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Statewide: Teaching about the Asian American experience

Classroom chairs
flickr: Max Klingensmith https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/legalcode

In 2021, Illinois passed a law requiring every public elementary and high school teach a unit of Asian American and Pacific Islander history.

Five years later, many schools have yet to fully implement the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History Act. Some advocates say they were met with mixed results while doing outreach to schools.

“Roughly 25% of teachers and students in the state of Illinois have had some participation with the Asian American curricular resources that have been made available since the bill passed,” Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, a sponsor of the bill, told WBEZ.

A closer look at what's going on.

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Emily Bollinger/WGLT
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