Education School researchers at Stanford found that ethnic studies courses boost grades and attendance. Apparently, it never occurred to them to ask what exactly the students learn in them.
“New research shows gains in attendance and GPA of at-risk high school students from incorporating culturally relevant pedagogy,” Brooke Donald reported in a news release from the Stanford Graduate School of Education. “A high school ethnic studies course examining the role of race, nationality and culture on identity and experience boosted attendance and academic performance of students at risk of dropping out, a new study by scholars at Stanford Graduate School of Education found.”
“The study looked at ethnic studies classes piloted in several San Francisco high schools and compared academic outcomes for students encouraged to enroll in the course with similar students who did not take it.”
At one time, such courses were known as “cake classes,” at best, for that very reason. Indeed, it could be argued that, at a time when college students think that Judge Judy sits on the Supreme Court, that the academic value of such “pedagogy” is a bit dubious.
Moreover, as Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media has reported, the content in some locales of ethnic studies can be downright corrosive and incendiary, encouraging revolution, and not necessarily the peaceful variety.
Photo by Don McCullough 
Photo by Don McCullough
