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Following criticism in recent months from some community members of its ethnic studies course, the Mountain View Los Altos High School District has now conducted a student survey to get a more comprehensive perspective on the topic.
The survey asked students a series of questions about their experiences taking ethnic studies, and then asked them the same questions about their freshman year English course. The idea was to use the English results as a baseline for comparison.
In general, the survey showed that students had similar – and generally positive – experiences in both their ethnic studies and English classes. However, when asked to consider the rigor of the courses, students overall found ethnic studies to be less rigorous than freshman English.
And by a roughly two-to-one margin, students favored switching ethnic studies from being a full-year course to a single semester one.
Ethnic studies has become a politically polarizing topic in California, with debates over the subject heating up in many districts ahead of a potential state requirement to offer the course starting this fall. There are still questions over whether that mandate will actually take effect, because the state hasn’t yet allocated the funding to implement the course.
In MVLA, ethnic studies has already been implemented. This is the second school year in which ethnic studies has been a required social studies course for all MVLA freshmen, following the school board approving the class back in 2023.
The high school district contracted with Hanover Research to conduct a survey of freshman and sophomores to get their opinions on the ethnic studies course and Associate Superintendent Teri Faught presented the results to the school board at a Monday, May 19, board meeting.
Faught told the board that students were broadly having good experiences in both ethnic studies and freshman English, reporting that they felt respected, heard and able to participate. At the same time, she acknowledged concerns about whether the course was sufficiently challenging.
“There is a need to look deeper at the perception of the rigor in ethnic studies, yet ethnic studies shows powerful outcomes related to the understanding of culture, identity and building community for themselves and amongst their peers,” Faught said.
The survey showed that 66% of students reported feeling “somewhat” or “completely” comfortable sharing their opinions in their ethnic studies class, which roughly matched the 68% who said the same about freshman English.
About 74% of students said that they somewhat or completely agreed that their ethnic studies course included many different perspectives, compared with 69% when it came to freshman English.
The survey showed bigger differences when students were asked to consider the difficulty of the courses. Only 45% of respondents somewhat or completely agreed that ethnic studies was “appropriately challenging,” compared to 67% who felt that was about their English class.
The survey ultimately asked students whether they wanted ethnic studies to remain a year-long class or only take a single semester. Overall, 64% of students said they would prefer a one-semester course.
Board members react to the data
After hearing the presentation, school board members expressed varying opinions.
Catherine Vonnegut said that the results didn’t alter her underlying support for the course, although she was in favor of looking into the potential ways to increase its rigor.
“This does not change my mind from thinking that we should have ethnic studies and we should require ethnic studies,” Vonnegut said. “I’ve thought that ever since I voted for it when I was on the board several years ago.”
Vonnegut added that the data did call into question whether the board may want to consider switching to a semester-long course, but she favored sticking with the yearlong option for the time being until more research is done.
Thida Cornes similarly said that she wanted to be thoughtful in weighing whether to shorten the course to a semester, which she described as an issue that educators should discuss. Cornes added that the perception of the class as less rigorous could be impacting the number of students who think it should be shortened.
Cornes stressed that making ethnic studies a graduation requirement was a multi-year process that included “extensive community input,” and that the survey showed that students recognized the value of the course.
In contrast, Vadim Katz raised a series of questions about the survey results and expressed concerns about the course. He said that the results confirmed feedback that he’d already heard from students.
Among that feedback, that ethnic studies is an “easy A,” which Katz said was backed up by results showing that most students don’t believe it is appropriately challenging.
Katz also said that he’s heard from students that ethnic studies isn’t “inclusive” or “safe,” which he argued was supported by the fact that roughly 30% of students didn’t feel comfortable sharing their opinions or asking questions in class.Those numbers are roughly similar to the results about freshman English.
Overall, Katz argued that the board should ask administrators to prepare a one-semester curriculum for the board member to review. He made a motion to that effect, which Alex Levich indicated she would second. Board President Esmeralda Ortiz pointed out that the item was agendized for information, not action, and therefore a formal vote couldn’t be taken.
Levich said that the survey results were insightful, but raised concerns about what the data showed, including differences in the responses to certain questions between white and non-white students. Levich said that it is important that all students feel that they belong in the classroom.
“Not focusing on the differences, but actually focusing on similarities and figuring out how to live and work and thrive together, is really important,” Levich said.
At Monday’s meeting, six members of the public turned out to speak about ethnic studies, all of whom spoke in support of the course.
Amal Khan said that her family experienced racist remarks after her husband, Ibrahim Bashir, announced a run for Los Altos City Council last November. Khan had to ask the Los Altos High School principal to keep a closer eye on her child during that time. The experience was “incredibly painful,” but Khan said it also highlighted why diversity education is important.
“The need for diversity education is so critical, especially to those children who feel othered for whatever reason,” Khan said.
Cindy Sidaris told the board members that she supports continuing to require ethnic studies for ninth graders and believes that the opposition to the course actually shows the need for it.
“Our community is multiethnic (and) multicultural,” Sidaris said. “We all need to know about our community members to understand where they’re coming from, to have empathy and acceptance for their histories.”
While Monday’s commenters were uniformly in favor of ethnic studies, that differed from previous meetings where speakers largely raised concerns about the course.
At prior meetings, speakers argued that the course was one-sided, alienated students with differing viewpoints and caused further polarization.
“There are countless examples of how this course fails basic standards of academic rigor and integrity, objectivity, evidence-based reasoning and diverse viewpoints,” one speaker said at an April 21 meeting. “Despite best intentions, the content is being taught in a very ideological, opinionated and one-sided manner – and any form of critical thinking is very strongly discouraged.”
Commenters have also argued that ethnic studies takes time away from other social studies courses and favor making it an elective, which students can decide whether to take.
What are the elements of the Ethnic Studies class; what does it include? Do students also have a social studies class that includes World War II, its dictators and the Holocaust?
The article refers to “differences in the responses to certain questions between white and non-white students,” but does not say what those differences are. This seems like pertinent information. Can you update the article with more specific information on this topic?