Updated at 5:05 p.m.
The San Francisco Unified School District’s ethnic studies requirement will remain in place in the upcoming academic year, but the existing curriculum will be replaced with one that meets state guidelines and is already in use in other districts, the superintendent announced Monday.
The decision comes after a number of local media, including J., reported that the district was considering a “pause” on its ethnic studies program. It also comes amid complaints that the curriculum was ideologically charged and politically one-sided, including in regard to Israel. A slide for one course, for example, described Israel as an example of a “colonial invasion” that “decimated Indigenous populations.”
Teachers, principals and activists, including those with pro-Palestinian views, pushed back aggressively at the idea of putting the program on hold.
Instead of a pause, the district’s ethnic studies curriculum will undergo a “comprehensive audit” by an independent committee made up of “educators, community members, and families,” the district said Monday in a press release. The curriculum used in the 2024-2025 year was still available on the district website as of Monday afternoon.
The committee will also be responsible for developing a “vetted and standards-aligned curriculum,” which will be presented to the school board for adoption, according to the district.
In a Monday interview with J., SFUSD Superintendent Maria Su addressed the issue of teachers bringing unvetted material into the classroom. Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent war, she said, this problem has become particularly visible and isn’t confined to San Francisco.
“I don’t know what it was” about the attack, the war and the outpouring of activism, Su said. “But it brought in this fierce notion that people can bring in information that is not within the curriculum into the classroom. And this is where we’re putting our foot down.”
A number of Jewish teachers have left the teachers union in San Francisco because of its anti-Israel positions. In May 2021 the union endorsed an international boycott of Israel, for example, and in November 2023 it passed a resolution condemning Israel without mentioning the Oct. 7 attack.
Su said the district is implementing a new “administrative regulation” requiring that any supplemental materials in ethnic studies that aren’t provided by the district must first be vetted by her and a review board.
The review is designed to “ensure that they are aligned with District curriculum objectives and academic standards,” that they are “directly related to the course of study” and are “appropriate to the age and maturity of the students,” according to the district’s press release.
Some pro-Palestinian advocates insist that teaching about the Palestinian refugee problem that started with Israel’s 1948 War of Independence and what they view as Israel’s ongoing oppression of Palestinians is integral to ethnic studies courses. However, Su said that such material won’t be included in San Francisco’s curriculum — a statement that may provoke ire from activists and others within the teachers union.
“It’s not part of the curriculum,” Su said of teaching about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Under my administration, we are going to focus on academic rigor and moving toward a standardized curriculum that lines up with the California Board of Education standards and guidelines.”
“I need us to refocus all of our energy back to teaching and learning,” Su added.
All San Francisco public high school students are required to take two semesters of ethnic studies, the interdisciplinary study of race and ethnicity with a focus on people of color. The district’s press release stated that students can opt out of taking an ethnic studies course this coming school year, but must still fulfill the requirement for graduation.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie weighed in publicly on the ethnic studies debate on Monday, sharing support for the course audit while stating, in no uncertain terms, that he would have preferred the so-called “pause.” Since launching his mayoral campaign in late 2023, Lurie has positioned himself as a liberal moderate within the landscape of San Francisco politics: He’s been an open critic of certain policies associated with the progressive left on housing, business development, crime and homelessness.
“Our schools must be focused on providing our kids with an excellent education and preparing them to succeed in their lives and careers,” Lurie said in a statement. “While I would have liked to see the ethnic studies curriculum paused until the school district identified a better solution, I do feel that moving away from the old curriculum with a chance for students to opt out moves us closer to that goal and starts to put our school district’s focus back where it should be: on our core priorities for our kids.”