NORFOLK, Va. – On Feb. 1 and Feb. 2, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) will present its latest draft of the history learning standards to the Board of Education.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow delivered the revised version to the Board on Jan. 5 after the old draft drew much criticism, including claims of whitewashing history.
The revised 68-page proposed education standards include learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. earlier - in elementary grade levels.
Balow, who heads the VDOE, said January’s draft includes new content on events and historical figures that were left out of the state’s previous standards.
“Standards development is not easy work,” said Balow. “There were lots of Virginians who gave their input over that two-year period of the standards development. None of that is lost.”
According to Balow, the new proposed guidelines fix mistakes made in old drafts from August and November.
“What we did at the VDOE was really respond to criticisms to concerns to gaps, errors, omissions that were pointed out to us throughout this process,” she said. “We met the directive of the Board and really made these standards more robust, richer.”
The new proposals come after backlash from teachers over how minorities were represented in earlier versions.
One of those critics is Norfolk elementary teacher Helen Pryor, who’s also the school district’s education association president. She said she’s still reading through the latest revision.
“In order not to repeat history, we need to teach history properly,” said Pryor. “We need to give them the whole story and the truth.”
VEA President Dr. James J. Fedderman doesn’t fully support January’s draft.
Fedderman sent this statement:
“While we’re glad that some factual errors in the previously submitted standards have been corrected and some glaring omissions added back into our curriculum, we believe that the standards remain inadequate and that the process used to arrive at them was politically driven. We support the position statement of the six social studies organizations released earlier this month, which noted that parts of the current version of the standards remain inaccurate, developmentally inappropriate, and far too focused on rote memorization. Our history and social studies standards still need a thorough reworking.”
The current standards even caught the attention of the American Historical Association, which has called the proposals politically motivated. The AHA supports a collaborative process to make new standards.
The Virginia Social Studies Leaders Consortium (VSSLC), Virginia Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (VASCD), and AHA are urging the VBOE to strongly consider thecollaborative draft standards they submitted last month.
Balow argues the history guidelines better meet the governor’s order to teach all history – the good and the bad.
“Read the standards and then let's talk,” Balow said. “We have provided a solid, factual base about history, civics, geography, and economics. We have coupled that with many, many opportunities for students to learn, to think critically, and to apply all of the facts that they learn. We front-load students with facts and we continue encouraging students to think critically and apply what they learn. That's the way teaching and learning should happen in classrooms. And that's the way that this standards document is structured and will be implemented.”
The review process isn’t done yet. There are still several steps, including holding a series of public hearings around the state before any final approval by the BOE. If it clears those hurdles, then the standards will be taught in schools starting this fall.
