NC social studies glossary gets rewrite after concerns and a misspelled president’s name
A glossary that will help North Carolina teachers use the state’s new social studies standards was sent back to the drawing board amid questions about lack of citations and misspellings, such as the last name of former President Ronald Reagan.
The definition of “American exceptionalism” in a state Department of Public Instruction version of the draft social studies glossary said “President Regan [sic] is generally credited with popularizing the idea that America is exceptional.”
The misspelling was corrected in the version posted on the State Board of Education website. But enough concerns were raised about the glossary that last week’s vote was postponed.
“It’s bad that they misspelled the name,” Terry Stoops, director of the John Locke Foundation’s Center For Effective Education, said in an interview. “It’s even worse they made a claim that’s he popularized it.”
Stoops had called for the glossary to be rejected in a blog post last week.
A revised glossary will be presented to the state board by June 18. The state board will also vote then on “unpacking documents” that will help elementary school teachers use the new standards.
Glossary defines new standards
In February, the state board voted 7-5 to adopt new K-12 social studies standards that call for teachers to more explicitly discuss racism and discrimination and the perspectives of historically marginalized groups.
The board’s Democratic majority said the new standards would provide a fuller telling of the nation’s legacy. But the board’s Republican minority say the standards incorporate Critical Race Theory and paint an overly negative view of the nation’s history.
Social studies teachers have been waiting for DPI to release the glossary.
“The social studies glossary has been designed to be a tool to provide educators with terminologies that represent the big powerful concepts and ideas that teachers need to know and understand in order to effectively teach the social studies standards and use supporting documents,” Lori Carlin, DPI’s section chief of social studies and arts education, said at last week’s board meeting.
“The glossary will allow district leaders and teachers to build curriculum and lessons around a common understanding of terminology and language, promoting consistency across disciplines.”
But board member Olivia Oxendine raised concerns when Carlin said that some terms might have “multiple interpretations” or have “ambiguity.”
“To admit that the terms are ambiguous and come from multiple sources is unfair to a 2nd-grader who needs clarity around terminology,” Oxendine said.
Oxendine also questioned how the glossary didn’t include the sources used for the terms. (Since the meeting, DPI has posted a list of reference sources for the glossary.)
Terms from social justice sites
The lack of citations and how several of the definitions seem to have come from online dictionaries, Wikipedia and social justice websites concerned Stoops.
For instance, Stoops said the glossary’s definition of ethnocentrism as “consciously or unconsciously privileging one’s own ethnic group over others” matches what’s in the ABC’s of Social Justice A Glossary of Working Language for Socially Conscious Conversation from Lewis & Clark College.
“I don’t think that going on the internet as the source for social studies definitions is a sensible way for providing definitions that will be used by North Carolina teachers,” Stoops said in an interview. “There must be glossaries created by reputable social studies organizations that we could have adopted.
“Instead, the Department of Public Instruction chose to go to the internet for definitions, some of which I think were very questionable.”
Amid the complaints from the board, State Superintendent Catherine Truitt said that a new glossary could be completed by this week. She also said that the sources would be cited so that teachers would know where the definitions came from.
A new team is working on the glossary. Its members include Truitt, a state Teacher of the Year and two DPI administrators.
“The silver lining here is there’s a process in place where quality is being prioritized by members of the state board and Truitt,” Stoops said. “They could have easily passed the glossary and discounted some of the concerns. They went back to the drawing board, and that’s positive.”
This story was originally published June 8, 2021 at 11:43 AM with the headline "NC social studies glossary gets rewrite after concerns and a misspelled president’s name."
