EDUCATION Frisco ISD expands course offerings with ethnic studies
also limits how teachers can discuss current events. Because the questions and themes students study in the FISD course are based on TEKS standards, they do not violate the bill. Studentdemand Just twomonths after the state approved TEKS standards for African American Studies, Heritage High School senior Kate Shaw started a peti- tion asking FISD to implement African American Studies into the curriculum. At the time, Shawwas unaware of the TEKS approval or that sta were researching for the course. “As far as Black history goes and any other ethnic history goes, you only get glimpses of that in curricul[a],” Shaw said. “So for me, I was like, let’s try to take this opportunity to take a step forward and hopefully try tomake some change.” Shaw’s petition, which gained 2,134 signatures, circulated for about twomonths before she and Kashish Bastola, another Heritage High School senior, met with district curriculum builders to talk about their vision for the course. Shaw and Bastola presented a slide- show to sta that included the petition and submissions from students who have had racially based interactions in the district. “[The petition is] kind of what made it an easier decision for us that, yes, the timing’s right for this,” Manis said. Coursespeci cs FISD’s version of African American Studies is question driven and inquiry driven, Manis said. Instead of tradi- tional testing, most teachers across the district measure student understand- ing with projects and re ections. Shaw gave an example of a recent project her class at Heritage High School completed that involved assigning groups di erent court cases that have a ected African Americans. Each group researched a case and made a presentation that detailed the present-day e ects of the ruling. Then the group asked the class questions as if they were teachers. “We have to have these deeper conversations, and they might be
BY BROOKLYNN COOPER
The 2021-22 school year marked the debut of Frisco ISD’s rst ethnic stud- ies class: African American Studies, an elective available to high school students across the district. MeridithManis, managing director of secondary teaching and learning, said the district had been looking to o er additional social studies courses for a while. The curriculum and instruction teamprefers courses that have Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, which are adopted by the state, she added. When the State Board of Education approved TEKS standards for African American Studies in April 2020, the district began researching the best way to implement the course, Manis said. Students learn about the history and cultural contributions of African Amer- icans, according to TEKS standards. “This course develops an under- standing of the historical roots of African American culture, especially as it pertains to social, economic and political interactions within the broader context of U.S. history,” the TEKS standards read. “It requires an analysis of important ideas, social and cultural values, beliefs and traditions.” The standards outline several primary and secondary materials that teachers should use to support classroom instruction, including auto- biographies, U.S. Supreme Court cases, novels, songs, speeches and artwork. Texas districts could o er African American Studies as an innovative course before the TEKS standards were approved. During the research period, FISD’s curriculum teammet with sur- rounding districts to learn about how they taught the course, Manis said. “We didn’t want it to be another history class,” Manis said. “Some kids don’t like history, and it’s really about studies. It’s about culture and life and not just history.” The course was not a ected by the bill banning critical race theory that Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law in June 2021, Assistant Communications Director Meghan Cone said in an email. Critical race theory studies how race and racismhave a ected the country’s local and social structures. The bill
Students in Lone Star High School’s AfricanAmerican Studies class sit in a retired train car listening as JohnGarbutt, director of programs and services at theMuseumof the American Railroad, talks about railroad history. (Brooklynn Cooper/Community Impact Newspaper) A SOLID DEBUT Below are the number of students enrolled in Frisco ISD’s African American Studies class during its inaugural semester. District-wide, 265 students are enrolled.
60 50 40
30 20 10
0
Frisco ISD high schools
EMERSON HIGH SCHOOL DID NOT OFFER AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES THIS YEAR BECAUSE IT WAS A NEW CAMPUS THAT OPENED WITH ONLY NINTH AND 10TH GRADERS.
WHAT IS ETHNIC STUDIES?
Here is the di erence between ethnic studies and critical race theory.
ETHNIC STUDIES courses are shaped by Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, which are approved by the State Board of Education. These are project-based courses that focus on the societal contributions of a group, such as African Americans or Mexican Americans. Full standards are available at www.tea.texas.gov.
CRITICAL RACE THEORY studies how race and racism have a ected social and local structures in the United States. A bill signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott limits how teachers can discuss current events. The bill also mandates the teaching of the history of white supremacy and the ways in which it is morally wrong.
SOURCE: FRISCO ISD COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
uncomfortable,” Shaw said. “It’s a di erent experience for everybody, but I think that’s what makes it so great.” Mizan Dorsey, a senior at Lone Star High School, said her favorite part of the class is learning about more than slavery and civil rights leaders. “That’s not our only history, so we’ve just been learning di erent types of things besides that,” Dorsey said. “[We learn] about Black excellence and things that we’ve accomplished rather than things that were done against us, so I like that the most.” Agrowingprogram In December, each of the African American Studies classes visited the Museumof the American Railroad in Frisco. Museum sta shared the history of Pullman porters, men hired to work on sleeping train cars in the
late 1800s through the mid 1900s. Students walked through a retired train car that used to run for the Pullman company and explored other historic rail cars at the museum. Patience LeBlanc, an instructional coach at Frisco High School, is plan- ning more eld trips for the African American Studies courses. She is also looking ahead to trips for Mexican American Studies, which the district will debut next school year. Based on how smoothly the rollout of the African American Studies course went, Manis said she expects students to receive the Mexican American Studies class well. “We like the fact that the resources are primary and secondary sources, so it’s not textbook driven,” Manis said. “We want to continue that kind of work.”
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COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER • COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
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