A dozen Boston city councilors have thrown their support behind a proposal by the Boston Teachers Union for how public schools can launch an “Ethnic Studies” curriculum this year.
In an Aug. 18 letter to Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius, the councilors urged the district to use the BTU’s Ethnic Studies Now! Committee plan for rolling out the curriculum, which would focus on “the history and experiences of people of color to empower educators and students alike,” including history honoring intersectional identities, according to the union.
“Our school district is one of the most diverse in the country: Over 84 percent of BPS students are students of color and our students come from 139 different countries,” reads the letter. “This proposal is the next essential step toward ensuring that learning in BPS is open and welcoming to our diverse student population, but also ensuring that the implementation of Ethnic Studies is structured and implemented in a way that will be effective and successful in the short and long term.”
According to the union, Cassellius supports the Ethnic Studies initiative and the curriculum has been added to the district’s Strategic Plan, but no funding for the effort has been allocated for the coming school year.
The union’s proposal asks the district to pilot the course in three to six schools this academic year and to provide funding for at least one full-time “instructional coach” position.
Additionally, the plan requests school officials to allocate money for professional development training and curricular development, which would include the “expansion of new courses like African American, Asian American, Native American, and LatinX studies.”
“Our students deserve an education that honors their identities, critiques the systems of oppression that structure our world, and creates opportunities for them to build community and make real, impactful change,” Cecil Carey, a member of the union’s committee and an educator at Charlestown High School, said in a statement.
Councilors, in their letter, noted the proposal also asks the district to include its stakeholders in the decision-making process for how the curriculum is designed and put into the school system’s core teachings. They wrote the committee has been working over the past three years to build “a popular movement of parents, families, students, educators, and community members” to push for the initiative.
All of the council signed the letter, except for Councilor Frank Baker.
“Ethnic Studies builds on the collective power of communities of color and their social movements to inspire us to act locally and globally toward justice and transformation,” the letter says. “This has become all the more important given recent movements for social justice that have occurred in our communities, around the country, and even around the world.”
Read the full letter:
