RUHS adds Ethnic, AP African American Studies
by Garth Meyer
Ethnic Studies and AP African American Studies at Redondo Union High School were approved by a 4-0 school board vote Tuesday, Jan. 22.
Students spoke in support at the meeting, including junior class president Ezequiel Johnson and Black Student Union president Sidney Cherry. Her father, Daniel Cherry, also addressed the board. The Adidas executive said, “You can’t get to algebra without math and you can’t get to a full education in this country without African American Studies.”
The course, to begin next year, highlights early African kingdoms and contemporary movements.
“This was the ask of Dr. Kyle Garrity,” said Susan Wildes, assistant superintendent of educational services, referring to the RUHS assistant principal.
Ethnic Studies will take the place of freshman English, also starting in 2024-25.
A California State Assembly bill passed in October 2021 made this the first state in the U.S. to require ethnic studies for high school graduation. An RUHS committee began work in the fall of 2022 to create the new class.
“English 9 — Ethnic Studies feels like the kid trying to be born for 18 months,” Wildes told the school board.
“Students in (this class) will study race through the intersections of social identities such as ethnicity, culture, gender, ability, language, immigrant status and class,” reads the Redondo Unified district New Course Submission curriculum document.
“They will analyze indigeneity, aspects of (de)colonization, white supremacy, oppression and privilege, and work towards empowering themselves as anti-racist leaders who engage in social justice activism.”
The cost for the new classes is limited to textbooks and materials. School Boardmember Rolf Strutzenberg was absent for the vote.
Ethnic Studies will first be one of three choices for freshmen, with regular English 9 and English 9 Honors. In 2025-26, English 9 is replaced by Ethnic Studies. The honors distinction is optional.
“These are exciting times,” said Boardmember Byung Cho. “I’m so glad we’re doing this… it invites, it creates community, it teaches students to think differently, while maintaining the rigor that our courses offer.”
“I’m excited to see how many doors this opens for students as they see what is possible for themselves,” said Jessica Variz, an RUHS freshman English and AP Language teacher.
The 13-member Redondo Unified School District committee on Ethnic Studies helped define the class, made up of teachers, parents, administrators and students, referring to the California state model curriculum.
“We wanted to embed it in a current English class,” Wildes said.
RUHS teachers wrote the course last summer, alluding to newly-established programs at other districts such as Santa Barbara Unified.
Because the RUHS Ethnic Studies class has been written as an English course, as opposed to Social Studies, it includes poetry and literature, along with existing freshman English requirements.
Today, in freshman English at RUHS, students read books such as “Romeo and Juliet” and “Lord of the Flies.” The textbook is titled “Language of Literature” (McDougall Littell).
Next year, class readings will be “Born a Crime,” by Trevor Noah, “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luen Yang, and “Race and Membership in American History: the Eugenics Movement.” A mix of articles, graphic novels and short stories are also to be assigned.
“This is an entirely new, full year English course for 9th grade students,” Wildes said.
The Redondo committee decided on freshman year over sophomore for Ethnic Studies because, “We felt the lessons build empathy and community. It might set the tone and increase the culture of the school,” Wildes said.
Topics include: “Identity: How does the language and framework of Ethnic Studies apply to me? Diversity: How does the language and framework of Ethnic Studies apply to others? Justice: How does the language and framework of Ethnic Studies help us to understand the origins of institutional and systemic inequities?”
Students will read “Marrow Thieves,” by Cheri Dimaline. The book is described as “an indigenous futurism novel that employs a dystopian lens to illustrate the impact of Canadian residential schools on First Nations communities as well as the world as a whole.”
In the third quarter of the year, students consider a local question: “How have historical policies, including immigration and segregation policies, as well as broader social systems impacted the experiences of different people in the South Bay? In what ways have homes — physical, cultural, social — been passed down and protected or threatened and erased?”
Supplemental texts include “An Indigenous People’s History of the United States for Young People” by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz; Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “Crying in H-Mart” by Michelle Zauner.
“We settled on more of the thematic, rather than ethnicities,” said Kyle Garrity, the assistant principal. “Do you focus on the ethnic group or the themes, and include as many ethnic groups as possible?”
AP AFAM
The curriculum for AP African American Studies comes from the College Board, a non-profit organization founded in 1899 that created the SAT test and the AP program.
AP African American Studies also meets the state Ethnic Studies requirement.
Last year, RBUSD added AP Pre-Calculus and AP Human Geography to its offerings.
The College Board is in a national pilot phase now for African-American Studies, growing from 11 schools taking part in 2020, to 200 schools this year.
“There’s going to be a lot more outreach (for AP classes), you’ll add a lot of diversity,” said Cherry, the RUHS Black Student Union president. “In a lot of my AP classes, I’m the only black student, or the only black female. I think this will be a great way to diversify the academic enrichment of the black students in our district.”
Class activities in AP-African American Studies include themes of “power dynamics associated with race and racism — as well as with other aspects of identity, such as nationality, class, ability status, and gender, all of which are addressed and explored through a diverse and student-centered curriculum,” the College Board states. “AP African American Studies explores the role of migration (forced and voluntary) in the development of African diaspora communities and the evolution of African American communities in the United States.”
Times
The arrival of Ethnic Studies in high schools in California comes at a time of controversy across the country on related subjects. A school board in Orange County banned “Critical Race Theory” teaching last year.
Redondo Beach Boardmember Strutzenberg missed last week’s vote on the two new classes because of a conflicting board meeting for SOCAL ROC. (He told Easy Reader his vote would have been to approve).
“I look at AP AFAM as the way things are going, things evolve,” Strutzenberg said. “A big part of it is the teacher, and the student and the parents. Could this be implemented in a way that kids need to be activists, loud and bold? Could this be taught in a way to convey there are many ways to achieve this that can be more effective?”
The RUHS Ethnic Studies committee was chosen by different school stakeholder groups, such as parents who nominated themselves or peers, the teacher’s union chose representatives and ASB selected students.
“We didn’t have any major conflict on any of this stuff,” Garrity said of the committee’s work. “We’ve heard nothing but positive feedback from the community so far.”
“The classes signify our district’s commitment to a well-rounded education that prepares us academically,” said Ezequiel Johnson, the RUHS junior class president, “It also teaches an understanding of the diverse histories and cultures that shape our society.” ER