Examining Student Experiences and Benefits from Ethnic Studies Courses through Multiple Lenses

• In Event: Student Experiences and Benefits of Taking Ethnic Studies: Lessons From Three School Districts

Abstract

Objectives and Theoretical Framework
This paper emerges from a larger, mixed-methods project seeking to understand whether and how Ethnic Studies (ES) in a large, urban district may mitigate persistent inequality in student academic and non-academic outcomes. We present preliminary quantitative and qualitative findings, including effects of ES course-taking, and student and teacher voices about their experiences in ES classes. See the session description for more information on the ES theoretical framework.

Methods and Data Sources
For our quantitative analyses, we apply quasi-experimental methods to district administrative data spanning over a decade including enrollment, demographic, academic, and social-emotional learning data. For our qualitative analyses, we inductively and deductively code and analyze student, teacher, and school administrator interviews, classroom observations, and artifacts.

Preliminary Findings and Implications
This district’s graduation requirement is in effect for incoming classes. In 2022-2023, almost all (98%) high schools offered a district-approved ES course, a steep increase from 20% in 2012-13, and 60% in 2020-21. ES courses in this district are one semester long and the majority take ES in 9th grade.

For quantitative analyses, we identify cohorts of 9th, 11th, and 12th graders in 2016-17 to 2019-20, and follow them through the end of high school. Partial implementation of ES for these cohorts allows us to investigate the effects of ES. We compare the outcomes of students who took ES to students who did not take ES and who had similar characteristics and school contexts. We investigate academic and behavioral grades, being on-track for high school graduation, and being on-track for eligibility requirements for admission to four-year state universities. We find limited evidence of an effect of ES on these outcomes, though the evidence we do find is slightly positive. We find little to no effect of taking one semester of ES on any outcome. We find some evidence of a small positive effect of taking a year-long sequence of ES courses, most notably for those who took ES in 11th grade in completing coursework to stay on-track to graduate or on-track to meet eligibility requirements for four-year public universities. We also find a few small positive effects of taking ES for certain subgroups of students – e.g., low GPA students are more likely to be on-track for eligibility in public four-year universities, and female students had slightly higher behavioral grades.

Our qualitative data suggest many ways that students and teachers think about the knowledge, skills, and dispositions learned from experiences in ES classrooms – most of these are not measured in administrative data. Students and teachers talk about ways ES helps them develop: their racial/ethnic identity; a deeper understanding of their peers, family, community heritage; awareness of how historical structural racism and discrimination has affected current conditions, including in their neighborhoods; confidence and skills in using their voice and research to advocate for changes in their community; and their connection to school. We will discuss these varied quantitative and qualitative results together in this paper.

Authors

• Kyo Yamashiro, Loyola Marymount University

• Lucrecia Santibanez, University of California - Los Angeles

• Leonard Wainstein, Reed College

• Sarah Perez, University of California - Los Angeles

• Andrea N. Kern, University of California - Los Angeles

• Edward Flores, California State University - Northridge

• Jasmine Hamm, Loyola Marymount University