San Francisco high school students, particularly those with high needs, enrolled in ethnic study courses achieved higher GPAs, stronger academic gains in math and science, and failed fewer courses, according to a new report.

A new study from the universities of Pennsylvania and California analyzed a longstanding San Francisco Unified School District ethnic studies program, piloted in 2010, that has since enrolled thousands of students and become a graduation requirement in 2024.

An ethnic studies course is a history class centered around the culture and experiences of diverse students, which has proven to be especially beneficial for vulnerable and high need students because of its “culturally relevant curriculum,” said Sade Bonilla, an associate professor of education policy at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of the report.

“The intention is to affirm students’ identities, … and to increase their engagement with the materials and content by giving students an opportunity to see themselves reflected in the curriculum,” Bonilla said.

In San Francisco, for example, a school district made up of nearly 50,000 students with a majority identifying as Asian (35%) or Latino (33%), curriculum has included lessons about housing discrimination, schooling segregation and how Mexican-American and Chinese children were not allowed to attend particular schools in California, Bonilla said.

A new standardized curriculum was approved earlier this year after complaints about the course being “activist driven,” reported KQED, a local NPR station. President Donald Trump has also made similar criticisms about diversity, equity and inclusion practices in K-12 classrooms.

Using data from 10 cohorts of students from grades 6 to 12 between the 2007-08 school year to 2022-23, Bonilla and her colleagues said the study is the first to provide evidence about the academic impact of ethnic studies enrollment in a district-wide expansion.

Drawing on previous research that found curricula that reflect student backgrounds not only can promote educational equity, but also improve graduation rates, college enrollment and engagement, the researchers found enrollment in ethnic studies courses can improve a student’s GPA by 0.17 points and significantly reduce course failures across a school system.

Read the full article about ethnic studies courses by Jessika Harkay at The 74.