Click here to review current social studies standards (scroll down to the very bottom of the TEA website to find the proposed revisions to social studies), and send your comments to: rules@tea.state.tx.us. Here are some points to keep in mind as you review the standards and prepare your comments:
General points:
- Because the State Board of Education made so many changes to the proposed standards without seeking advice from academic experts or even classroom teachers at the January and March meetings, the board should delay final approval for the social studies standards. It is critical that teachers and academic experts in the social sciences review the revised standards to determine whether they are based on sound scholarship and are appropriate for social studies classrooms.
- Board members should stop playing politics with the standards and listen to classroom teachers and scholars. Texas students deserve an education based on facts and sound scholarship, not the personal opinions of board members who are not experts in history or the social sciences. The board is undermining the ability of Texas students to get a sound education that is free from political agendas and that truly prepares them to succeed in college, in their future careers and as citizens.
Some specific changes the board should make to the standards:
- World history students should learn about the influence of Enlightenment ideas and thinkers, including Thomas Jefferson, on political revolutions from the 1750s to the present. The board should reverse its vote in March to remove Jefferson and references to the Enlightenment from a world history standard on political revolutions since the 1700s.
- The board should reverse its vote against a proposed high school government course standard requiring that students understand how the Founders protected religious freedom by barring government from promoting or disfavoring one religion over all others.
- The board should stop trying to politicize and stigmatize the accomplishments of the women’s and civil rights movements by requiring students to learn about supposed negative consequences of those struggles for equal rights in America. Such a requirement is based on personal political opinions, not scholarship.
But even if all these changes are made, scholars and classroom teachers should still review the revised standards and recommend any needed changes before the board takes a final vote on adoption.