Due to a new district-mandated graduation requirement, next year’s incoming freshman will all take a course to fulfill the “ethnic studies” requirement that is predicted to be mandated by the state of California; this course is designed to cover under-represented ethnicities and backgrounds while allowing students to gain cultural experiences.

   According to Principal Jeff Olivero, “Last year, the Board of Education passed a resolution believing that students needed to have more access to cultural information and experiences. As a result, they are mandating that the classes of 2024 onward have to take at least one class that deals with ethnic studies as part of a graduation requirement.”

   “The Board of Education at the state level has also decided to pass similar graduation requirements but, right now, it is just for San Diego Unified students from the class of 2024 onwards,” Olivero continued. 

   “The district jumped on it beforehand, knowing that it would be a requirement down the line,” added Head Counselor  Kelsey Bradshaw.

   “They realized that it’s important that students get an opportunity to learn about other ethnic groups and cultures that may not be represented in the general education requirements that we have currently,” Bradshaw continued. 

   “If the incoming freshmen didn’t take one class in that area, in the end, students could potentially lose an elective option. We also tried to decide whether we could offer it through an existing class,” stated Olivero.

    “Next year, we have it slated that the ninth grade English students will take it as part of their ninth grade English course,” clarified Olivero. But, according to Olivero, a final decision still has to be made about offering a community college class that could be taken, for example, by students who transferred to the school after ninth grade.  Olivero continued, “We are looking at a variety of options to fulfill that new graduation requirement.”

   “The district has a couple different choices, but they didn’t consider a lot of the AP or Honors courses. For example, you could have it added to a US History class but it wouldn’t count as an Honors or AP credit. Since we have many students taking Honors and AP classes, especially in the eleventh grade, we opted to add it to our ninth grade curriculum, because we’re not giving honors or AP credits at that level,” Bradshaw explained.  

    According to Olivero, the district will provide course codes so that there will be cluster and seminar offerings.

   “They’re taking the regular ninth grade curriculum, and they’re adding to it. They’re adding cultural significance and representing different readings and writings from different ethnic cultures,” stated Bradshaw.

  “Maybe instead of reading Romeo and Juliet, you would be reading something with a different cultural representation, like In The Heights,” Bradshaw explained.

   “The ethnic study class will be a graduation requirement but it is not an A-G requirement. It is just a requirement that students have to fulfill,” explained Olivero.

  Current students interested in taking an ethnic studies class will also have the option to take a course. “On eleventh and twelfth grade students’ class schedule options, you’ll see ethnic studies offered, but it will be via the community college. So, students could choose that as one of their options for an elective,” said Olivero.

   According to Junior Carson Truong, “I wouldn’t mind having to take another class as long as it doesn’t affect anything that I have going on right now.”

   “I’m cool with it. It’s good to learn about people’s backgrounds and ethnicities. I think it’s an important subject and [students] will be able to get some good information,” Troung added.