Santa Rosa City Schools ethnic studies courses feature critical race theory, whiteness, and social justice activism; paid ethnic studies consultant $530,000 over four years.

Santa Rosa City Schools ethnic studies courses include content such as “acting White,” critical race theory, participation in a “privilege walk,” social justice activism, white privilege, and whiteness. One course unit asks students how American culture defines ethnic groups as “collaborators with their own misery.”

Contracts pulled from the board website reveal that the district has paid consultant Acosta Educational Partnership (also known as Acosta Latino Learning Partnership) a total of $530,000 since 2021 for ethnic studies professional development.

The district ethnic studies courses are offered to middle and high school students and are a graduation requirement, starting with the class of 2025.

COURSES

Ethnic Studies (Middle School)

The elective middle school course states that it “teaches students to explore their identity, their family history, and their community history through the lens of race, ethnicity, nationality, and culture” and it also “seeks to educate students to be politically, socially, and economically conscious about their personal connections to local and global histories.”

The course also “aims to provide an emancipatory education that will foster active social engagement and community building and inspire students to critically engage in self-understanding and self-determination as they learn how to effectively seek social justice for all.”

Course learning outcomes include students being able to “recognize unfairness on the individual level (e.g., biased speech) and injustice at the institutional or systemic level (e.g., discrimination),” “plan and carry out collective action against bias and injustice in the world and will evaluate what strategies are most effective,” and “engage in collective action that challenges inequality directly by raising consciousness and focusing on improving conditions for under-represented groups.”

The second unit of the course focused on student identity includes topics such as “privilege,” “systems of oppression,” “ableism,” and “decolonization.”

The fifth unit includes students learning about “examples of how communities have resisted oppression through acts of self- and collective empowerment through mural-making, school-reform, activism around social services, and movements that improve their community.”

The final unit of the course titled “Social Justice in Action: Working in Solidarity Against Racism” states that students will “explore the privilege that they may have and how to use it, identify inequities in their own lives, and identify ways in which they may be perpetuating or challenging them.”

The culminating assignment for the course requires students to “write a personal essay describing how your understanding of race and identity has evolved over the duration of this course.”

_MS ETHS Ethnic Studies – Santa Rosa City Schools, CA Download

Ethnic Studies (High School)

The required ethnic studies high school course features content such as “acting White,” activism, social justice, critical race theory, white privilege, and whiteness.

The course overview states that it is “rooted in social justice” and will “develop students’ critical thinking skills through an analysis of a wide variety of historical and contemporary issues of race, ethnicity, and identity.” Students will “study the histories of race, ethnicity, nationality, and culture, and how these constructs relate to the historical and contemporary material oppression of marginalized communities.”

The first unit of the course introduces students to the “key terms of race, ethnicity, oppression, assimilation, acculturation, nativism, discrimination, and integration.” During the unit, students will “examine Tara Yosso’s ideas about cultural wealth” through readings from Yosso’s Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth.

Assignments for the unit on African Americans includes an assignment that asks students to “explore in more depth” the “widespread institutional racist practices in education (grading, disciplinary strategies, seating arrangements, course design, text selection, etc.)” and “create an alternative model for it with social justice in mind.”

Another assignment for the unit has students watch films and compare to Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” and answer questions such as “Is Critical Race Theory to blame for the plight of African Americans in the United States in regards to incarceration? In what ways is the prison industrial complex a mirror of Jim Crow?”

The unit titled “Systems of Oppression: Capitalism, Power, and Privilege” states that students will “explore the effects of power, and investigate the different forms of privilege” and they will “unpack the ideology around White privilege and the social construction of ‘whiteness’ and ‘colorblindness.’” Students will be able to “define the ‘invisible knapsack’ to understand ideas of White privilege and power structure connected to it” and students will “explore the role American capitalism has played internationally, and how this has influenced the experiences of ethnic groups living in and migrating to the US from different parts of the world.”

Unit essential questions include “How are different racial, ethnic, gendered and/or sexually marginalized groups oppressed by capitalism?” and “How does American culture define ethnic groups as collaborators with their own misery, as opposed to unjust targets of powerful elites?”

Assignments feature students participating in “‘a privilege walk‘ exercise and write a reflection of their experience and evaluate what they learned from the activity.”

The ninth unit titled “Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Intersectionalities” states that students will “explore the concepts of race, ethnicity, and gender, and how they were created as constructs, transformed, and have been maintained.”

