A publication of the Association of California School Administrators

Building safe and brave spaces

How Jefferson Union High School District strengthened its commitment to ethnic studies

By Toni Presta, Laurie Robinson and Dan Arzaga | March | April 2025

In the Jefferson Union High School District, our ethnic studies program represents a powerful commitment to equity, inclusion and cultural responsiveness. Designed to affirm the identities of our diverse student population while challenging systemic inequities, ethnic studies has become a transformative force in our schools. However, as this work has grown, so too has external resistance, fueled by misunderstandings about what ethnic studies entails and why it is critical for our students.

These attacks, aimed at undermining our efforts, instead became a catalyst for deeper reflection and action. The opposition reminded us of the vital role our leaders play in advocating for ethnic studies — not only by supporting its implementation but also by addressing misconceptions and fears with clarity and purpose. In response, JUHSD launched the Ethnic Studies Leadership Series in collaboration with Community Responsive Education, a yearlong initiative designed to equip administrators with the tools and understanding needed to champion this work across the district.

From September 2023 to May 2024, this eight-session series provided district and site leaders with a comprehensive exploration of ethnic studies, focusing on both its theoretical underpinnings and practical application. Each session built upon the following essential questions:

What is ethnic studies?
What does ethnic studies look like in JUHSD?
Why is it important for our students?
What is our role as leaders in supporting ethnic studies?

These questions are not only relevant to the leadership in our district but also reflect the broader national conversation around ethnic studies and its role in K-12 education. Through intentional collaboration and planning, JUHSD has worked to build a strong foundation for ethnic studies that extends beyond the classroom to influence the culture, curriculum and community engagement throughout our schools.

In the sections that follow, this article will explore JUHSD’s ethnic studies journey, tracing its roots and exploring its districtwide implementation. It will examine what ethnic studies entails, why it is essential for students and how its principles extend beyond the classroom. Ultimately, the goal is for ethnic studies to shape teaching practices across all disciplines and serve as a guiding framework for the district’s continued commitment to equity and inclusion.

Ethnic studies: A teacher leader’s perspective DEI and Ethnic Studies TOSA Dan Arzaga organized a small gathering on an evening in November 2024 at JUHSD’s staff housing to reflect on the origins of the district’s ethnic studies program. Key contributors to the program’s development joined to share their experiences and insights.

Starting around 2019-20, these educators helped drive the momentum that brought ethnic studies to JUHSD. The discussion highlighted their commitment to creating a space for students to explore their identities, family and community stories, center marginalized narratives, challenge dominant perspectives, and foster hope and connection in a system shaped by systemic racism.

Those early discussions in 2019-20 were marked by confusion, anxiety and stress, compounded by global events like the murder of George Floyd, BLM protests, the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to online teaching. Amid this perfect storm of unfortunate and tragic events, a committed group of JUHSD colleagues began creating “good trouble,” driven by their shared dedication to the ethnic studies mission. One participant described, “I feel like one of the unique attributes we have is that we have committed core groups of folks who are invested in this process. [They] have built with each other both personally and professionally.” The bonds within the group strengthened as they increased their efforts to build something meaningful for their students.

Arzaga wasn’t around for those early talks — he did not come into the ethnic studies fold until 2021, after the school board and district administrators had already endorsed it and allocated funds for curriculum development. During the 2021-22 “development year,” a group of 10-12 teachers from across the district met monthly under the guidance of Community Responsive Education, a consulting collective founded by Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, Ph.D., to build our ethnic studies pedagogy, learn critical concepts and create the course scope and sequence. Of equal importance was our coalescence through CRE-led activities that encouraged us to share personal stories of identity, race and struggle, which fostered vulnerability, empathy and support — skills we knew we’d ask our students to embrace when the course launched the following year.

Some of us volunteered to teach ethnic studies out of curiosity and a desire to learn how to guide discussions on identity, race, power and community. Others came ready with seeds of ethnic studies already planted in their minds and hearts, experiences like those from programs such as the Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP), which connects universities, schools and communities to develop critical educators and curriculum. One participant described how having that “toolkit” helped him engage with like-minded colleagues in JUHSD, realizing he had “a collective of folks that feel that things need to change.” He came to the work with more “vigor and tenacity.”

Arzaga: “As a second-generation Filipino, I often reflect on how my assimilation into American schooling led me to miss learning the Ilocano dialect spoken by my parents. I realized that teaching ethnic studies was the course I had been waiting my whole career to teach — and to learn from.”

