In a new world full of understanding and acceptance, classes to help students improve their knowledge of cultures are now being rolled out through school districts all over California, threatening to affect some of the campus’ most popular electives. In many cases, the most enjoyable part of a students’ schedule is their elective courses as they are chosen rather than mandated.
California’s Assembly Bill 101, signed into law by governor Gavin Newsom in October of 2021, authorizes that beginning in the 2025-26 school year, students must complete at least one semester of an ethnic studies curriculum covering the history and perspectives of discriminated groups including African Americans, Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans. Lesson plans in the model curriculum itself include lessons on many communities including Filipino Americans, Jewish Americans, Arab Americans, Sikh Americans, Armenian Americans and others.
“Personally, I think it is a good idea because it definitely would be an interest of somebody. I think it would also grow a stronger knowledge in those topics,” sophomore Hadley Taylor said.
PRHS is a highly diverse campus with students from various cultural and ethnic groups.
According to the model curriculum overview, the course’s focus is to supply students with knowledge regarding the history, contributions, culture, and history of aforementioned discriminated groups.
Executive Director to the California State Board of Education, Brooks Allen transcribed a letter “Dear School Leader(s)…” explicating the course specifics of universal races, religion, nationalities, genders, sexual orientation, disabilities, English learners, and differing ethnic and cultural backgrounds without promoting bias, bigotry, discrimination, or religious doctrine against any group of persons.
Educational agencies are offered the flexibilities to adapt the model curriculum to more appropriately address the demographics and diversity of the specific classroom.
With the mandating of this new course, Paso Robles Joint Unified School District has to figure out the classes logistics.
Director of Curriculum and Instruction Anthony Overton pointed out options that semester electives can provide as the plan unfolds. “We can either embed it directly into a class that already exists, like English or history, depending on what we want to do, the other option is to offer it as a standalone elective class.”
In the model where the class is a standalone elective that lasts a single semester, many introductory electives such as intro to healthcare or intro to auto for example would be shortened to fit the new class lengths.
This would allow students to enroll in various different electives in the span of one school year, also introducing the opportunity to take multiple Career Technical Education, or CTE, introduction courses which would open the possibility of students completing more than one CTE Pathway in their high school career. CTE courses include personalized curriculum based on students career interests, prior to them entering the field, so when they do they are prepared. The CTE courses that will be affected as of November 4, 2024 include healthcare, automotive, and media.
In order for this to happen, teachers have to adjust their classes to fit the new scheduling. Many CTE introduction classes will possibly be condensed while others might be migrated to the second course.
”We had to be selective about which courses got reduced to a single semester because we can’t incorporate those dual enrollment curriculums into a shorter period of time.” PRHS CTE Department chair and Healthcare teacher Shelby LaMendola said. Since the condensing of courses may take away the dual enrollment opportunities, CTE teachers may only offer introductory courses for the length of only one semester. “I feel as though the shortening of the class would either cause the students to have to take the course repeatedly to obtain all the information, or the teachers would have to compact their curriculum,” said Freshman Jared Nevarez.
The district hopes the class will educate and possibly open new doors for students.
The district has yet to decide who they intend on hiring for the teaching position, but if the class is finalized to be a standalone class, the instructor will need to have a social science credential.