Students will also “evaluate notions of ‘acting White’ amongst People of Color and reasons to behave in ways that are deemed to be professional and scholarly.” Students will also be asked questions such as “What are the experiences of a person of color in the LGBTQ community?” and “What is cisgender privilege and how does acess [sic] to it benefit or inhibit us?”

ETHS HS Course Proposal form-2 – Santa Rosa City Schools, CA Download

Ethnic Studies English 9-10 HP

The course Ethnic Studies English 9-10 HP features content such as critical race theory, privilege, and social justice activism.

The course overview states that students will “study the histories, experiences, struggles and joys of Indigenous, Latinx, African American, and Asian/Pacific Islander communities through literature, poetry, and non-fiction written by people within those communities.”

The first unit asks students questions such as “What are the origins of race, racism and white supremacy in the USA?” and “What does it mean to be ‘colorblind’? What is ‘colorism’?” Students are also asked “What are your own identities, privilege(s), and positionality in relation to systems/institutions of power?”

Students will also read Tara Yosso’s Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth.

Unit assignments include the Social-Identity Wheel which “encourages students to identify social identities and reflect on the various ways those identities become visible or more keenly felt at different times, and how those identities impact the ways others perceive or treat them.”

Social-Identity-Wheel-2 Download

Social Identity Wheel Handout Revised Download

The fourth unit asks students “What role do the youth play in the modern Black Lives Matter movement?” and “How does policing of young African American in the United States relate to the school-to-prison pipeline?”

Suggested texts for the unit include selected works from Angela Davis.

The unit title “Gender Studies” features questions such as “How do systems of power and privilege disproportionately affect some communities?, What are microaggressions?, What is Patriarchy, sexism, and homophobia? Who are the people/ groups with power and privilege? Have the groups/ people/ individuals changed over time?” and “How does heterosexism discriminate against the LGBTQ community and how have people organized for representation [sic] LGBTQ rights?”

The course’s final unit titled “Social Justice Praxis Project” which requires students to engage in “critical praxis” or social justice activism.

Ethnic Studies English 9-10 HP – Santa Rosa City Schools, CA Download

English: Ethnic Studies

The course English: Ethnic Studies features content such as social justice activism, Black Lives Matter, power, and oppression.

The course overview states that it is “rooted in social justice” and will analyze a “wide variety of historical and contemporary issues of race, ethnicity, and identity.”

ETHS English ethnic Studies – Santa Rosa City Schools, CA Download

Ethnic Studies Small Group Instruction English 11-12

The course Ethnic Studies Small Group Instruction English 11-12 features content such as critical race theory, privilege, and land acknowledgements – why it is not enough to just say them, but to go beyond.

The first unit asks students what “does it mean to be ‘colorblind’?” and “What is ‘colorism’?” It also asks students to identify their own “identities and privilege(s) in relation to institutions” and engage in the “Social-Identity Wheel” activity.

Students will also read Tara Yosso’s Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth and an article from Learning for Justice titled “COLORBLINDNESS: THE NEW RACISM?”

The “Indigenous Studies” unit features a Land Acknowledgement and includes an assignment that teaches students “how to go beyond.” It requires student to respond to the following questions: “why is it not enough to say a land acknowledgement? How is a meaningful, authentic land acknowledgement push back against colonization? What are some of the ideas the resource suggests and how do they take small steps to repair the harm done to Natives?”

Santa Rosa City Schools Course Proposal-Ethnic Studies Small Group Instruction English 11-12_Download

11th Grade Honors English: Ethnic Studies

The course 11th Grade Honors English: Ethnic Studies features content such as critical race theory, oppression, and privilege.

The course overview states that it is “rooted in social justice” and “examines the history, culture, identities, and experiences of colonially and institutionally oppressed communities in the United States with particular attention to African American Studies, Native American Studies, Latina/o/x Studies, and Asian American/ Pacific Island Studies.”

The first unit includes students reading Tara Yosso’s Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth and the poem “In Lak’ech”.

Santa Rosa City Schools Course Proposal – 11th Grade Honors – Ethnic Studies_Download

Ethnic Studies United States History P

The course Ethnic Studies United States History P features content such as critical race theory, oppression, and white supremacy.

The course overview states that it covers “California U.S. History content standards through an Ethnic Studies lens centering the voices and experiences of historically marginalized groups.”

Course texts include Howard Zinn’s A People’s History and A Young People’s History of the United States and Tara Yosso’s Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth.

The unit titled “American Imperialism and WWI at Home” includes essential questions such as “How did racism and white supremacy play a role in American imperialism?”