California DOE finds school’s Ethnic Studies curriculum discriminated against Jewish students

According to the state DOE ruling, the teacher showed students two videos about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but didn’t offer a pro-Israel perspective.

By Grace Gilson, JTA

A California school’s ethnic studies curriculum that included discussions of Israel as a “settler colonial state” was found to have discriminated against Jewish students.

The California Department of Education issued the ruling last Friday following an investigation into a September complaint by the Bay Area Jewish Coalition — Education and Advocacy, which is affiliated with the local Jewish federation.

The advocacy group said teachers at Branham High School, in San Jose, had presented “biased” content about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a 12th-grade ethnic literature curriculum.

The investigation found that a lesson discussing whether Israel is a settler colonial state and a teacher’s response to a student presentation on the “Genocide of Palestinians” had been discriminatory to Jewish students.

In the lesson, according to the state DOE ruling, the teacher showed students two videos about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but didn’t offer students a pro-Israel perspective.

After the first video, a Vox explainer called “The Israel-Palestine conflict: a brief, simple history,” the topic of whether Israel is a “settler colonial state” was discussed, according to the report.

“In this lesson, in order for the information to be unbiased, there would have needed to be a video that reflected a pro-Israel perspective,” the ruling said.

“This would have encouraged students to create authentic  answers regarding the questions provided in the lesson.”

In another instance, a student group presented a project with a slide titled “Genocide of Palestinians.”

The investigation found that the teacher in that case did not respond adequately to the presentation to ensure the classroom wasn’t “hostile” to Jewish students.

“By [the teacher] not commenting on the slide regarding Palestinian genocide, it could have been interpreted by the student audience as approval of the presented thesis,” the report said.

The ruling is the latest development in the yearslong fight over ethnic studies in California.

The state requires that high schools teach the subject — an effort to reflect the experiences of minority communities — but a model curriculum draft in 2019 drew widespread outcry from Jewish groups.

Critics said the draft included antisemitic and anti-Israel statements, and that it neglected to include the Jewish experience.

Subsequent drafts also splintered the Jewish community. Some praised the revisions for including material on local Jewish communities, while others criticized them for promoting a “narrow political ideology.”

Since then, Jewish watchdogs have been on alert for schools opting to use the original model curriculum, or a version of it.

One Orange County school district has stopped teaching the curriculum altogether following a lawsuit alleging the district concealed its development of the material.

In a February settlement, the Santa Ana Unified School District was required to stop teaching ethnic studies courses until they undergo revision.

Last week, in response to critiques of California’s curriculum, the American Jewish University announced the launch of a free online course designed to fulfill the ethnic studies requirement.

To correct the discrimination found in the San Jose investigation, English language arts and social studies teachers at the school will be required to do a one-hour training before the next school year, and to discuss instruction on “controversial topics” as part of their anti-bias training.