Thread: Tucson's ethnic studies, despite denials, remain mystery to

October 24, 2010 |
Viewpoints
Tucson's ethnic studies, despite denials, remain mystery to most
Doug MacEachern, columnist - Oct. 23, 2010 07:05 PM
The Arizona Republic


It is the oddest thing: After years of warring over what is taught in Tucson Unified School District's ethnic-studies classes, almost no one outside the classrooms really knows what these self-acknowledged activist-instructors teach.

And that appears to include the district's own governing board.


We have clues about what gets taught. Printouts of literature used in the classes have been surreptitiously copied by other teachers and secreted out of the schools. A semester exam here has been smuggled out; a sheaf of profane, "stick it to the man" rap lyrics there. A syllabus pops up. So does a brief (if revealing) YouTube video of a raza-studies classroom in action.

I have hundreds of pages of the materials used over the years in ethnic-studies courses: Much of the "history" class material is obsessively propagandistic about the cruelties of the "European invader"; much of the literature was clearly selected for its revolutionary fervor first and its value as fine writing a distant second.

But nothing that provides a comprehensive understanding of the academic content of ethnic-studies classes has ever been publicly released. Not by the district, whose incomprehensible website scarcely mentions its most controversial department.

And not by the TUSD governing board, which is charged with reviewing and approving the education materials used in the courses in its schools. Despite its own "Policy IJJ" requiring it to thoroughly review course materials, including all the material used in ethnic studies, evidence indicates the board simply has rubber-stamped the assurances of ethnic-studies department directors that all the material is objective and academically sound.


'We're transparent'

The program's defenders contend the material gets reviewed all the time. As reported in the Tucson-based Arizona Daily Star on Oct. 12, Mexican-American studies Director Sean Arce claims the governing board "has reviewed the materials for the courses several times over the years to ensure it is in compliance with Arizona standards."

"We've given out our curriculum to so many people," Arce told the newspaper. "We're transparent, and the curriculum and materials are open for review by anyone."

In fact, there is no record that the governing board has ever examined any ethnic-studies materials. Ever.

Board records going back to 2002 indicate the members never have inspected materials, examined course outlines or taken any action that might expose them to what actually gets taught in ethnic-studies classrooms. Indeed, if the board's own records tell us anything, it is that I may have seen more of what is used in ethnic-studies classrooms than the governing-board members.

Arce often cites a board resolution passed on June 27, 2002, as evidence of board review for his teaching materials. But the resolution is simply that: a one-page statement that the governing board "recognizes the district's commitment to Ethnic Studies."

District records show the one-page statement went to the board with no supporting materials whatsoever, governing-board member Mark Stegeman reports.

Arce also speaks regularly of a 2007 board "review" of ethnic-studies materials.

From board records available online, it appears Arce is referring to a consent-agenda item in which the board voted to approve the district's classroom texts in bulk. There is no record of supporting materials being reviewed by board members. No record of any discussion. No record of the board doing anything except that which lazy, uncurious governing board members have done since boards were first created: They voted "aye" based on the blanket assurances of staff that all is well.

Expanding ethnic studies

More recently, Arce told me last week by e-mail that evidence of board review can be found in the "Post-Unitary Status Plan," a document designed in 2009 to help the district escape federal desegregation oversight.

But, once again, the Post-Unitary Status Plan simply affirms the district's commitment to expanding the ethnic studies. It says nothing about what is taught.

It does give some detail about ethnic studies' astonishing expansion in the district at a time when genuinely academic programs are being cut to the bone: Ethnic studies now offers 39 sections of raza-studies courses alone, including history, literature and a "Social Justice Education Project" in five high schools, as well as courses now being taught in seven middle schools, and even in elementary schools "as requested by teachers and site administrators."

But as to what is actually taught in the classes? The Post-Unitary Plan, like everything else served up by the program's defenders, is empty of detail.

The copied material that has escaped into the general public has discernable themes: Much of it characterizes the ancient territory now known as the North American West as a mystical and benevolent Aztec kingdom and depicts the usurpation of that kingdom by the "European invader" as a cruel, bloody, deceitful, disease-riddled overthrow of the righteous status quo.

Just one governing-board member, Stegeman, seems curious about whether that constitutes a proper course of study of "American history," especially since the history and literature courses replace traditional required courses. In many (if not most) cases, these courses will constitute all the American history and literature to which the students are exposed.

"As far as I know, the Raza Studies courses have never gone through this (review) procedure," wrote Stegeman in his online Sept. 20 newsletter.


Masterful dissembling

Tactically speaking, Arce and other program officials have dissembled masterfully in their defense of their program.

They know the local media are pliant, supportive and uninterested in uncomfortable details about what the kids get taught, even if it means students leave high school knowing virtually nothing about the founding of their country, the unique structure of their government or of the beauty of Western Lit.

And they know supporters will continue blindly accepting assurances that all is well.

Supporters still accept the premise of the "9 cohort studies" that purport to show students do better academically as a result of taking ethnic-studies courses. The fact that nationally recognized education experts, including Herbert J. Walberg of the Hoover Institution, have scorned the "studies" makes no impact on true believers. The district still touts the studies, and uncurious reporters continue accepting them as gospel.

Ironically, the evidence of what happens when the ethnic-studies doors close finally may escape via a lawsuit filed by program advocates to block an Arizona law aimed at banning the program's more subversive elements.

Legally, the relevant term is "discovery." We may have to leave it to the lawyers to finally discover what these mysterious courses really are all about.

Reach MacEachern at doug.maceachern@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8883

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... z13IlcyCXI

Ironically, one of the things not mentioned in this column is that so many of the students taking these courses in lieu of American History are the children of illegal aliens and therefore, they aren't getting any of the fundamentals of American History since the district allows the ethnic studies courses in their place.

Then we here this coursework makes for new radicals who want to grow up to be ethnic studies teachers. (ha ha)

It is pure irony that a lawsuit brought by these anti-USA teachers may be their undoing.