or World History and therefore they do not yet have the knowledge to think critically about such content or debate the ideas presented in Unit 1. Delay the vote until the District staff makes a credible argument that 9th graders have the necessary historical knowledge to benefit from a well prepared ethnic studies curriculum.

COMPLIANCE WITH BOARD POLICY 6144 - CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES

10) The Board must acknowledge that the entire proposed Ethnic Studies curriculum is a controversial issue. Specifically, the policy states “The Governing Board recognizes that the district's educational program may sometimes include instruction related to controversial issues that may arouse strong reactions based on personal values and beliefs, political philosophy, culture, religion, or other influences.” For the Superintendent, any Board member, or any staff member to disagree with that statement would be boldly disingenuous. With that said, it is incumbent on the board to require the District to comply with Board Policy 6144. Unit 1 violates almost every single one of the 8 guidelines in this policy.

11) Delay the vote until the Board can review its own policy on Controversial Issues and review a revised version of the proposed Ethnic Studies curriculum that is in full compliance with the policy.

THE ETHNIC STUDIES MODEL CURRICULUM PROMOTES ANTISEMITISM

12) Notably, Unit 1 of Lesson 9 analyzes the theory of intersectionality and includes a reference to Lesson 31 of the ESMC, Iceberg of Identity (page 372 of the ESMC). It is not clear in this draft of the SDUHSD proposed curriculum if this lesson will be based on the sample lesson in the ESMC. What is clear is that the sample lesson provided is outright antisemitic. How can it be accepted by the Board as is if you don’t have the information about what will be taught?

Delay the vote until the District can provide training for the ES Committee by a reputable Jewish organization on Jewish history, culture and how to identify antisemitism in instructional materials. Lesson 9 needs clarity as to exactly what material will be used to explain the theory of intersectionality.

SOME MATERIAL IS NOT SUITABLE TO THE AGE AND MATURITY OF SDUHSD STUDENTS

13) Some of the proposed Unit 1 curriculum is not age appropriate. There are materials written for second graders (Where Are You From?, A Bear That Wasn’t) which is simply a waste of instructional time and insulting to the intelligence of SDUHSD 9th graders. The exercise in Lesson 11, “What is your Name?” is seriously lacking the rigor expected of a high quality 9th grade English curriculum. To potentially replace exposure to Homer, Aristotle, Shakespeare, Maya Angelou, Upton Sinclair, J.D. Salinger, or any of the other great authors typically assigned in 9th grade English, with this childish moralistic “literature” is educational malpractice, and it most certainly violates Guideline #1 of BP 6144. Delay the vote until the District staff can review the material for appropriate level of maturity and rigor.

APPENDIX

Links:

CA Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/documents/ethnicstudiescurriculum.pdf

SDUHSD Proposed Ethnic Studies Unit 1: https://go.boarddocs.com/ca/sduhsd/Board.nsf/files/D8XPPU6589B1/$file/Ethnic%20Studies%20Unit%201_%20Identity%20(PENDING%20BOARD%20APPROVAL).pdf

SDUHSD Ethnic Studies Engagement Plan: https://go.boarddocs.com/ca/sduhsd/Board.nsf/files/D6BTSU78D221/$file/Ethnic%20Studies%20Engagement%20Plan%202024-25%20Presentation.pdf

Board Policy 1644: https://www.sduhsd.net/documents/Policies/6000%20Instruction/6000%20new/BP%206144%20Controversial%20Issues.pdf

SDUHSD Ethnic Studies FAQ:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18zzV3lndSD4J3dsEiocRczJLiP1UMw47IashFsN0uxo/pub

Lesson 9 - Iceberg of Identity: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/documents/ethnicstudiescurriculum.pdf

Where Are You From?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqaIE1Skn6Y

A Bear That Wasn’t