California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a landmark bill Tuesday ordering the creation of a model ethnic studies course for state high schools, handing a major victory to educators who contend that school curricula fail to reflect the diversity of student bodies.

The bills aims seem modest. It directs the states Instructional Quality Commission to field a group of scholars and school teachers to create a model ethnic studies curriculum with standards that any state school could implement.

But Nolan Cabrera, an education professor at the University of Arizona who has researched the impact of such courses on Hispanic students, said the California bill promised to help earn the field wider acceptance.

It is the biggest piece of ethnic studies legislation passed in this countrys history, Cabrera told The Huffington Post. Theres a saying in education that as California goes, so goes the rest of the country. And this is looking very promising not just for students in California, but for those in the rest of the country as this becomes a more accepted educational practice.

Several of the states largest school districts including San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles have already adopted ethnic studies classes or made them a graduation requirement. But backers of the bill say it will help expand those efforts to smaller districts and rural areas.