High School Ethnic Studies Courses

Pa’lante: Onward With Art

Driving Question: How can understanding Latinidad through art help us confront social and political injustices today?

Final Product: Students create a poster series that highlights culturally significant events of resistance efforts within the 

Puerto Rican community to inspire others to address social and political injustices in the United States today. Preview Pa’lante: Onward With Art

Nepantla: Kinship in Music

Driving Question: How can Latine music’s origins and legacy inform our understanding of Latinidad?

Final Product: Student teams create an album pitch that collectively tells a story about their identities, cultures, and histories inspired by the work of Latine artists. Preview Nepantla: Kinship in Music

Cocina: Food is History 

Driving Question: How can exploring the evolution of food help us understand the history of Latin America and ourselves?

Final Product: Student teams create a cookbook of recipe essays that collectively tells a story about their identities, cultures, and histories. Preview Cocina: Food is History

Kaona: Language is Life

Driving Question: What is the relationship between land, language, and identity?

Final Product: Students create video poems to share stories about their identities, cultures, and histories. Preview Kaona: Language is Life

Arrive: Stories of Homebuilding 

Driving Question: How are identities and communities impacted by migration?

Final Product: Students interview a family member about a migration story and translate the oral history 

into a graphic narrative that documents the impact of movement on identity, community, and sense of home. 

Preview coming winter 2025/26.

Masala Dabba: The Business of Belonging

Driving Question: How do culture and economics influence one another?

Final Product: Students create a proposal for a small business in the culinary sector that prioritizes the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit. 

Preview coming winter 2025/26

School & District Adoption Considerations

• Learning designers, educators, and experts in the field have been designing units for this collection since 2022.
• This work is funded in part, by regional and national grants from the Library of Congress-Teaching Primary Sources. Units in this collection intentionally center primary sources from archives and museums, including the Library of Congress.
• At least 32 states have codified in academic standards and frameworks the inclusion of American minorities and their contributions. Since 2021, at least 18 states have imposed bans or restrictions on teaching topics of race and gender. (EdWeek 2023)
• The following states have defined Ethnic Studies in standards, frameworks, or authorized legislation as of 2024: Oregon, Utah, New Mexico, Minnesota, California, Washington, and Indiana.