High school students saw large improvements in their grades and attendance records when they enrolled in a class dedicated to exploring race and ethnicity, researchers in California found.



The Stanford University study analyzed a pilot program of ethnic studies classes at three San Francisco high schools and found that, on average, at-risk ninth-graders encouraged to enroll in the course performed significantly better than their peers who didn’t.

Student attendance increased by 21%, while grade-point averages surged nearly a grade and a half for those enrolled in the class – striking results, according to the researchers.

“I was surprised that this particular course could have such dramatic effects on the academic outcomes of at-risk kids,” said Thomas S Dee, a professor at Stanford who co-authored the study with postdoctoral researcher Emily Penner. “If I was reading a newspaper with results like this, I would read it with incredulity, [but] the results were very robust.”

The study looked at 1,400 ninth-graders taking part in a pilot program. Students with GPAs of 2.0 or lower in eighth grade were automatically enrolled in ethnic studies during their first year of high school. Their results were compared against students who had similar GPAs who were not automatically enrolled in the ethnic studies class because their GPAs were slightly over 2.0.

The study lends some support to advocates who have worked to make ethnic studies classes a larger part of school curriculums.

Researchers concluded that the results of the study show that “culturally relevant” teaching is an important part of the education of students at risk of flunking or dropping out.

“Slight little nudges that help people reframe their experiences can have a big effect,” Dee said.

Other cities that have instituted ethnic studies offerings in school districts include Oakland and Los Angeles.

In Portland, Oregon, students recently lobbied for the class to be offered on a wide basis in public high schools.

But the non-traditional curriculums have been challenged by some conservatives in places like Arizona, where state legislators passed legislation banning ethnic studies from schools in 2010.

California’s governor, Jerry Brown, a Democrat, vetoed a bill to develop a statewide ethnic studies curriculum in October. In Berkeley, where students have discussed ethnic stereotypes, analyzed history in racial terms, and talked about their own experiences and backgrounds in ethnic studies classes for more than 20 years, black student union leaders recently argued that black history should instead be better integrated into history curricula and that relegating the subject to a portion of a semester-long class was “insulting.”

Dee said that he hoped the study would help move the discussion in a more constructive direction.

“One of my hopes is that this research helps shift the debate away from those heated political outcomes towards student outcomes, about which everyone cares,” he said. “They may have dramatic effects.”