TEAACH Act

  • What is TEAACH?
With its historic passage in April 2021, the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act amended Illinois School Code, ensuring that every public elementary and high school student in Illinois learns about the contributions of Asian Americans to the economic, cultural, social, and political development of the United States.
Beginning with the 2022-23 school year, every public elementary school and high school shall include in its curriculum a unit of instruction studying the events of Asian American history, including the history of Asian Americans in Illinois and the Midwest, as well as the contributions of Asian Americans toward advancing civil rights from the 19th century onward.
Ensuring that Asian American history is taught in our schools lays a foundation for cross-cultural education for all students in Illinois and advances racial equity.

Free Professional Development Workshops for Illinois Educators

To prepare educators to include Asian American history, stories, and voice into the curriculum, this professional development workshop introduces K-12 educators to Asian American-centered themes and teaching resources to incorporate in their teaching.  Attendees will learn about: 
– Why teaching about the Asian American experience is important 
– Diversity of the Asian American community nationally and in Illinois 
– Anti-Asian stereotypes throughout history and today 
– Asian Americans fighting racism for their community and with others 
– A lesson or resource that they can use in their classroom 
– Asian American Education Resource Database, a lesson and resource database 

Renewal PD hours will be provided to Illinois educators

For Secondary Level of Teaching about the Asian American Experience
April 24, 2024  |  4:30 – 6:30 PM CT (Secondary/6-12) – Register here
For Elementary Level of Teaching about the Asian American Experience
May 8, 2024 |  4:30 – 6:30 PM CT (Elementary/K-5) – Register here
For Secondary Level of Teaching about the Asian American Experience
June 11, 2024 |  4:30 – 6:30 PM CT (Secondary/6-12) – Register here

TEAACH Act Implementation Resources

Advancing Justice | Chicago and the TEAACH Coalition have created the following resources to support educators in teaching Asian American history.
Sample Scope & Sequence for Grades K-5: Integrating Asian American Experiences into Reading and Social Studies
Sample Scope & Sequence for Grades 6-12: Integrating Asian American History into Social Studies
Sample Asian American high school elective course outline:
– 1 semester version2 semester version 
– Created by Albert Chan, social studies teacher at Niles North and Niles West High Schools (albcha@d219.org) 
Asian American Education Resource Database: K-12 Resources (Airtable)
Guide: How to Use Airtable
Resources from Other Organizations:
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign College of Education – online asynchronous training that is eligible for teacher PD credits created by University of Illinois faculty (free)
Asian American Education Project – lesson plans and professional development (free)
If you have additional AAPI-centered lessons that you believe other teachers would benefit from knowing about or would like to host our free professional development sessions, please contact TEAACH@advancingjustice-chicago.org
Read Executive Director Grace Pai’s op-ed about TEAACH in the Education Post.

If you would like to host our free professional development sessions, please contact us at TEAACH@advancingjustice-chicago.org

Watch Grace Pai and Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz’s segment about TEAACH on WCIA News.

About

Why do we need an Asian American history curriculum?

By ensuring that Asian American history is taught in our schools, we are laying a foundation for the future.

For Asian American students, it is a chance to learn stories that reflect their individual experiences. It also provides a framework for all students to better understand Asian American communities, experiences, and histories. This improves cross-cultural education for all students in Illinois and advances racial equity.

Thank your legislator for supporting the TEAACH Act !

See if your legislator voted yes on the TEAACH Act and send them a thank you email!

Click here to email your legislator

Acknowledgements: 

We are incredibly grateful to all of the individuals who devoted their time and expertise to creating these resources.  Our team consisted of a wide range of Asian American identities, backgrounds, and experiences — including current or former K-12 teachers, librarians, professors, education equity advocates, former Illinois public school students, and leaders from Asian American cultural institutions. Everyone shared a passion to ensure that Asian American history is not only represented, but also depicted in a thoughtful, nuanced, and inclusive way. The goal of the Curricular Resource Development team was to create an accessible resource guide that makes it easy for teachers to include Asian American history into their curricula. We hope these resources build greater understanding and empathy within our communities. 

Curricular Resource Development Team:

Albert Chan*, Maricor Chang*, Qiong Chen, Smita Garg*, Samay Gheewala, Joanne Yum Gutierrez, Youngwoon Han, Laura Houcque Prabhakar*, Jin-Soo Huh*, Eugenia Huang*, Esther Hurh, Cindy Joung, Ginger Leopoldo*, Jasmine Lu, Grace Pai*, Kumar Ramanathan, Vianny Saito, Dr. Anne Saw*, Tracy Sohn, Michael Takada, Sunny Trivedi, Shobhana Verma, Esther Wang, Kaoru Watanabe, Junee Yang*, Kelly Yu, Ellen Zhou 

Special thanks to our editing team (denoted with asterisks above) who put in tremendous time and effort to review and streamline all materials, and to Sylvia Tamashiro for designing the final resources. 

Lead Organization:

Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago

Steering Committee Members:

Cambodian Association of Illinois ● Chinese Mutual Aid Association ● Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC) ● HANA Center ● Indo-American Center (IAC) ● Japanese American Citizens League Chicago (JACL) ● Japanese American Service Committee (JASC)

Supporting Organizations:

Axis Lab ● Asian American Coalition of Chicago ● Chicago History Museum ● Chicago Japanese American Historical Society ● Chicago Teachers Union ● Chinese American Museum of Chicago ● Chinese American Service League ● CIRCA-Pintig ● Equality Illinois ● Global Asian Studies Program, University of Illinois Chicago ● Hamdard Health Center ● Illinois Council for the Social Studies ● Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center ● Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition ● KAN WIN ● Lao American Organization of Elgin ● National Association of Social Workers, IL Chapter ● Northwestern University Asian American Studies Program ● OCA Chicago ● Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education ● Vietnamese Association of Illinois (VAI)

From Our Leaders

"Having a greater social and cultural awareness of the lived experiences of Asian Americans does a lot to move forward efforts for helping students understand their identities and histories. Especially as there is a large plurality of Asian American students in Illinois, it seems only right that we take further efforts to educate and challenge our singular notions of race, ethnicity, culture, identity, gender, sexuality, politics, religion, and so much more."

- Cyril Dela Rosa