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San Diego Unified School District Ethnic Studies
SDUSD Ethnic Studies Graduation Requirement (ESGR)
Starting with the Class of 2024, students are required to take at least ONE ethnic studies course to graduate.
Y'all ready?
What is ethnic studies?
Ethnic studies is the study of perspectives, knowledge, experiences, and contributions of people of color with a central focus on anti-racism. Historically, ethnic studies emerged from social movements in the 1960s as educators and scholars of color pressed schools, school districts, and textbook companies to produce and offer curricula that reflected the diversity and complexity of the United States population.
Why is ethnic studies important?
The expanding research on ethnic studies reveals its potential to enhance understanding, awareness, and appreciation for multiple, situated identities. It fosters increased academic identity, respectful engagement with diverse individuals, and deepens understanding of community ethnic groups. Ethnic studies promotes social, cognitive, and environmental justice consciousness, and inspires social justice action and civic engagement.
Our Guiding Values
Our guiding values, the 7 Cs, center our work in empowering and humanizing all people.
Cultivate
well-being, empathy, community actualization, self-worth, self-determination
Celebrate
stories of Native People/s and People of Color
Center
and value indigenous & marginalized knowledge
Critique
power and oppression examining its roots, who it benefits and who it harms
Challenge
beliefs and practices on personal and systemic levels
Connect
to past and current resistance movements
Conceptualize
possibilities of a new and different world rooted in liberation and radical healing
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