State Board of Education approves new history, social science standards with emphasis on contributions ‘of all Americans’
The Virginia Board of Education approved new K-12 history and social science standards after months of heated debate and public input.
The new 65-page document outlining the goals and expectations for the history and social sciences curriculum was approved after final comments and discussion Wednesday and Thursday. Up next are technical edits to clean up the draft after Wednesday’s work session when the board went line-by-line to go over the finer points.
“Are these standards perfect? No, they are not,” board member Andy Rotherham, one of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s appointees, said following the vote. “There’s no such thing as perfect standards.”
The standards were approved in a series of votes, starting with the “preface” approved in a 5-4 vote, the attachment of the preface in a 5-4 vote and the 2023 History & Social Sciences Standards of Learning as a whole in a unanimous vote.
The approved standards, according to a VDOE news release, puts an increased emphasis on civics in all grades and provides a broader understanding of contributions “of all Americans, in particular African Americans, Indigenous Peoples and Asian Americans.” New this year from previous years is the teaching of Sikhism, according to a Sikh Coalition statement.
A series of public input meetings this spring provided mixed feedback after the process the Department of Education undertook to review and revise the standards documents became controversial.
Under Virginia Code, the standards of learning for each content area must be reviewed every seven years. Last October, a 400-page document that had been developed under former Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration had been presented to the board for review. However, then-Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow had requested to delay the review because there was a need to make corrections and receive additional input.
The next draft came under fire for appearing to largely throw out much of what experts had spent months developing. Top education officials later apologized for a new draft that had referred to Virginia’s indigenous communities as “immigrants” and did not include Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth on its list of federal holidays, both of which were described as mistakes that were later corrected.
Youngkin’s stance on issues like parental rights in education, critical race theory and divisive concepts became the focal point of a recent CNN town hall. At the time, he said he was pleased with the history standards because he believes “they will be the best in the nation.”
According to the VDOE news release, history and social science instruction and state assessments based on these new standards will begin in the 2025-26 school year.
Kelsey Kendall, kelsey.kendall@virginiamedia.com
