Proposed 2023 Virginia History and Social Science K-12 Standards of Learning

On February 2, 2023, the Virginia Board of Education accepted the proposed 2023 History and Social Science Standards of Learning on first review. Dialogue on Race shares concerns raised by many state and national historians along with social and racial justice issues of our own.

👉Read the January 2023 Draft of the History and Social Science Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools.

👉For further context, read:

Stand Up for Public Education!

Dialogue on Race of Montgomery County, VA asks students, parents, families, educators, historians and community members to stand up for public education by doing one or both of the following:

  1. Email State Board of Education Members
  2. Submit a Public Comment Form (before the public comment period closes on March 21, 2023).

Email Guidelines

  • Send email to Megan.Perez@doe.virginia.gov and CC (open copy) BOE@doe.virginia.gov
  • Suggested salutation: Dear Members of the Virginia Board of Education
  • Message: Express one or two concerns per email using your own voice. Use the talking points below (scroll down) to clarify your concerns.  Provide a recommendation for your concerns if possible. 
  • Close by thanking board members for their time and consideration.
  • Signature: Sincerely, (Your Name), any relevant roles such as parent of 5th grader, member of Dialogue on Race of Montgomery County, VA or other organizations. Include your Town, State and Zip Code at the end of your signature.

Public Comment Guidelines

  • Use the Public Comment Form before public comments close on March 21, 2023. This is most appropriate for educators, historians, and members of education groups and committees.
  • Use the talking points below (scroll down) to clarify your concerns, or respond based on your own insights as an educator. Study the 2023 Standards and the strikethrough document to see the changes from the 2015 to 2023 Standards.

Concerns (Talking Points)

The following concerns are shared by the Dialogue on Race Education Issue Group and many educators and historians. Use them to inform your own responses.

Concern #1: An Outside Job & Violation of Trust

The current January 2023 Draft of the History and Social Science Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools replaced draft standards that were developed by a diverse committee of Virginia educators, scholars, parents and community members known as the 2022 Combined Standards. The 2023 Standards were written with hurried input from out-of-state-consultants, subverting a 20-plus year Virginia process in which the Standards of Learning are reviewed every seven years by experts and community members following clear transparency processes (which had most recently produced the 2022 Combined Standards).

Recommendations

  • Create a new committee comprised of those who developed the August 2022 Standards, history and curriculum specialists from the consortium that developed the 2022 Combined Standards, and Virginia Department of Education history and social science specialists.
  • Institute transparent processes including review of all public email and other responses, Public Comment Form responses and feedback from Public Hearings.
  • Extend the timeline for the completion of the Standards as needed.

Concern #2: Parents & Community Excluded

Parent and community opportunities to respond to the proposed History and Social Science Standards of Learning have been limited.

Recommendations

  • Provide strikethrough document resource in a timely fashion (the current strikethrough document was released very late) to allow parents and community members to clearly see what has been added or deleted between the various versions.
  • Extend the public comment period to allow more participation.

Concern #3: Biased Tone (particularly in the Front Matter)

The Front Matter section of the new 2023 Standards is written in a particularly biased tone. As the section of the document that sets the tone for the entire Standards of Learning, a more balanced tone helps to ensure Virginia’s students receive a well-rounded education. American exceptionalism and anthropocentrism are but two among many perspectives on history, but these dominate the Front Matter, leaving little room for other leading points of view. Futhermore, conclusions about broad-ranging topics such as socialism, capitalism, immigration, democracy, and civilization are drawn at the outset without leaving room for learning and discussion. This approach is antithetical to learning which should encourage questions, inquiry, and intellectual rigor.

Recommendations

  • Replace the 2023 Standards “Principles” (p. 8) with the 2022 Combined Standards “Guiding Principles for Effective History and Social Science Education”–all 5 Principles–(p. 4-5).

Concern #4: Insults Teachers

“Implementation Of Virginia’s History And Social Science Standards” section of the Front Matter of the 2023 Standards (p. 8) devalues the skill and knowledge set of teachers. The bullet point, “The curriculum selected by a local school board should provide a level of consistency and comprehension, so that ‘teacher-created curriculum’ is unnecessary” undermines the teacher’s role in differentiating instruction for students. It values canned programs over teacher knowledge of content, instruction and assessment. It represents a step backwards from the 2015 Standards.

Recommendations

  • Remove the “Implementation of Virginia’s History and Social Science Standards” section of the front matter of the 2023 Standards and add the “Preface” from the 2022 Combined Standards.
  • Re-introduce the 2015 Standards guidelines in which teachers are encouraged to go beyond the Standards and select appropriate instructional strategies and assessment methods.
    • (From p. 7 of the 2015 Standards): “The standards and curriculum framework are not intended to encompass the entire curriculum for a given grade level or course nor to prescribe how the content should be taught. School divisions are encouraged to incorporate the standards and curriculum framework into a broader, locally designed curriculum. The curriculum framework delineates in greater specificity the minimum content that all teachers should teach and all students should learn. Teachers are encouraged to go beyond the standards and select instructional strategies and assessment methods appropriate for their students.”

Concern #5: Overturns School Board Roles

The 2023 Standards overturn practices in place for over 20 years in the ways that local School Boards operate, including directing School Boards to “select and fully implement standards that are aligned with the core history and social science curricula for every grade level and course,” as well as to “provide a level of consistency and comprehension, so that ‘teacher-created curriculum’ is unnecessary.” This not only directs School Boards to set teacher curriculum, overturning established practice in Virginia, but it subverts legal precedent in which School Boards are directed by the Code of Virginia, not by the Standards of Learning.

