Surrounded by shelves packed with books, journals and ledgers detailing centuries of state government history, high school students gathered in the Rhode Island State Library Wednesday to talk about the history they think is missing in their classrooms.
They came to support a bill by Providence Democratic Rep. David Morales that would require public high schools statewide to offer a full-year ethnic studies course starting in the 2026-2027 school year. Beginning with the class of 2030, the course would be a graduation requirement.
“Providence is very diverse. America is a very diverse country, where people of all different backgrounds come to live here,” Milia Odom, an 11th grader at Central High School and youth organizer with the Alliance of RI Southeast Asians (ARISE) and OurSchoolsPVD, told a few dozen people in attendance. “A whole lot of people deserve to know where they come from. They deserve to know where their parents come from, and they deserve to know their history.”
Morales’ name may be on the bill introduced Feb. 28, but he said the students drafted it.
“I just want to reiterate that it was the young people that made that happen,” Morales said, noting that the kids have allies on the school board, in the Providence City Council and at the State House. “But at the end of the day, this work is only happening because it is the young people who are pushing us as lawmakers to make these changes happen.”
The bill text describes a basic curriculum consisting of U.S. and Rhode Island history with a focus on “the experiences of racialized communities,” including Black, Indigenous, Latin American, Asian American, Pacific Islander and Arab American communities. The Armenian Genocide is also listed as an element of the courses, which would fall under social studies. Students would also be required to complete a civics project that would highlight their ability to “reason, make logical arguments and support claims using valid evidence,” the bill reads.
The bill would create a council of student leaders to advise the curriculum-building process, with a student representative and teacher from each school district. The school district’s superintendent and a number of “youth-led” organizations would select the representatives, per the bill text.
If enacted, the legislation would become effective July 1, and the student leadership council would begin meeting in October.
The OurSchoolsPVD coalition, which organized Wednesday’s event, succeeded in getting the Providence School Board to authorize a similar, nonbinding resolution last year. The Providence City Council passed a resolution in support of the new bill last week.
“Rhode Island, as a ‘Lively Experiment’, has been and is home to communities of every description,” Council President Rachel Miller wrote in her resolution.
Miller was not there, but Providence City Council President Pro Tempore Juan M. Pichardo attended the event and gave remarks.
Compared to last year’s school board resolution, Morales’ bill enlarges a municipal goal to a statewide one. The bill leaves room for school districts to design the requisite course in a way that fits their communities. The state education department would provide guidance on the content of these courses and would assist in “expand[ing] diverse educator pipelines to support with the delivery of ethnic studies,” according to the bill.
As of October 2023, students of color comprised 81% of students enrolled in public schools in Central Falls, Pawtucket, Providence, and Woonsocket, according to analysis of state data by Rhode Island KIDS COUNT. Statewide, white students accounted for 51% of the entire K-12 population, Hispanic students 30% and Black students 9%. Multi-racial, Asian, Pacific Islander and Native American students made up about 10%.
Angel Solis, a Central High School graduate who now attends the Community College of Rhode Island, pointed to his own positive experience with an ethnic studies class in his junior year of high school. He said lessons on the resilience of Latin and Native American communities in the face of colonization made him more curious and open-minded.
That helped Solis repair blindspots in his knowledge about his own and others’ heritage, he said.
“When I was a sophomore, I had little general knowledge about what ethnic studies were…Over time, the more I figured out, the more I asked myself, ‘Why don’t we have it?’” Solis recounted.
Jesslynn Melendez, an East Providence High School senior and an OurSchoolsPVD youth leader, thought ethnic studies could help repair negative perceptions about certain ethnic groups for all students.
Having ethnic studies, Melendez said, could foster a “community where students will know the hardships of certain cultures and groups, [and] how saying certain things or suggesting certain things aren’t a joke, but harmful.”
Nine Democrats joined Morales in co-sponsoring the bill. Morales said a Senate version is in the works, with Sen. Hanna Gallo, a Cranston Democrat, as lead sponsor.
The bill has not yet been scheduled for a hearing before the House Committee on Education.
“Decades from now, when y’all have children and they’re taking an ethnic studies course, you can let them know Mom was on the front line fighting for this bill to become law,” Morales said.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
