Our Call to Action
“In 2024, the population of students of Latin American and Caribbean descent made up over 40% of the total enrollment in New York City Public Schools…
The diverse histories, leadership, and contributions to our City of the students and families who share a connection to Latinidad has been under-represented in curricular resources and classroom lesson plans.”
-Gordon Institute at Teacher’s College, Columbia
↑ Click the image for the full report! ↑
“Educational inequities disproportionately affect Latinx students, with high dropout rates, underrepresentation in gifted programs, and linguistic discrimination against Spanish-speaking youth ….
These structural challenges necessitate curricular interventions that are not only responsive but also transformative, centering the lived experiences, histories, and knowledge of Latinx communities (Brion-Meisels & Alter, 2018).” Read the full strategic report here.
Our Story
Leading the way…
A curriculum that enables the study of Latinidad and their multiple and ever-evolving forms is meant to enhance school experiences by providing children and youth of all backgrounds opportunities to celebrate where we come from, what we have achieved, and what we desire for our families, communities, city, country, and world in the future.
The Latinidad Curriculum Initiative for New York City Public Schools aims to enhance the quality of education by providing a dynamic, interdisciplinary curricular framework and lesson plans that celebrate Latinidad and its connection to the histories, accomplishments, and cultures of our City and nation.
The resources provide a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of the city we live in and the places we call home.
Our Work
Our wide-reaching educational efforts
Latinidad Curriculum Initiative (LCI) Blueprint
The LCI Blueprint is grounded in commitments to culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies, transcultural awareness, inclusivity, accessibility, and intergenerational collaboration as a way to center youth voices and nondominant community perspectives in classroom learning.
In keeping with our teaching and learning stance, the LCI blueprint draws connections between various resources, materials, and stakeholders for ongoing collaboration via our conceptual framework and design principles for dynamic teaching and learning. The blueprint will continue to evolve throughout the design and implementation phases of the project, based on feedback from all stakeholders.
Curriculum Resource Guides
Narratives of Latinidad
A reading list to center narratives that reflect the diverse and dynamic experiences of Latinidad in NYC and to support curriculum design that affirms students’ identities and builds on their lived experiences.
Organized by grade level, the list offers educators developmentally appropriate texts that can inform culturally responsive teaching across K-12 settings.
Teaching Dominican Histories
This guide provides lists of materials organized by school level–children’s books, novels, scholarly books, academic articles, city excursions, music, videos, documentaries, and websites—that could be used in the classroom or at home to teach about the history and ongoing contributions of Dominicans in New York City.