Activist and educators across the country are uniting in a push to make Hispanic studies courses a more regular part of the high school curriculum.

Supporters of the movement say one of the primary goals is to help young Americans understand and embrace the idea of nation building.

Some Schools Already Teaching Hispanic Studies

Cara Luchies teaches English at Skyline High School in Colorado, which is 50 percent Hispanic. As part of a recent assignment, her students wrote about the police shooting of black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Luchies augmented that straightforward assignment with an archive on the region's Latino history, which provided students with information about two young Mexican-Americans who were also killed by law enforcement in Longmont nearly four decades earlier.

"Kids succeed and do better in school when they actually can read and talk about people who look like them," Luchies said.

Arizona Bans Ethnic Studies Classes

Teachers have not all had the same success pushing the agenda elsewhere.

In 2010, lawmakers in Arizona passed a ban on ethnic studies, forcing a Tucson school board to end a Mexican-American program. In Texas, a movement aimed at making Mexican-American studies an elective course for students met partisan concern that it might make liberal politics a part of the high school classroom scene.

State Sen. John Kavanagh recently reaffirmed his belief students should only be challenged with learning about certain ethnic groups.

"Ethnic studies doesn't bring people together," he said. "It rips us apart."

Curtis Acosta was one of the educators who helped develop the Tucson Mexican-American studies program opposed by local lawmakers. He has since left the classroom entirely and now runs a consulting business.

Since 2013, he has traveled to California, Oregon, Texas and Washington to help school districts design ethnic studies courses and coach teachers on how best to teach and incorporate them.

"The conversations about us as people, about inequality and injustice and creativity and humanity?" he said. "I don't find those difficult."

Colorado, Oregon Seek to Expand Hispanic Material

Meanwhile, in Colorado a government class, which by state law must cover "the history and culture of minorities, including but not limited to the American Indians, the Hispanic Americans and the African Americans," has been a graduation requirement for a decade.

In addition, a measure is now before the state Legislature that would bolster the law, at least partly, by creating an ethnically diverse commission that would help school districts incorporate enriched curriculum.

"We want to move that law forward," said state Rep. Joseph Salazar, a Democrat who introduced the proposal this session. The proposal is now in appropriations, and Salazar is confident the measure will pass without much opposition.

Oregon state legislators also recently passed a law requiring the state's Department of Education to ensure "a balanced presentation of the relevant contributions to society by men and women of African-Americans, Hispanic, Native American, Asian-American and other racial groups."

Studies Show Students Fare Better in Classes About Their Communities

Such thinking is in keeping with the findings of a recent Stanford University study, in which researchers studied an ethnic studies pilot program started in San Francisco. The program engaged at-risk students to work on projects focusing on their communities, families and themselves.

Ultimately, researchers concluded such a curriculum helped increase grades and attendance among struggling students. Two years later, the school board voted to offer the program at high schools.

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