What’s missing in Kentucky’s proposed social studies standards?

A WHOLE LOT!

I’ve been looking through the state’s current Kentucky Core Academic Standards for social studies (online in this document along with all the other subject standards). I wanted to see what material currently required statewide in social studies courses isn’t even mentioned in the draft proposed standards that were presented to the Kentucky Board of Education on October 7, 2014.In short order, I assembled this very incomplete – but very revealing – list. It shows omitted topics in the proposed draft along with the first grade level where the current standards mention those topics and the page number in the current Kentucky Core Academic Standards where that first reference appears.

Dropped Concepts and Specifics in New Social Studies Standards

Some startlingly key concepts and specifics found in Kentucky’s current social studies standards will disappear if the Kentucky Board of Education is unwise enough to adopt the proposal presented on October 7, 2014. That would mean instruction in these areas would become very non-uniform across the state, if the subjects even continue to be taught at all in some schools.

I hope you share my deep disappointment that social studies instructors in this state would not be expected to provide our students with this important foundational information about our country. Clearly, these proposals will not sit well with the vast majority of Kentuckians, and it is disappointing that anyone would create them without the material shown above included.

There is still time to act, fortunately. The Kentucky Board of Education must review the standards at least one more time in their December 2014 meeting before they can be adopted. Board members need to hear from Kentuckians that we do not want our kids to be ignorant of important information about our state and nation that will help our students secure their own happiness and prosperity in the future.

You can find contact information for the board members here, and I urge you to reach out to at least your own region’s representative before that fateful December meeting occurs.

Here’s more about some of the startling omissions in the proposed standards.

• The term “War” is totally omitted in the proposed standards. Most of our country’s major wars, which are listed in the state’s current standards, are completely ignored. That would include how we got into these conflicts, how things changed because of them as well as what we might have done differently to possibly avoid some of those bloody affairs. I am confident that most Kentuckians will not support the obvious disrespect for the men and women who served, and sometimes lost their lives, defending this country created by these omissions. Moreover, most Kentuckians will understand that ignorance of earlier conflicts is an almost certain way to get involved in more of them.

• The Era of Industrialization, the New Deal and the Great Depression are also gone. There goes a century’s worth of economics instruction and social services history down the drain.

• The US Constitution is mentioned in the proposed standards, but specifics are few. For example, neither the Preamble nor the Bill of Rights is mentioned. There is no guarantee that students statewide will learn about their rights under the US Constitution to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, freedom of speech or the right to bear arms, among others.

• Kentucky’s Constitution is totally omitted. Could that tie into why the 10th Amendment part of the Bill of Rights is also being deemphasized?

As we pointed out in an earlier blog, Kentucky History Teacher of the Year Donnie Wilkerson very correctly claims that a whole lot of history is missing in the new standards. That includes the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and Dr. Martin Luther King, for just a few of the many examples.

Most of the concepts I concentrated on in my quick review come from the history area, but there are problems with coverage of other social studies areas like geography. For example, while the new standards do have vague discussions about students using maps, Kentucky’s old standards made it clear that students would become familiar with the maps of our state and our nation and the location of major geographical features like rivers and mountains that impact communications and travel. One example of that is found on Page 188 of the current Kentucky Core Academic Standards social studies section which says fourth grade students should use maps, charts and graphs to:

“Locate and describe major landforms, bodies of water and natural resources located in regions of Kentucky and the United States.”

I can’t find the word “Kentucky” anywhere near the word “Map” in the proposed standards – so much for that key geography lesson. In fact, I don’t see any guarantee that our students will learn major geographic and political map features for the entire nation, either.

We are told the new standards stress students doing social studies from a performance rather than subject knowledge point of view. That restricts our teachers to just one type of instructional method, something else that upsets Donnie Wilkerson. He points out that research on education shows a variety of methods approach is much better. Of course, the performance approach works great if you want to obscure the fact that you really are not teaching much content.

To be sure, we do want our students to be able to engage in intelligent conversation about issues of government, economics, geography, citizenship and other social studies topics. However, vague nonsense about kids writing and thinking at a higher level without some specifics on content won’t get the job done. Kentucky’s students are not going to be able to intelligently address social studies at a higher level if they don’t even know how our country came to be.

Now, here’s an important point: if the material noted above and a lot more in addition isn’t included in our state’s social studies standards, then there is absolutely no way our state leaders can guarantee it will still be taught. If state education leaders don’t specify it, they cannot guarantee it. The claim that teachers will take up the slack is just a pass-the-buck excuse. Furthermore, given the rather wide variation in current student performance in this state, it seems reasonable to assume that there is a fairly wide distribution of teacher talent, as well. Without minimum statewide standards, it is certain that at least some of our students will be shortchanged because some teachers won’t really know what to add to the ridiculously incomplete draft standards.

Here’s another point: vague standards don’t tell our teachers what is fair game on the state social studies assessment (no, those tests are not going away, of course) let alone at which grade levels that material becomes fair game. Providing such information is a critical task for state standards. Turning this into a guessing game for teachers and students, which is what the proposed standards will do, is a recipe for disaster.

As a review, we’ve already alerted you to concerns about the serious inadequacy of the proposed replacement social studies standards for Kentucky’s public schools. In our first blog, we featured recorded comments from Kentucky’s 2011 History Teacher of the Year Donnie Wilkerson about the very serious lack of history in the new social studies proposal. Wilkerson was so upset about the proposal that he testified before the Kentucky Board of Education on his own time.

Wilkerson’s concerns were soon amplified by educators from Fayette County as discussed in our second blog on this critical subject. Regarding the proposed standards, Fayette County educators told the Lexington Herald-Leader that:

“They can’t stand alone. They have to have events tied to them to assure that our kids continue to learn that foundational content. If the state is not going to do that in their adoption, we will have to do that within this county.”

In other words, if the state is not going to outline minimum subject matter information that all students in Kentucky should learn about social studies, then Fayette County will try to fill the breach – for their students. Of course, that provides no guarantee that students in other school districts will be served as well.

And, the serious potential for unequal service to our students is a major reason why the proposed revision to Kentucky’s social studies standards needs a whole lot more work. If these vague standards are adopted as is, students in different areas of the state are going to learn very different and inconsistent lessons about our country and the role they can and should play in it.