ACES to be implemented for class of 2024

Indigo Craane, Staff Writer

Students and counselors at Samo are adjusting to the SMMUSD BOE requirement that starting with the class of 2024, all students must take a class certified as offering a curricular component American Culture and Ethnic Studies (ACES).

This requirement has put a wrench in many students’ plans to take what has traditionally been called “get-ahead” history classes during the summer in order to make room in their schedules for music, art and other special programs.

Ahead of the state requirement that by 2029 all students must take an ethnic studies class to graduate from a public high school, a requirement as of 2021,  SMMUSD passed a board policy in 2018 requiring all students to complete at least one class that offers a culturally responsive curriculum. 

This board policy was a response to a study of our district schools made in 2016 by Dr. Pedro Noguera, Dean of the USC Rossier School of Education.  The study results were compiled and presented to the community in a document known now as the “Noguera Report” which recommended that SMMUSD schools could better support students by providing culturally responsive teaching, eliminating bias, and improving student-teacher relationships.

First offered in the fall of 2020, all ACES-certified U.S. History classes must meet the following criteria:  Integrate all 20 social justice standards (find out when they were established), use at least five perspectives when interpreting historical events, and include a culminating research project, according to the ACES information on the SMMUSD website.

“ACES is about being culturally relevant. It isn’t just for history and it is very broad. What we are trying to do is infuse all classes with culturally relevant material to keep it respectful of different cultures,” Dr. Satinder Hawkins, the history coordinator for SMMUSD, said.

Students currently enrolled in Ethnic Studies taught by Social Studies Teacher Marissa Silvestri find multiple perspectives on history and contemporary culture beneficial.

“I think we need it. I’m taking the Ethnic Studies elective right now, and it really pairs well with my history class and gives another side of history that we never really go too far in-depth in any class I’ve taken before... So for the material that this elective is teaching to officially be incorporated for incoming grades, that’s just great,” Olivia Israel-Lyman (’23) said. 

The board policy in place, the Samo social studies department took the lead in creating a curriculum that would satisfy the ACES certification and worked throughout the 2019 - 2020 school year to create a United States History curriculum that incorporates the ACES framework.  

“We began working on the Social Justice Standards with teachers from different disciplines across the district in the fall of 2017 and began working on integrating it (ACES requirements) into the U.S. History curriculum when Dr. Hawkins joined the district in 2019,” Samo Social Studies Department Chair, Margaret Colburn said.

The plan, according to Hawkins, was to add to the Samo course offerings more ACES-certified social studies classes by degrees, however, in order to accommodate the demand for these classes in the near future, two English classes, African-American Literature and Chicano Literature, have been proposed by district leadership to also satisfy the ACES requirement.

According to Hawkins, the only SMC class that currently satisfies the ACES requirement is History 10, Ethnicity and American Culture, which is only offered during the school year.  History 11 and History 12, classes many incoming juniors take as a substitute for Samo’s U.S. History course do not meet the ACES requirements.

“Even though it may be annoying for some people, I think it’s okay that you can’t take ACES at SMC. The curriculum is so new, so I think we should make sure that what they’re teaching is somewhat the same for everyone,” Zoe Haggart (’24) said. 

Colburn also pointed out that ACES isn’t just about ticking off a box to satisfy a district requirement.  She thinks the curriculum is so rich that all students should be able to benefit from it.

“ACES is about identity, it is about diversity, it is about critical thinking, it’s a good education to have. The ACES curriculum itself; American Culture and Ethnic Studies, really lends itself to U.S. History, so that’s why we started there. We’ve expanded it to AP U.S. History and Ethnic Studies as well,” Colburn said.