Students, teachers praise Black, Latino studies course in mandate’s first year: ‘This is U.S. history’

Altimatou Kao’s passion for Black history and culture was never reflected in her school social studies lessons.

“It wasn’t ever important enough for schools to teach us about it in the classroom,” Kao, a 2022 graduate of the Bridge Academy in Bridgeport, said. “I always had to do the research myself if I wanted to learn about any historical Black figure that wasn’t MLK or Frederick Douglass.”

That changed Kao’s senior year when she found herself learning, for the first time, a history that she could connect with, as she sat in the Bridge Academy’s first African American, Black, Puerto Rican and Latino studies course.

“This class helped me get a new identity of self-love,” Kao said.

Kao and others praised the state’s newly mandated African American, Black, Puerto Rican and Latino studies curriculum at the Connecticut State Board of Education meeting in Meriden on Wednesday evening, saying that the course ignites engagement and empowers students.

This school year marks the first time that Connecticut districts were required to offer the course, which 54 high schools piloted during the 2021-2022 year. The full-year history elective covers African American, Black, Puerto Rican and Latino political movements, cultural contributions, struggles and more.

Connecticut State Department of Education Chief Academic Officer Irene Parisi and Ingrid Canady, executive director of the State Education Resource Center, said that some schools could not offer the course because not enough students signed up to take the class. All but about 10 of Connecticut’s school districts are running the course.

Parisi said that the CSDE is in the process of conducting an audit of the course to record, among other factors, the number of high schools offering the course, student participation and demographics, and whether districts are implementing the course as a graduation requirement.

Daisha Brabham, a teacher at Windsor High School, said that teaching her school’s African American, Black, Puerto Rican and Latino studies course “reignited” her passion for teaching.

Brabham’s first unit focused on language and how it was used to marginalize and empower Black and Latino Americans. For their final assessment, her students chose to debate a topic of their choosing: In what way should language aim to be more exclusive or inclusive.

“This experience kind of taught me something, that there’s a power for our students by giving them the resources and then watching their voices shine,” Brabham said.

Bridge Academy graduate Hiromi Lozano — alongside her teacher, Denise Moller — spoke to the board about her experience taking the course.

“Coming from a Colombian background, I had only learned little to nothing about the history of Latinos in the U.S.” Lozano said. “We always learned small bits of our history as Latinx and our African American students, but there had never been a class dedicated to our culture and our history. We realized the importance of it because we could all relate to the people we were learning about. This course taught us the real hard history of the U.S., which we need to understand in order to not repeat.

“This class is important to not only me but my classmates because it is our history.”

Moller said that going into the class many students did not know that Connecticut used to be a slave state. In her teaching, Moller made sure to incorporate the local history born in the school’s backyard of Bridgeport alongside the conversations of national movements.

“These local stories to which students can connect help to carry through the theme of agency and resistance. Seeing what ordinary Bridgeport residents did to fight oppression in the past will hopefully encourage my kids to do the same in the future,” Moller said,

Stephen Armstrong, the social studies consultant for the CSDE, said that the most common phrase he hears while speaking with students and teachers is “I can’t believe we didn’t learn this before.”

“That’s a very, very common statement,” Armstrong said, “This is not in two schools, 30 schools — this is statewide.”

Advocates for the course say that African American, Black, Puerto Rican and Latino studies should be a required course for all students. Others have considered revising social studies standards to reflect more racial, cultural and ethnic identities in the curriculum.

State board member Erik Clemons said that he hopes the course will not be presented as an elective but as part of the regular history course.

“My hope is that Black history, African American history, Latino history will be considered U.S. history,” Clemons said.

Maryam Wardak, the social studies supervisor for Capitol Region Education Council Magnet Schools, said that CREC made the African American, Black, Puerto Rican and Latino studies course a graduation requirement for all students.

“Representation matters, but not just only for our students of color. It’s also imperative for everybody else and all the other students that do not identify as students of color to also learn this history,” Wardak said.

CREC was among the first districts to offer the course in 2021-2022. Wardak said that the class received an abundance of positive feedback from students.

Wardak said more education must occur outside the classroom to show the community what the course is about and address misconceptions.

“The other important thing that we talked about was a communication of this course to not only parents and the school community, but the community at large, emphasizing the fact that this is a history course. This is not an isolated course. This is not critical race theory. This is U.S. history,” Wardak said.

Alison Cross can be reached at across@courant.com.