The Mexican American Studies battles are far from over

by David Safier

[This Saturday, "Save Ethnic Studies" will host a community forum, 10am-2pm at Pima County Housing Center, 801 W. Congress. More in another post.]

The TUSD Board's decision to end Mexican American Studies classes is not the end of the story, not by a long shot. The district resolution to end MAS classes (you can read a complete version at the end of this post) talks about an ambitious program to "revise its social studies core curriculum to increase its coverage of Mexican-American history and culture, including a balanced presentation of diverse viewpoints on controversial issues."

The district shall study and bring to the board new measures designed to narrow the achievement gaps for traditionally underserved and economically disadvantaged students.

Staff will present a plan to the Board for implementation of this resolution by August 2012. Staff shall also update the board regularly on the progress of these initiatives and on steps taken to ensure compliance with Arizona statutes and district policy concerning curriculum.

Board Pres. Mark Stegeman has been talking about this kind of approach since he first expressed his displeasure with the MAS program, so now is his chance to make things happen. It's going to be a steep hill to climb.

Adding more "coverage of Mexican-American history and culture," a noble goal, will mean doing some serious in-service education for teachers. It shouldn't surprise anyone that teachers' own educations did not include the material they will be asked to teach, and some of their long-held assumptions and stereotypes could be ruffled by what they will learn.

Teachers will need new, updated classroom materials which will cost the district money and might be hard to find. And they will need to push aside parts of their curriculum to make room for the new material.

Also, expect conservatives led by Huppenthal and every Arizona Tea Party primary candidate to scream their outrage if anything the slightest bit controversial is part of the new curriculum or teaching materials.

Then there's the lofty goal of coming up with "new measures designed to narrow the achievement gaps for traditionally underserved and economically disadvantaged students." The resolution makes it sound so easy. But anyone scanning the literature on narrowing achievement gaps knows much has been tried and little has been shown to have lasting value. One of the few successful examples is — you guessed it — TUSD's Mexican American Studies program.

An article in today's Star talks about the pushes and pulls TUSD is going to feel during the transition. The district included the expansion of MAS in its court-mandated attempts improve its deseg outreach. So it has to have a federal court approve the changes it's planning to make. Meanwhile, Huppenthal has made it clear, he plans to look over the resolution (which you can read below), then monitor every move TUSD makes. And you can be sure local and national MAS advocates will be watching the process closely as well. Saturday's forum is one example.

It will be something to see how TUSD, which has been criticized for its dysfunction, will pull this one off.

UPDATE: For a very complete report on the TUSD Board meeting where MAS was suspended, read Mari Herreras' post on The Range.

Here is the complete Resolution to suspend MAS courses and teaching activities:

The governing board of the Tucson Unified School District hereby resolves:

The Mexican-American Studies (MAS) Department is and shall remain an organizational contributor to TUSD’s commitment to greater academic and social equity for Hispanic Students.

All MAS courses and teaching activities, regardless of the budget line from which they are funded, shall be suspended immediately.

Students currently enrolled in MAS courses shall be transferred to new or existing sections of other courses, so that they do not lose the opportunity to earn credits and to satisfy requirements because of the suspension of the MAS courses.

The MAS department shall not hire, supervise, or evaluate classroom teachers.

The district shall revise its social studies core curriculum to increase its coverage of Mexican-American history and culture, including a balanced presentation of diverse viewpoints on controversial issues.  The end result shall be a single common social studies core sequence through which all high school students are exposed to diverse viewpoints.

The district shall study and bring to the board new measures designed to narrow the achievement gaps for traditionally underserved and economically disadvantaged students.

Staff will present a plan to the Board for implementation of this resolution by August 2012. Staff shall also update the board regularly on the progress of these initiatives and on steps taken to ensure compliance with Arizona statutes and district policy concerning curriculum.

Implementation of this resolution shall be consistent with guidance received from the federal court concerning the district’s desegregation cases.