Mexican American Studies Department Programs, Tucson Unified School District

The Mexican American Studies Department Programs provided courses to students at various elementary, middle, and high schools within the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). The program sought to provide students with culturally relevant material taught in schools as well as a community in which they could thrive while readying the students to be leaders.

The Mexican American Studies Department Programs in the Tucson Unified School District came into existence in 1998. The department began offering just a few classes, but in more recent years was able to offer about 43 classes. Students were able to take these courses at elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the district. The program was shown to raise graduation rates. Students achieved highly, with a dropout rate of only 2.5% for Latino students enrolled in MAS compared to 56% nationally. The program was banned by a state law passed in 2010, but has been revived to a certain extent by various court rulings.

About 1500 students were enrolled in the program. According to an audit conducted by Cambium Learning, the racial breakdown of the students was 90% Hispanic, 5% White/Anglo, 2% Native American, 1.5% African American, and about 0.5% Asian American and Multi-Racial.

The purpose of the classes was to enable students to have a community centered around learning, specifically learning that helps students to be leaders and understand and appreciate Mexican American history, both past and present. The goals were to have culturally relevant curriculum that can be related to social justice work. Another goal was that students would be able to be socially conscious and think critically.

In the English Journal article “Developing Critical Consciousness: Resistance literature in a Chicano Literature class” Curtis Acosta, the teacher and creator of the Mexican American Studies curriculum, outlines the class curriculum he used. The classes in Chicano Studies/Literature could be taken instead of American History and Junior high school English. The curriculum used in the junior class of the program is based on indigenous philosophy using the Xicano paradigm. This paradigm has four key concepts Tezkatlipoka, Quetzalkoatl, Huitzilopochtli, and Xipe Totek. Tezkatlipoka is a concept about self reflection and finding one’s inner self. Quetzalkoatl is learning one's history and how that shapes who someone is. Huitzilopochtli is based on the will to act and be “positive, progressive, and creative”. Xipe Totek is the concept of being able to reshape one's self and be renew. Acosta states that the senior year high school classes follow the same paradigm and expand on it to incorporate more of a social justice aspect that relate specifically to “challenging mainstream assumptions and stereotypes”. Acosta states that the most important part of the curriculum is the “ability to loop with the same students in successive years”. The use of this curriculum Acosta expresses “is crucial for students to...discover their humanity and academic identity”. Also as part of the curriculum, students were required to go to community events. Additionally, the teachers tried to engage and collaborate with parents.

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