Ethnic Studies include, African-American History, Latinx-American History and Asian-American History.

At Southwest High School only African-American History is offered to upperclassmen as an elective class. This is strategic,

All freshman are forced to take AP Human Geography. There is no choice of regular Human Geography or Ethnic Studies. As a freshman just entering high school they may not be able to handle the rigorous coursework that AP classes have.

Minneapolis School District made 3.5 years of Social Studies classes required for graduation, with the intention of cutting freshman year Human Geography to a semester long class. Southwest went against that. They kept their Human Geography class a year long and made all classes AP.

We believe that making Ethnic Studies a requirement will retain students of color. If they're taught about something that pertains to them as soon as they enter high school it will help them want to keep learning and stay in school. With that, there will also be higher graduation rates for students of color.