A survey of teacher readiness programs at California colleges and universities found that three in four offer ethnic studies preparation for their future K-12 educators, according to recent research by UCLA and Stanford University. But with uneven access to quality curriculum and a lack of dedicated funding, some public high schools may be unable to offer courses that meet the ethnic studies requirements that their students will need to graduate.

Assembly Bill 101, signed into law in 2021, requires that California high school students take one semester of an ethnic-studies-related course to graduate, beginning with the class of 2030. This means that it will apply to students entering high school next year.

The survey, led by Veronica Terriquez, director of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, and Albert Camarillo, an emeritus professor at Stanford, sought to address potential gaps in teaching these required courses.

“We wanted to understand whether colleges and universities are taking meaningful steps to prepare future teachers to engage students in a deeper examination of the histories and experiences that shape California and the nation,” said Terriquez, a professor of urban planning and Chicana/o and Central American studies.

One challenge is that no additional state funding exists for this work. “While we found institutions have taken steps in the right direction, often with limited resources, there is still much work to be done,” Terriquez said.

Conducted in late 2024 and early 2025, the survey analyzed responses from education degree programs at 34 higher education institutions in the state — six University of California campuses, 11 California State University schools and 17 private institutions.

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