What's going on with ethnic studies in SFUSD?

The Facts

Starting in the 2025–26 school year, SFUSD will pilot a standardized ethnic studies curriculum, already being used by other school districts, according to Jill Tucker at the Chronicle. The curriculum will meet California State Board of Education Guidelines and Common Core standards, and teachers are required to follow it closely. Any supplemental resources must undergo formal review.

The curriculum is required by state law, and this change will replace last year's locally developed program that drew criticism for its content. While this is the short term plan, SFUSD will undergo a comprehensive audit to put in place a strong long-term curriculum.

The Context

All California high school students are required to complete at least one semester of an ethnic studies course in order to graduate. However, Governor Newsom didn't allocate funding for the implementation of this requirement, so it remains an unfunded mandate. Many other state policies are also unfunded mandates, like universal pre-K and financial literacy education (which is also required for graduation, but not yet implemented in SFUSD). While the state only requires a single semester of ethnic studies, SFUSD's course is a full year.

Last year, San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) required students to take a locally developed curriculum that drew widespread criticism over its content, including units on controversial movements like the Red Guard, which violently suppressed dissent against Mao Zedong's murderous cultural revolution.

In response to concerns from parents, educators, and community members, SFUSD Superintendent Maria Su is undertaking a significant shift in the district's approach. Since October 2024, Superintendent Maria Su prioritized solving a $114 million budget deficit and fixing operational systems, rather than curriculum review. But now that she's solved the budget crisis, she is turning her attention to curriculum and instruction.

Students may opt-out of the ethnic studies course, but they will still need to take it in order to graduate unless the district changes its graduation requirements and pushes against the state requirements. Last year, the first year when ethnic studies was required, only nine students opted out.

The GrowSF Take

You may have read about the controversy surrounding ethnic studies, and we think that most of the criticism from other political groups has been a bit over the top. Some groups on the right have attacked it as being too woke, while some groups on the left have criticized it for not focusing more on structural racism and other culture war issues. We think a balanced, fact-based approach is the best way to teach students about the history and contributions of different ethnic groups in the United States. In a multi-ethnic and multicultural society like ours, it's important for students to learn about communities different from their own.

Superintendent Su did the right thing by swapping SFUSD's curriculum with one already taught in other districts. Our locally-developed curriculum was highly politicized and full of flaws, which the new curriculum should avoid. While some advocates called for her to scrap the requirement entirely, we think she found the right middle ground.

A curriculum that fosters critical thinking over political bias will benefit everyone.