Ethnic Studies Make an Impact? Prove It

• In Event: 60.077 - Examining the Role of Ethnic Studies for Research and Advocacy: Moving Asian American Pacific Islanders Toward a New Direction

Abstract

An important missing component of critical education is assessment, which makes sense because traditional evaluation metrics (e.g., standardized test score) are frequently viewed as racist (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012). Morrell and Ducan-Andradae (2008) made a very interesting claim that while they believed standardized testing to be unnecessary, harmful, and oppressive, they also argued:

If students are to be tested and judged on the basis of their performance on tests, we remain constant in our assertions that critical pedagogy is the best approach to test preparation in that students are developing important skills that will allow them to perform on the tests (p. 157).

Delpit (2012) made a similar claim that critical pedagogy needs to be rooted in more than simply social critique. Rather, it should use teaching of learning fundamentals (e.g., reading and writing development) in conjunction with social criticism as a method of developing both a critical conscious and increased academic skills. Therefore, if critical approaches to education are effective, there should be a measurable results to this effect.

Within this context, I document the way my research team and I assessed the impacts of the Tucson Unified School Districts’ (TUSD) controversial Mexican American Studies (MAS) Program (Cabrera, Milem, & Marx, 2012; Cammarota & Romero, 2014). The research highlights the importance of being able to demonstrate our impacts even if it is through the traditional (and frequently oppressive) metrics of student achievement as the research resulted in the following verbiage from the Federal Desegregation order, “By the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year, the District shall develop and implement culturally relevant courses of instruction designed to reflect the history, experiences, and culture of African American and Mexican American communities.”

There was always the possibility during the assessment process that the program did not have a demonstrable impact. Had this occurred, it would have been a call for improving programming instead of defending the program. This is the difficulty of assessment. There are no predetermined outcomes, and if critical approaches to education are truly going to serve the needs of the students, we need to have the courage to modify our practices if we are not attaining.

Author

• Nolan L. Cabrera, The University of Arizona