![\"A](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/cropped-DSC06590.jpg\")
by\u00a0JESSICA BLOUGH<\/a><\/strong> June 26, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Street-level](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/mission-high-scaled-e1700699037251.jpg\")
The San Francisco Unified School District is considering canceling its ethnic studies program in the fall while the district reviews teaching materials, the superintendent told principals Thursday afternoon, prompting criticism from educators who said doing so on such late notice would be unprecedented and create a logistical nightmare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Superintendent Maria Su is weighing a pause to the ethnic studies program to look over materials that have come under scrutiny in recent months. Her choice comes after months of organized opposition from a group of parents who insist<\/a> that the class pushes liberal politics and was hastily organized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She was expected to announce her decision to administrators on Thursday, but instead told them during a Zoom meeting that she would hold off until school principals had a chance to attend a forthcoming meeting with Phil Kim and Jamie Huling, the president and vice president of the school board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Superintendent is currently in active discussions with principals and various stakeholders regarding high school curriculum and course sequencing for social studies, including Ethnic Studies, in fall 2025,\u201d a district spokesperson wrote in a text to Mission Local<\/em>. \u201cWe are committed to keeping our community informed as soon as we have an official update.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n District veterans said that they could not remember any other instance of a course being paused while the district undertook a review. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStopping the course while auditing is, to me, a disproportionate response and one that doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense, given the chaos it would cause, and the cost,\u201d said school board member Matt Alexander, a former district principal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf we had curriculum issues in a math course, would we stop teaching math for a year? And create massive destruction over the summer? I don\u2019t think so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sarah Ballard-Hanson, a principal at Thurgood Marshall High School, pushed back against the proposed cancelation during public comment at Tuesday\u2019s school board meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe push to pause ethnic studies is about a national wave against DEI and truth-telling in schools,\u201d she said. \u201cSFUSD must resist,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n San Francisco public schools made a year of ethnic studies mandatory at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, though the district has included ethnic studies as an elective course offering for 15 years. Ethnic studies courses cover a wide range of topics<\/a>, including white supremacy, transphobia, activism and social movements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Though graduation requirements are set by the school board, which has not said it would change the ethnic studies mandate, the superintendent can choose what classes are actually taught. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some parents have complained<\/a> that the SFUSD ethnic studies program contains content that misrepresents history or discriminates against white and Jewish students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They complained about a since-removed listing of the Red Guards<\/a>, a militant student movement during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, among historical social movements, and a reading<\/a> about white male privilege from 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The district removed several examples that parents complained about, and published the ethnic studies materials<\/a> on its website. It also included a concern form<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Teachers and school administrators said that the superintendent\u2019s proposal would be disastrous for scheduling. At Tuesday\u2019s school board meeting, educators questioned why the superintendent\u2019s decision was happening in June, during summer break. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt should take a good teacher weeks to carefully construct a curriculum for their students; weeks and months. But they don\u2019t have weeks and months,\u201d an ethnic studies employee, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, told Mission Local<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Teachers go back to work on Aug. 12, which would leave them just six days to change their curriculum before school starts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEvery school will be on their own to figure out this behemoth of a logistical nightmare,\u201d added a high school principal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Students enrolled in ethnic studies for the fall would be moved to world history, though some have already taken that class and would have a gap in their schedules. Some schools are anticipating textbook shortages because the number of students enrolled in world history would double. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Studies from Stanford University<\/a> and the University of California, Irvine<\/a>, show that ethnic studies courses at SFUSD improve attendance and overall grade point averages for students. The academic improvements, school workers said, could be a result of a greater sense of belonging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The courses \u201c[help] create a sense of community and a sense of empathy among students,\u201d while teaching \u201ca different lens and a different way to think about world history and U.S. history,\u201d said Anna Klafter, the president of the SFUSD administrators union and a principal at Independence High School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt helps create deep critical thinking, and it helps students understand their place in the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surveys from the end of this school year of about 300 ethnic studies students, shared with Mission Local, <\/em>showed that more than half said the course helped them understand themselves and their backgrounds better. Sixty percent said they \u201cfelt a sense of belonging\u201d in class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Teachers and administrators emphasized that the course is particularly impactful for students of color. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the result of a 2021 law<\/a>, California requires students to have one semester of ethnic studies coursework to graduate high school, though Gov. Gavin Newsom has since withheld funding<\/a> from the requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n San Francisco schools have been a leader in ethnic studies programs since the 1960s, when protesters<\/a> at San Francisco State University made the adoption of an ethnic studies curriculum one of their demands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this year, state Sen. Scott Wiener coauthored a bill<\/a> in the California legislature that would require ethnic studies courses in schools to \u201cfoster multicultural respect and understanding and focus on the domestic experience,\u201d an addition that critics said<\/a> was targeted at conversations about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and bordered on censorship<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That bill was withdrawn in May. Another bill<\/a>, rewritten in May and coauthored by Wiener, would prohibit using curriculum that discriminates against a student, with an emphasis on antisemitism or Islamophobia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wiener\u2019s office declined to comment, citing scheduling issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n jessica@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Intern. Jessica is a multimedia journalist based in San Francisco. She\u2019s getting her Master’s degree in journalism at UC Berkeley and was previously an editor at Alta Journal and The Tufts Daily. She enjoys reading, reviewing books, teaching writing, hiking and rock climbing.More by Jessica Blough<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Teachers and principals warn against canceling class this late by\u00a0JESSICA BLOUGH June 26, 2025 (MissionLocal.org) The San Francisco Unified School District is considering canceling its ethnic studies program in the fall while the district reviews teaching materials, the superintendent told principals Thursday afternoon, prompting criticism from educators who said doing… Continue reading ![\"Mission](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/mission-local-logo-300x300.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u2018Behemoth of a logistical nightmare\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
JESSICA BLOUGH<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n