Dive Brief:
- New York City will create and implement a Latino studies curriculum in public schools using a $3 million investment from the City Council’s Education Equity Action Plan initiative. The new curriculum is expected to launch in three years.
- The initiative is a collaboration between United Way of New York City, the Hispanic Federation and Columbia University’s Teachers’ College. These organizations will work closely with community-based organizations and local educators to gather feedback for the curriculum’s development and implementation.
- Nationally, Latino studies and ethnic studies efforts have expanded over the last few years: In 2022, Connecticut became the first state to require all high schools to offer courses on African-American, Black, Puerto Rican and Latino studies. As of 2024, 22 states — including California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada — have ethnic studies requirements.
Dive Insight:
Latino students comprise 42.2% of learners in New York City Public Schools, making them the largest demographic in the nation’s biggest public school system.
“In order to build an equitable educational environment, we need resources that reflect the broad scope of our history and lived experiences. A comprehensive and community-driven Latine Studies Curriculum does just that,” said Grace Bonilla, president and CEO of United Way of New York City, in a press release. The program uses “Latine,” a gender-neutral alternative to Latino or Latina.
A 2022 study found the use of texts with relevance to students' identities can enhance reading motivation, engagement and comprehension. When students are able to see themselves reflected in the texts they read, it leads to more meaningful discussions, the authors wrote.
According to the research, discussion around terms like “culturally relevant literature” and “diverse texts” have in recent years become common in educational circles with stakeholders seeking to elevate texts by and about individuals whose experiences have been omitted in literary collections.
In New York City Public Schools, this effort looks like Hidden Voices, a New York City Department of Education curriculum guide that aims to help students learn the history about underrepresented groups in New York City such as the LGBTQ+, Asian American Pacific Islander and Black communities. The Latino curriculum is the latest addition, but plans are also in the works for new lessons featuring Americans with disabilities and the Jewish and Muslim American communities.
However, efforts to diversify curriculum have been met with pushback, with almost half of states enacting laws in recent years that limit or ban classroom discussion of “divisive topics” such as race and LGBTQ+ issues, according to PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for free speech.
Patti Sakurai, an associate professor in ethnic studies at Oregon State University, recommends that administrators clarify to any concerned individuals that ethnic studies is not only beneficial for students from those communities, but that there is a foundational educational value in having to think from someone else's perspective.
“It's not about trying to get everybody to agree on a singular narrative as much as understanding the diversity of those narratives, and kind of shift it from this idea that this is about trying to impose propaganda and brainwashing,” Sakurai said.
Dive Awards
