Standards

It’s Back to the Drawing Board for Draft N.C. Standards

By Erik W. Robelen — February 17, 2010 1 min read
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We’ve got still more news on the ever-contentious issue of revising social studies standards. Apparently, state education officials in North Carolina are backing off a proposal, which I recently blogged about, for rewriting the standards in the face of staunch opposition, reports the News & Observer newspaper. Part of that effort would have changed a required high school U.S. history course so that it would begin with the post-Reconstruction years.

“I think that option is pretty dead on arrival,” the newspaper quotes Rebecca Garland, the state education agency’s chief academic officer, of telling legislators at a Feb. 16 hearing. “I’m looking forward to taking that draft off the Web site.”

The proposal encountered widespread criticism, including a letter from Senate leader Marc Basnight, a Democrat.

State Superintendent June Atkinson had argued that the revised standards would actually increase the amount of time students spend studying U.S. history during their elementary and secondary schooling, and that they would learn plenty about the major developments throughout American history.

We’ve been spilling a fair amount of cyber ink here lately about work to revise social studies standards, including efforts afoot in Ohio and Texas. The Texas debate has been especially heated lately, and has drawn considerable national attention.

Stay tuned for further developments in these states and elsewhere.

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A version of this news article first appeared in the Curriculum Matters blog.