Recent research on Ethnic Studies: 

• The Causal Effects of Cultural Relevance: Evidence from an Ethnic Studies Curriculum, by Thomas Dee, Emily Penner. "[R]esults indicate that assignment to this course [ethnic studies curriculum piloted in several San Francisco high schools] increased ninth-grade student attendance by 21 percentage points, GPA by 1.4 grade points, and credits earned by 23. These surprisingly large effects are consistent with the hypothesis that the course reduced dropout rates and suggest that culturally relevant teaching, when implemented in a supportive, high-fidelity context, can provide effective support to at-risk students." http://www.nber.org/papers/w21865
• The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies. A Research Review by Dr. Christine E. Sleeter: https://www.nea.org/assets/docs/NBI-2010-3-value-of-ethnic-studies.pdf
• An Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Mexican American Studies Participation on Student Achievement within Tucson Unified School District Nolan L. Cabrera, Ph.D., Jeffrey F. Milem, Ph.D., Ronald W. Marx, Ph.D. of The University of Arizona College of Education https://www.coe.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/MAS_report_2012_0.pdf
• Toward an Ethnic Studies Pedagogy: Implicationsfor K-12 Schools from the Research. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales  • Rita Kohli  • Jocyl Sacramento  • Nick Henning  • Ruchi Agarwal-Rangnath  • Christine Sleeter https://www.academia.edu/6545474/Toward_an_Ethnic_Studies_Pedagogy_Implications_for_K-12_Schools_from_the_Research
  • "Strobel (2001) studied the impact of decolonization on Filipino students and their process of becoming activists. Learning about the histories of colonialism within an Ethnic Studies context provided students the opportunity to better understand their personal and family experiences. It also allowed them to further interrogate their internalization of colonialism and develop ways to resist the reproduction of colonialism and colonial mentality. Strobel describes the process of decolonization as having three elements: naming, reflecting, and acting. Similarly, Halagao (2010) studied the long-lasting impact on the lives and continued action of student teachers in a Filipino American Studies program. She argued that a decolonizing curriculum:
    • 1. Requires deep and critical thinking of one’s history and culture focusing on the concepts of diversity, multiculturalism, imperialism, oppression, revolution, and racism.
    • 2. Must also be feeling-based that allows mourning, dreaming, confusion, struggle, excitement, passion, empathy to be sources of knowledge.
    • 3. Needs to create a space for formerly colonized people to come together and unite.
    • 4. Teaches life skills that serve one personally and professionally.
    • 5. Must have a social action component that models activism toward social change.
  • In conjunction with decolonization, the purpose of Ethnic Studies is to eliminate racism. Ethnic Studies pedagogy, as an anti-racist project, encourages both teachers and students to critique racial oppression at the institutional, interpersonal, and internalized levels while also showing how each level influences the other. As Ethnic Studies has grown into an academic field of study in the last 40 years, much has been theorized and reconceptualized with regards to race, but what has not shifted is its purpose to challenge racism."
• Toward a Critical Pedagogy of Race: Ethnic Studies and Literacies of Power in High School Classrooms Cati V. de los Rios  • Jorge Lopez  • Ernest Morrell https://www.academia.edu/6774804/Toward_a_Critical_Pedagogy_of_Race_Ethnic_Studies_and_Literacies_of_Power_in_High_School_Classrooms
• Amicus brief prepared by the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) for the Tucson Unified School District lawsuit Acosta v Huppenthal --> download

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