Berkeley Unified School District’s Ethnic Studies program, which has been committed to helping students understand their own and others’ racial and gender identities and experiences, received an award recognizing Ethnic Studies efforts from the Asian Pacific Islander School Board Member Association (APISBMA) on Nov. 1, 2025. There was an award ceremony in December, where Berkeley was able to physically receive the award. The award recognizes and supports school districts that show strong program implementation, community involvement, and measurable student impact in advancing Ethnic Studies.
BUSD’s Ethnic Studies classes and lessons have been around since 1968, when the district began the first African American Studies department at a high school in the nation. Families, students, and educators in the school district advocated for the department. Today, Berkeley High School is the only public high school in the United States with a department specifically for African American Studies.
At the APISBMA awards, they stated, “BUSD has been a national leader since 1968, maintaining the only standalone African American Studies Department at a public high school. A ninth grade Ethnic Studies graduation requirement was established in 1990, and a districtwide Ethnic Studies Teacher on Special Assignment was added in 2021 to support TK-12 curriculum development.”
Since 1968, the district has implemented new units for students in grades K-12. Most recently, in the 2024-25 school year, BUSD created and is now piloting six new units in the Ethnic Studies realm, specifically tailored to grades two through five, eight, and nine. Ninth graders at BHS had additional units added to their Ethnic Studies class, which is a required class after students advocated for it in 1990.
For elementary school programs, BUSD has worked with the Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee and other members of the district, including students and teachers, to write six pilot units, all of which are specific to the Berkeley community. These pilot programs include reading about diverse families, learning about identities, learning the history of Indigenous people, and studying migration and immigration. In middle school, eighth grade classrooms are piloting a unit specifically focused on abolitionism and multiracial democracy.
One aspect of the APISBMA award focuses on the community reaction to Ethnic Studies classes and units. BUSD has received extremely high remarks regarding their Ethnic Studies work, helping them receive the award. According to APISBMA, “Feedback from students, families, and educators was overwhelmingly positive, with strong engagement and consistent ratings of threes and fours on four-point scales.”
APISBMA also recognized what BUSD did to gain community support for Ethnic Studies. The district hosted an event showcasing the Ethnic Studies work. The event included sharing student work, student panels discussing the work, and appearances from community members and leaders.
BUSD has made successful progress in the years since 1968, implementing many new studies departments and helping give students options to learn about how their identities impact their experiences. In the future, as their program evolves, students of all grades and ages will be able to understand their own identities and learn about them in many different ways — ways that are specific to their age and grade.