Abstract
Increased interest in anti-racist education has motivated the rapidly growing but politically contentious adoption of ethnic studies (ES) courses in US public schools. A long-standing rationale for ES courses is that their emphasis on culturally relevant and critically engaged content (e.g., social justice, anti-racism, stereotypes, contemporary social movements) has potent effects on student engagement and outcomes. However, the quantitative evidence supporting this claim is limited. In this preregistered regression-discontinuity study, we examine the longer-run impact of a grade 9 ES course offered in the San Francisco Unified School District. Our key confirmatory finding is that assignment to this course significantly increased the probability of high school graduation among students near the grade 8 2.0 grade point average (GPA) threshold used for assigning students to the course. Our exploratory analyses also indicate that assignment increased measures of engagement throughout high school (e.g., attendance) as well as the probability of postsecondary matriculation.
Highlights
In 2010, SFUSD’s Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution, requesting that the Superintendent fund and implement a pilot ES course in SFUSD high schools
We present RD evidence that the probability of being enrolled in SFUSD is balanced around the intent to treat” (ITT) threshold for each of the years after entering ninth grade, which suggests that sample attrition is not differential
This study presents evidence from a preregistered RD design, that participation in a grade 9 ES course significantly increased the probability of graduating from high school for academically lowerperforming students
Summary
In 2010, SFUSD’s Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution, requesting that the Superintendent fund and implement a pilot ES course in SFUSD high schools. A “collective” of 10 social studies teachers developed and tested course materials for a year-long grade 9 course with support from faculty at the San Francisco State University and the District’s Office of Learning Support and Equity [15]. Several teachers from this collective became the first to formally implement the course in several high schools between the 2010 to 2011 and 2013 to 2014 school years. In addition to the civic and psychological goals of the ES program, the pilot’s stated intent was to close achievement gaps and reduce dropout rates [15, 16]
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