Specialists Weigh Common Social Studies Standards

By Catherine Gewertz

Ed Week

Feeling that social studies has been sidelined by a test-driven focus on math and English/language arts, subject-matter specialists from more than a dozen states are meeting this week with representatives of content-area groups to brainstorm ways to improve academic standards in that subject.

The two-day gathering in Charlotte, N.C., is the third convened in the last year and a half as states and social studies groups seek to re-establish the prominent role they feel the disciplines deserve in classrooms. Social studies specialists from 18 states and officials of 15 social studies organizations have been taking part in the talks.

Organizers of the effort refer to it as work on “common state standards in social studies,” but participants’ discussions are not “predetermined” to produce a set of standards for state adoption, said Kathleen Swan, an associate professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Kentucky’s college of education, who is organizing the discussions.

While the talks might produce model standards, they are primarily geared toward developing resources states can share, such as a set of guidelines or core principles, and serving as a forum for states and content-area groups to discuss improving states’ own standards, she said.

“It’s more an effort of people talking about how they can make their own states’ [standards] better by working together,” Ms. Swan said. “If we end up converging in a way that makes sense for a common set of standards, then that’s where we converge.”

The conversations have been unfolding through a social studies group within the Council of Chief State School Officers. It’s one of the CCSSO “collaboratives” that serve as forums for representatives of states to discuss issues in specific topic areas, including assessment, special education, mathematics, and career and technical education.

A Different Path

But while the social studies collaborative has been the forum for the discussions, the CCSSO is not working to create an initiative for common social studies standards, said Chris Minnich, who oversees the CCSSO’s collaboratives. The CCSSO and the National Governors Association organized states in 2009 in the Common Core State Standards Initiative, which produced a set of math and English/language arts standards that have now been adopted by 44 states and the District of Columbia.

“Our board has been very clear that they’re not interested in leading the social studies work in the same way we’ve led the common core in math and English/language arts,” said Mr. Minnich. “We’re hopeful that states working together can write social studies standards as they would like to. Some states are interested in upgrading their standards, and that is what we are interested in helping support. We are not part of the development as we were with the common standards [in math and English/language arts].”

To spearhead the common-standards work in English and math two years ago, the education chiefs and governors of nearly every state signed memorandums of agreement pledging to support the initiative, Mr. Minnich noted, something that has not been done with the social studies work. A spokeswoman for the NGA said that organization is not involved in the new social studies work.

Social studies groups had wanted their subject to be part of the common-standards work in 2009, but the CCSSO and the NGA declined, choosing instead to focus on only two core subjects, Mr. Minnich said. Math and English/language arts were a “logical place to start,” in recognition of the size of the undertaking and limited resources, as well as “where most of the accountability in schools” is located, he said.

Others in the field have speculated that the potential controversy of social studies standards offered another reason to restrict that initiative to math and literacy.

The CCSSO’s board wants to stay focused on fully implementing the math and English/language arts standards, Mr. Minnich said, “and there is still a lot of work to do to make sure the standards are translated into classrooms across the United States.”

Sensitive Topic

The creation of social studies standards, common or otherwise, has often touched off controversy. Recent battles over standards content in ...

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Vol. 32, Issue 30