The pioneering spirit of El Rancho Unified School District (ERUSD) reached another milestone on Friday July 1st, 2016, when the first college-credit summer Ethnic Studies class concluded, with a unique new model of instruction for 55 college-bound students at El Rancho High School (ERHS).
The CSULB course Introduction to Chicano and Latino Studies was team-taught by Professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos, as the Master Teacher, and ERHS history teacher Juventino Gutierrez, as the Teaching Specialist leading the development of ERUSD's Ethnic Studies program curriculum.
In collaboration with the California-Mexico Studies Center (CMSC) headed by professor Vazquez-Ramos, ERUSD Board President Aurora Villon introduced the Saturday College Ethnic Studies Classes model during the 2015 Spring semester, and has now created a teaching compact to match a college professor's expertise on the subject matter, with the instructional experience of one of its own high school teachers.
El Rancho H.S. students on a field trip at Olvera Street in Los Angeles.
This collaboration will be reported by Dr. Villon with professors Vazquez-Ramos and Gutierrez, at academic conference presentations this fall, and the CMSC will produce a documentary on this model and a portrayal of the historical role that ERUSD has played during the last 3 years of leadership in the campaign to promote ethnic studies in California's secondary education.
ERUSD has already created 5 of its own Ethnic Studies courses (U.S. Social Movements, Gender and Film, Ethnic Sociology, Diversity in Literature and Mexican American Heritage), and now is poised to expand the college-credit Saturday College and summer classes during the next academic year, in collaboration with CSULB, and other local higher education institutions such as CSULA, CSU Fullerton and Cal Poly Pomona.
Without a doubt, ERUSD is again on the cutting edge of a new approach to expand and develop new initiatives that can be replicated by other partnerships between colleges and universities with local school districts.
But perhaps the testimonies of ERHS students is the best way to convey the success of this summer's CSULB Introduction to Chicano and Latino Studies course, and who have proposed several new ERUSD Ethnic Studies courses and college-credit classes to be offered.
Here are the voices of El Ranch High School students, eager to become involved in ERUSD's quest to lead and help other school districts develop their own ethnic studies initiatives:
