Minnesota schools will be expected to teach ethnic studies starting in 2026 if a rewrite of the state’s social studies standards is approved by an administrative law judge.
The Minnesota Department of Education recently published a committee’s third and final draft of the updated standards, which lay out what all K-12 students are expected to learn and be able to do.
The 92-page document incorporates ethnic studies for the first time, giving that discipline its own “strand,” alongside history, geography, economics and citizenship and government.
The proposed standards now enter a rulemaking process to determine whether they comply with state statutes. Some conservatives have argued they do not because statutes don’t call for the teaching of ethnic studies.
The public is invited to comment on the proposed standards by Jan. 14.
It’s unclear how the new standards would play out in classrooms throughout the state.
The inclusion of ethnic studies in the standards doesn’t necessarily mean students will take standalone courses on ethnic studies. Rather, they could be woven into existing classes.
And Minnesota does not require that students earn credits in ethnic studies class to graduate, although Minneapolis Public Schools does and St. Paul’s school board is expected to add that requirement next month.
If the judge approves the rewritten standards, the Minnesota Department of Education will issue guidance to school districts on how to implement them.
Besides new standards on ethnic studies, the document takes a more critical approach to the nation’s founding, emphasizes the Dakota and Anishinaabe tribes in Minnesota history, and includes new references to climate change, Sikhism and a benchmark on LGBTQ people’s fight for equality.