Controversial NC social studies documents get OK. But could they change again soon?
North Carolina’s new social studies standards may be revised yet again, even as teachers are expected to use the new diversity-infused standards this fall.
The State Board of Education voted 6-5 on Thursday to approve “unpacking documents” that list suggested topics and assignments in middle school and high school social studies classes. The optional guidance documents suggest topics like the LGBTQ movement and assignments such as studying how Cesar Chavez unionized farm workers.
The vote went along partisan lines, with the Democratic majority voting yes and the Republican board members voting no.
“I personally have confidence that our districts and teachers will use the standards and the supporting documents to provide a classroom experience that gives our students a deep understanding of our history, inspiration to continue to work on perfecting our union and an ability to deal with the richness of experience and viewpoints that are found in every classroom in North Carolina,” said board member Jill Camnitz, who chairs the committee that oversaw the new standards.
The new guidance documents and K-12 social studies standards will go into effect for the 2021-22 school year. But state board chairman Eric Davis said they will consider in August a proposal from Republican State Superintendent Catherine Truitt that could lead to the standards being revised again.
Davis said they want Truitt’s proposal “to include experiences of Americans across all our similarities and differences as well as our pledge to equity in the whole child.”
New social studies standards debated
The new social studies standards have been a source of controversy even before their adoption in February in a split 7-5 vote. The standards include more attention on the perspectives of women, minority groups and other historically marginalized groups.
For instance, the standards call for looking at the discriminatory practices that have been used to suppress or exploit certain groups during the nation’s history.
Critics accused the standards of incorporating “Critical Race Theory,” a “scholarly framework that describes how race, class, gender, and sexuality organize American life,” according to the UNC-Chapel Hill history department. This view holds that systemic racism has been and continues to be a part of the nation’s history.
In June, a divided state board voted to approve the unpacking documents that will be used in elementary schools. The board’s Republican members raised concerns such as how Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female U.S. Supreme Court justice, was omitted from a 5th-grade list of women “who have contributed to change and innovation in the United States.”
The state board adopts the standards in each subject, but curriculum decisions are left up to individual school districts and charter schools. It’s even more so the case in social studies, where there are no longer any statewide exams for the subject.
Teachers aren’t required to use the unpacking documents.
Are the standards too vague?
Much of the discussion Thursday focused on a national report released last month from the Fordham Institute that gave North Carolina a D- grade for its new civics standards and an F grade for its U.S. history standards. The conservative think tank called the standards inadequate and said they should be rewritten.
“The standards document is just plagued with poorly worded gobbledygook that doesn’t mean anything or are unclear,” David Griffith, one of the authors of the Fordham report, said in an interview. “That’s the opposite of what standards should be.”
Deputy State Superintendent David Stegall said North Carolina has historically received poor grades from the Fordham Institute because its standards are conceptual in nature. He said Fordham also based its report without seeing the unpacking documents that provide more specifics for teachers.
Stegall said having conceptual standards allow teachers to go deeper into topics with their students.
“The deeper level understanding is what helps them become part of a team, and that’s what our focus is,” Stegall told the board. “We’re not being graded on our team approach. We’re being graded on our individual skills.
“Did we teach a specific task? It’s just a philosophical approach as to how they graded North Carolina.”
Standards may change again
But Truitt said the template that was used to develop the standards was flawed. She said the standards are so broad that it will prevent students from getting equitable access to good instruction.
“The purpose of state standards, I would argue, is the state of North Carolina putting a stake in the ground and saying this is what is important for students to know and to understand,” Truitt said.
Truitt said she will present at the August board meeting a new template for the social studies standards.
Davis said the board will consider Truitt’s proposal but will not delay the use of the adopted standards.
“That road map may offer the potential to enhance the approved standards,” Davis said. “Whether this potential merits further work is subject to the board’s judgment and approval.”
The state House approved a bill to delay the use of the standards until 2022. The bill is stalled after the Senate rejected the changes made by the House.
This story was originally published July 8, 2021 at 12:34 PM with the headline "Controversial NC social studies documents get OK. But could they change again soon?."