Teaching ethnic studies is deeply reflective. One colleague, also a PEP alumnus, highlighted this by emphasizing the need for educators to process their own experiences and healing. Without that self-awareness, he explained, it’s hard to convey the true purpose of the course or inspire students to connect deeply with the material. At the end of the 2022-23 school year — the first year ethnic studies was taught at three of the district’s four comprehensive high schools — students were asked to reflect on their key takeaways from the course. One student shared that they had come to see their ethnicity as “one of the most important things about me.” Another expressed a newfound confidence in speaking up, saying they learned “to advocate for myself and others.” With feedback like that, we felt compelled to keep pressing on.

In 2024, through a process that included input from ethnic studies teachers throughout the district, we revised our original vision statement from that development year of 2021-22. We used the acronym of F.O.G. (a weather element our coastal communities of Daly City and Pacifica are known for) to represent our curriculum’s values: First-person stories; Outspoken against oppression; and Growth toward belonging. Reflecting our course’s main units of study (Self and Stories, Systems of Oppression and Social Movements and Solidarity), the vision statement outlines a commitment to creating inclusive, safe and brave spaces where the experiences and knowledge of Indigenous communities, Black communities and People of Color are centered. The vision emphasizes personal and community stories and growth, encourages students and educators to engage with and dismantle oppressive systems, celebrates diversity, cultivates solidarity and wellness, and builds harmonious, interconnected communities in Daly City, Pacifica and beyond.

One student shared that they had come to see their ethnicity as “one of the most important things about me.” Another expressed a newfound confidence in speaking up, saying they learned “to advocate for myself and others.”

Beyond a single course: Integrating ethnic studies From the beginning of our journey to bring ethnic studies to our district, we knew we wanted to have ethnic studies live in our system beyond a singular course. More specifically, we wanted the tenets of ethnic studies pedagogy to be infused across the courses we offer in our schools. Since our English department was already working on updating the texts we use, we began our initiative there. During the 2022-23 school year we formed a community of practice which met a few times throughout the year. English teachers collaborated and explored the praxis story plot, a framework created by Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales that encourages students to analyze narratives through the lens of oppression, resistance and liberation. The core of this approach asks students to ponder what the story tells us about ourselves, our issues and the ways we can work to heal and achieve justice. Teachers worked in grade level teams to map the core text of a unit with the praxis story plot, and to collaborate on ways to introduce critical conversations. By providing dedicated time for teachers to hone their units of study, there has been an impact on classroom instruction. Now it is not uncommon to walk through classrooms and hear students using John Bell’s Four “I”s of Oppression (ideological, institutional, interpersonal and internalized) when analyzing the motivations of a particular character or event in a text.

Building on the success of our English department’s collaboration, we expanded the initiative to include educators from diverse disciplines. During the 2023-24 school year, we welcomed teachers from dance, science, math, PE and special education to participate in similar gatherings. By empowering teachers to choose their own involvement, we hoped to create a group of dedicated educators exploring how ethnic studies principles could be applied in their specific subject areas. The group met several times and their work together culminated in each creating a lesson highlighting key aspects of ethnic studies as applied to their subject area. By sharing their experiences with grade-level teams and department members, participants played a crucial role in amplifying the impact of ethnic studies pedagogy across our district.

As we continue to integrate ethnic studies pedagogy across disciplines, we recognize the importance of accessibility for all learners. Taking advantage of opportunities offered by the state through Project CRESC (California Regional Ethnic Studies Collaborative), our teachers joined forces with educators from the Bay Area to develop strategies for integrating ethnic studies into multilingual classrooms. The sessions were led by Dr. Luis Poza of San Jose State University. Poza introduced the group to practices like photovoice and oral history, which can elicit stories and experiences from all students, especially when combined with language support. Though there is still work to be done in order to ensure our ethnic studies courses are accessible to all, our framework ensures our teachers’ commitment to iterative reworking of our course materials in order to remain responsive to our students’ needs.

In a discussion about our district’s approach to ethnic studies, one of our district English teachers commented, “Creating something that’s local is a very wise decision, because … there’s a lot of money to be made by packaging courses for districts … [that] can be not culturally or community relevant.” In Jefferson Union, we have prioritized transformation over content coverage, and in doing so, we’ve developed a course and pedagogy that is relevant and meaningful to our community.

Conclusion JUHSD’s ethnic studies journey is a testament to the power of education to foster understanding, affirm identities and prepare students for a more just and inclusive world. By reflecting on where we started and where we are headed, we hope to inspire other educators and leaders to embrace ethnic studies as a transformative force for their own communities.

Toni Presta is superintendent; Laurie Robinson is director of curriculum, instruction, and accountability; and Dan Arzaga is DEI and ethnic studies TOSA at Jefferson Union High School District.