University of Illinois

Passed in April 2021, the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act amended the 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.

Our approach is completely asynchronous, and it is customizable! If you want to go through all three modules, you can receive 12 hours of professional development credit in the state of Illinois. However, you can choose modules (and sections within them) to meet your liking for a customizable amount of professional development points.

More about our approach:

• This professional development (PD) series will take a critical, historical, and structural approach. For example, we do not simply add Asian American facts to curriculum or focus on food or cultural traditions of Asian Americans.
• The PD series will focus on how race and inequity have shaped Asian American experiences and led to racialization of them as model minorities and foreigners versus as fully complex and diverse individuals.
• It will take a cross-racial approach, showing how Asian American histories are intertwined with other communities of color.
• It will focus on voices of Asian Americans as historic and present-day actors in the US narrative.