African American, Latin studies required to graduate high school in Bridgeport

Bridgeport School Board Vice-Chairperson Sauda Baraka during special meeting in June. Bridgeport School Board Vice-Chairperson Sauda Baraka during special meeting in June. Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media Buy photo Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close African American, Latin studies required to graduate high school in Bridgeport 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

BRIDGEPORT — City high school students will have to take a half-year course in African American Studies, Caribbean/Latin American Studies or Perspectives on Race to graduate, beginning with the Class of 2022.

The new mandate, approved unanimously by the city school board Monday, makes the district one of the few in the country to require the course of study.

Philadelphia public schools have required students to take an African American history course since 2005. In Los Angeles, students are required to take an ethnic studies class.

“It is going to make a great deal of difference to our children and our families,” Sauda Baraka, vice chairman of the school board, said of the local decision. “It will really help us with the learning process. Cultural competency has been shown to change the direction of young people and make them more interested in learning.”

Baraka, who will leave the school board in December after 12 years on the panel, has been urging the adoption of a such a course of study for some time.

Board member Dennis Bradley also spoke in favor of the mandate. Throughout his schooling, he said, history was taught in a very Euro-centric fashion. Discussions of African Americans were framed around issues of slavery or Civil Rights, little else.

Ben Walker, chair of the board’s Teaching and Learning committee, said the work to make a proposal would have come sooner had the board not suspended meetings for four months last fall due to a boycott led by Bradley.

The planning also coincided with new state graduation requirements that by 2023 will require students to take more courses. Local officials were uncertain if there would be room for the new local requirements and some consideration was given to making it a middle school requirement instead.

A curriculum committee led by Jay Lipp, a Fairchild Wheeler principal, and Christine Morrone, until recently director of social work, found ways to make it work at the high school by pairing the requirement with a mandated half-year civics class.

The idea will be to give students a choice between the three courses — African American Studies, Caribbean/Latin American Studies or Perspectives on Race — which would be paired with a half year course in civics.

Before the courses can be offered, teachers have to write the curriculum, books have to be purchased and as many as six teachers must be trained in teaching the courses.

The district plans to seek assistance from Fairfield University and others and will seek grants to cover the price tag which could reach higher than $180,000.

“I do believe it is the right direction to go in,” Schools Superintendent Aresta Johnson said of the plan. “We are excited about the work.”

Just about half of the district’s 21,000 students are Latino and 35 percent are African American.

Walker said eventually, the plan is to add a middle school component and more in-depth high school electives.

The district now offers a smattering of electives in African-American studies, Latin American studies and African-American Literature.

Shaun Mitchell, a teacher at Central High, teaches the African-American Literature course, and said a mandated course on Racial Perspectives can be a really good thing.

“As diverse as we are in Bridgeport, I still think we misunderstand our racial and cultural identities — even within our own cultures. And given the political climate of our country, any understanding of who we are as people can only be beneficial,” Mitchell said.

Baraka said during one committee meeting she was part of a group forced to take an African-American studies course in high school. It changed her direction, she said, leading her to major in African-American studies in college.

“I know it will change the lives of our children,” she said. “The three courses together will be incredible.”