In keeping with this move, the 2023 Standards: 1) removed the guidance that school divisions are encouraged to have a broader, locally designed curriculum; 2) removed guidance that Virginia Standards should not prescribe the grade level at which particular standards must be taught or a scope and sequence within a grade level; 3) made a major overhaul in grade and course sequence without soliciting input or budget and personnel assessments from local School Boards; while 4) holding local School Boards accountable to pay for resources to fully implement the new grade and course sequence.

Recommendations

  • Replace the January 2023 “Background and Context for the History and Social Science Standards Revisions” section (p. 9) with the “Preface” of the 2022 Combined Standards (p. 3-4), which states that instructional programming and curriculum development is best left to local school divisions and teachers.
    • (from p. 3 of the 2022 Combined Standards) “School divisions are encouraged to utilize and incorporate the standards document into a broader, locally designed curriculum. Teachers are encouraged to go beyond the standards and select instructional strategies and assessment methods appropriate for their students.

Concern #6: Age-Inappropriate Curriculum

For the past twenty years, educators have been permitted to assign a particular Standard (for example World Geography) to a particular grade level at the local level. In contrast, the 2023 Standards proposes to dictate by grade level when each Standard will be taught in public schools. This sequence can be found in summary on pgs. 10-11 of the 2023 Standards, and in more detail in subsequent pages beginning with the infographic on page 12.

Following are some of the critiques leveled by professionals at the state and national levels. For a more detailed discussion, read VSSLC, VASCD, AHA, VCSS, NCSS, & VGA’s January 2023 Response to the 2023 Draft Standard.

  • The quantity of standards added to the 2015 Standards is unrealistic given the limited instructional time of 5-1/2 hours (Virginia law) and program of instruction required by the Administrative Code of Virginia (Elementary Program, Middle School Program, and Secondary Program).
  • Staffing history specialist teachers in elementary schools poses a challenge made all the more challenging by potential shortfalls in teacher recruitment.
  • Readability and appropriateness of materials and resources currently available in school divisions have been selected for middle school, not elementary students. The 2023 Standards would require a major investment in new materials and resources for teaching subjects not traditionally taught at elementary school levels.
  • Example: A new 2023 Standard for Second Grade (7 and 8 year olds) includes understanding the following concepts:
    • Understanding the meaning of the Virginia state motto, Sic Semper Tyrannis (translated “this be it always to tyrants”) and the figure of Virtue standing on top of a murdered king depicted on the Virginia state flag.
    • Understanding the steps and pathways to United States citizenship and the process to become a citizen.
    • Understanding the War of 1812.
  • Added unrealistic content takes instructional time away from students’ learning key, grade-level concepts in depth.
  • Added unrealistic content takes instructional time away from students’ learning how to apply what they learn.
  • Added standards do not expand the students’ depth of content knowledge; they reduce learning to rote memorization.
  • Example: SOL testing on U.S. History to 1865 would be taken in Fifth Grade, when students are also expected to take their first writing SOL test, a science SOL test that includes 4th and 5th grade standards, and the yearly-administered reading and mathematics SOL tests.
    • This will reduce to rote learning this important period in U.S. history. Furthermore,
    • U.S. History to 1865 is heavy with essential information (Constitution, Bill of Rights, Civil War and slavery) foundational to the study of later U.S. History, Civics, Government, and more; topics are complicated and deserve much more than rote consideration.
    • Student maturity is needed to interrogate the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Civil War and slavery; changing grade sequence to an earlier grade is not age appropriate; this material is much more appropriate to address later when students are older.

Recommendations

  • Re-introduce the 2015 Standards guidelines in which teachers are encouraged to go beyond the Standards and select appropriate instructional strategies and assessment methods.
    • (from p. 7 of the 2015 Standards) “The History and Social Science Standards of Learning do not prescribe the grade level at which the standards must be taught or a scope and sequence within a grade level. The Board of Education recognizes that local divisions will adopt a K–12 instructional sequence that best serves their students.”

Concern #7: Racism Avoidance

The 2023 Standards avoid the study of systemic racism, an omission which can create student misperceptions about racism. Misperceptions can include the notion that racism is a personal character flaw, not a product of larger systems; that racism existed only in the past and no longer exists in the present; that racism exists only in particular geographic regions; that racism is always a conscious act; and that only bad people commit racist acts.

Recommendations

  • Add systemic racism content in appropriate multiple grade levels. Use the curriculum framework to explicate age-appropriate content to be studied at grade levels and within courses.

Concern #8: Important Omissions

  • Omission of Indigenous Peoples’ Day: Among all the holidays identified in the 2023 standards as celebrated in the United States, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, celebrated the 2nd Monday in October, has not be included.
  • Omission of the Role of Organized Labor: The consortium of historians and curriculum specialists noted that the 2015 standards regarding history of labor unions, strikes, and changes in working conditions have been deleted from January 2023 standards.
  • Omission of Geography as a Set of Integrative Concepts and Research Methods: The teaching of geography continues to be largely limited to the notion of it as a “Skill,” the study of objective map skills and to some degree where things are.  History without its context of place, region, cultures, spatial interaction, and changes over time is not really history.

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