The passing of the historic TEAACH act brings Asian American history into school curricula, starting with Illinois.

In 2021, Illinois passed the TEAACH Act to mandate the inclusion of Asian American history in K-12 curriculum. In 2022, TAAF joined other organizations, funders, and agencies to form the TEAACH Implementation Collaborative, ensuring thousands of teachers—and even more students—have the tools, readiness, and knowledge for more inclusive learning.
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An Obscured History

Despite AAPI communities being the fastest-growing racial and ethnic group in the US, our histories have for too long been invisible and misunderstood. The Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act, signed into law in July 2021, made Illinois the first state to require all public schools to make Asian American history part of the curriculum. New Jersey soon followed; other states are poised to do the same.

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Strategizing Education, Present and Future

TAAF played a major role in advancing the TEAACH campaign and mobilizing voters. After the act was passed, TAAF partnered with AAJA-Chicago, Asian American Caucus Education Fund, and funders The Woods Fund of Chicago, The Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, and AAPIP-Chicago to form the TEAACH Implementation Collaborative, which supports strategic plans to implement the act.

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Outcomes

$1.02M in funding over 2 years

Preparing 60K elementary teachers and 9K middle & high school Social Studies and English teachers

5000 educators trained to teach AAPI studies in the U.S. via TEAACH Act Collaborative + AAEdu