NC delays social studies changes to figure out how to teach ‘hard truths of history’
The State Board of Education voted Thursday to postpone approval of new K-12 social studies standards so that more work can be done on them to address how to-teach difficult topics such as slavery and racism.
“Go back with a fine tooth comb and refine even more so with equity in mind how we want these learning targets to reflect the demands of this current moment and the demands of so many stakeholders and communities that are historically marginalized to make sure that we are producing more socially conscious and empathetic individuals to help create a better and more perfect union,” state board member James E. Ford said.
The state board periodically reviews and revises the standards used in different subjects. North Carolina is consolidating U.S. history in high school from two courses into one class to make room for a new personal finance course required by state lawmakers.
The revision process has occurred amid nationwide protests over Black people like George Floyd being killed by white police officers. Groups are talking about dealing with issues of systemic racism affecting the minority community.
Students call for social studies changes
The state board heard earlier this week from Matt Scialdone, a teacher at Middle Creek High School in Apex, and several of his students about teaching “hard history.” Students in his elective classes have explored topics such as the lynching of Black people and the state’s forced eugenics sterilization program that disproportionately targeted Black people.
The students said North Carolina’s schools are failing to teach about important events that affect students of color.
KaLa Keaton, a rising senior at Middle Creek, said she only recently learned about things such as the 1898 Wilmington Massacre, when white supremacists violently overthrew the city’s multi-racial elected government and killed dozens of Black people.
“Students of color deserve to see the accomplishments, contributions and struggles of our communities accurately reflected in the classes we sit in every year,” Keaton said. “Right now we’re left to go behind the curriculum and do extra work.”
The state board had been set to vote on the standards in June but delayed by a month to ask the state Department of Public Instruction to make changes that ensure that the views of minority groups are included.
DPI is now proposing including an introductory statement in the social studies standards saying teachers are expected to include diverse histories, experiences and perspectives of racial, ethnic, gender, and identity minority groups. Examples of groups cited in the statement include African Americans, indigenous populations, women, Latinx, Asian Americans, Middle East and North African Americans and the LGBTQ+ community.
“Students come from a variety of social, racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds and deserve to learn and be empowered by the historical experiences and contributions of multiple groups,” according to the introductory statement.
Encouraging teaching about the Black Panthers
DPI also says it will recommend schools use non-traditional social studies content that discusses things such as Black Wall Street in Durham, redlining, school desegregation, the Black Panthers and deportation of Mexicans.
State board member JB Buxton said DPI is moving in the right direction. But he said another delay would give the board more time to see the documents DPI will develop to help teach the classes.
“A lot of questions (are being asked), not just in our state but across our country, about the degree to how we go about teaching our history and social studies, the perspectives that are included, the issues that are addressed,” Buxton said Wednesday.
“While these are not new questions, they’ve certainly developed a new sense of urgency. As a state and a country we’re reckoning with these issues, so this adoption comes at a particularly compelling and important time.”
Mariah Morris, a state Teacher of the Year adviser to the board, said all the educators she’s heard from want a 1-year delay given the uncertainty with how schools will operate next school year. She also said the delay will help DPI work on how to teach “the hard truths of history,” particularly if they could more detailed wording in the standards.
“By including these hard, difficult items such as slavery and Jim Crow and a lot of the different racial equity anchor terms into our standards and not the implementation guide, we will be protecting our teachers from any backlash that they might receive from community members or parents that might be upset with them teaching that,” Morris said.
Graduation requirements changing
The delay means that social studies graduation requirements will change for freshmen who start in high school this fall.
North Carolina public high school students are required to take four social studies courses before they graduate.
The state board voted in January to require that, starting with freshmen entering in the 2020-21 school year, students take World History, American History, Civic Literacy and Economics and Personal Finance. But now that change won’t go into effect until the 2021-22 school year.
For freshmen starting in 2020-21, they’ll still have to take World History (now recommended as their first social studies class) and personal finance before graduating. But they’ll now be able to take either the current or new civics course and either the new U.S. history course or one of the two current ones.
This story was originally published July 9, 2020 at 1:22 PM with the headline "NC delays social studies changes to figure out how to teach ‘hard truths of history’."
