Tam Union parents scrutinize ethnic studies plan

Some Tamalpais Union High School District parents repeated a call this week to postpone the district’s controversial new ethnic studies course.

The course, “Community and Consciousness,” will launch Jan. 8 for freshmen at the district’s five high schools. Parents, students and community members will be invited to monthly or twice-monthly feedback sessions beginning Jan. 16.

“We’ve been working with the Institute for Curriculum Services, which helped develop the state’s model curriculum for the course,” Tara Taupier, district superintendent, said at a board meeting on Monday.

At issue is what some district parents say has been a co-opting of the ethnic studies curriculum by outside groups for their own purposes. The parents have sent a 20-page letter to the district with examples of this that have permeated throughout at least two-thirds of the curriculum, they say.

“I think what works best is to build consensus,” Scot Candell, a Larkspur city council member, said at the meeting. “You need to go slowly.”

Parent Laurie Dubin agreed.

“This timeline is just too rushed,” she said. “There is not enough time for feedback.” Dubin was especially concerned about the added classes on the Jewish American and Arab American experiences, which are due to be taught to students from Feb. 17 to 28.

They say the course has been turned from an “inclusive” ethnic studies program, as envisioned by the state, into a “liberated” ethnic studies power manifesto calling out White supremacy, privilege, oppression, victimization and persecution in order to inspire division and separation, according to the parents.

At least two district trustees — Kevin Saavedra and Jennifer Holden — said last week they agreed with the parents.

The state is mandating the course as a graduation requirement for students entering ninth grade next fall, and graduating in June 2029. The state, after months of conflict several years ago, arrived at model curricula for those two classes.

Dubin said she is worried that the Tam Union classes will include “other resources being shared from outside groups,” she said.

“This is being rolled out in January,” said parent Melissa Weinberg, of the two added classes. “This seems quick and rushed. There’s been very little knowledge about this that has been given to parents.”

Feedback sessions on the Jewish American and Arab American classes are scheduled for Jan. 16, 23, and 30, Taupier said. Teachers will attend a professional development course on the classes led by the Institute for Curriculum Services on Jan. 31.

The rest of the course will focus on the experiences of four core ethnic groups: African American, Asian American, Latino American and Indigenous people.

Concerns about the infiltration of the course by outside groups have been raised throughout the state. Last week, a new nonprofit called the THINC Foundation was formed in the San Diego area, according to spokesperson Jared Sorhaindo.

“The THINC Foundation  — transparency, honesty and integrity in the classroom — advocates for ethnic studies education that prepares students to succeed in an increasingly diverse America by teaching the histories, challenges and achievements of our nation’s ethnic groups, and supports efforts to make curricula publicly accessible,” Sorhaindo said in an email.

His group “is opposed to ‘liberated’ ethnic studies, a politicized and divisive approach to ethnic studies that is gaining traction nationwide,” Sorhaindo said.

“Liberated ethnic studies curricula teach children to see others primarily through the lens of race, which is directly at odds with the values expressed by supermajorities of parents in our survey,” Sorhaindo said.

A group of Southern California parents sued United Teachers Los Angeles and another group earlier this year over a ethnic studies curriculum that has been adopted by a number of school districts, according to EdSouce, an education journal.

A judge threw out the suit, saying that there was not enough evidence to support the parents’ claim of bias in the Jewish American experience classes.