District 5: Jefferson Elementary School District (Daly City, CA)

• In Event: Imagining Principled Possibilities of Ethnic Studies: Disrupting Racial Injustice From Policy to Pedagogy and Practice

Abstract

In 2020, Jefferson Elementary School District was the first district in the nation to pass a policy for Ethnic Studies to be implemented at the elementary and middle school levels. After three years of development with Community Responsive Education, teachers have developed an Ethnic Studies curriculum that spans 3rd to 8th grades. The themes of the grade levels build on each other:

3rd Grade
LOCAL: DALY CITY 4th Grade
STATE: CALIFORNIA 5th Grade
NATIONAL: UNITED STATES
6th Grade 7th Grade 8th Grade
ETHNIC STUDIES ETHNIC STUDIES ETHNIC STUDIES
IDENTITY COURSE COMMUNITY ART COURSE LEADERSHIP IN ACTION
COURSE

Jefferson Elementary School District’s vision for Ethnic Studies is to provide curriculum and pedagogy that aims to eliminate racism and intersectional forms of oppression by centering and humanizing the first-person voices of communities that have been racially marginalized. Through Ethnic Studies, students develop their identities, agency, and power so they can better advocate for themselves, their families/caregivers, and communities while working together to create a more socially JUST, EMPATHETIC, SYSTEMS LITERATE, AND DETERMINED world.

Authors

• Chloe Romley, Jefferson Elementary School District

• Flordellyn Castillo, Jefferson Elementary School District

• Jocyl Sacramento, California State University - East Bay

• Jazmine Fortes, Oakland Unified School District