State Board of Education approves final 'unpacking documents' for new social studies standards

All North Carolina social studies teachers have new guidance for teaching social studies, to complement their new standards, via documents approved by the State Board of Education on Thursday.

Posted 10:50 p.m. Jul 7, 2021 — Updated 11:37 p.m. Jul 8, 2021

Emily Walkenhorst

, WRAL education reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — All North Carolina social studies teachers have new guidance for teaching social studies, to complement their new standards, via documents approved by the State Board of Education on Thursday.

The board voted 6-5, with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting against them. Member Donna Tipton-Rogers, who voted for the new standards earlier this year, did not vote Thursday.

Those who voted for or against the documents did not explain their favor or opposition to them.

After the meeting, board member Olivia Oxendine said she opposed the documents because she still opposes the new standards as written.

“I never saw my vote changing from the original vote on the standards,” Oxendine told WRAL News, saying the standards don’t cover history chronologically and have an unnecessarily negative tone.

The board, during its virtual meeting, largely did not discuss the documents but rather outside criticism that the standards are vague. The standards were approved in February and were not up for a vote Thursday.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt told the board she planned to bring an alternate “template” for social studies standards in August to address criticisms – she agrees with them – that the state’s standards are too focused on teaching concepts of history rather than specific historical events and people.

The standards approved earlier this year will go into effect for the 2021-22 school year, and it’s unclear whether Truitt intends to recommend replacing them entirely.

The "unpacking documents" approved Thursday provide example topics and class activities to learn the new social studies standards.

They guide educators on teaching the standards and largely differ from the old unpacking documents by offering far more example topics. Ultimately, the new documents reflect the new standards and aren’t necessarily direct updates of the old unpacking documents.

The new standards differ from the old standards largely by asking students to learn more diverse perspectives of history and understand history and contemporary society through more lenses.

Democratic board members who supported the new standards called the expanded perspectives essential for understanding, while Republican members who voted against them felt the emphasis on analyzing diverse perspectives was too heavy and portrayed the United States more negatively than they felt was accurate.

Other standard changes include moving up high school world history to begin in 1200 CE and the addition of an economics and personal finance course, which the North Carolina General Assembly required to replace one of the two U.S. history courses at the high school level. U.S. history is now condensed to one high school course.

The documents approved Thursday are intended for social studies teachers at the sixth grade through high school. Each course’s proposed guiding document is dozens of pages long. The State Board of Education approved guidance documents for kindergarten through fifth grade social studies in June.

Educators aren't required to use the documents – though many do – and, per state law, local school districts and teachers ultimately form the curriculum and lesson plans used in the classroom.

Educators could choose to use some of the examples included in the guidance documents, and may have been using some of them already, or they can come up with their own.

Social studies learning objectives were passed as a part of the new standards back in February.

The guidance documents list dozens of example topics and a handful of activities for each objective.

Here’s a sampling of example topics for perspective-focused objectives from each course:

In sixth grade, the standards require students to compare multiple perspectives of various historical events using primary and secondary sources. As example topics, the guiding document lists, among other things, Black Death from the perspectives of priests, the aristocracy and common families; the spread of Buddhism in China, India and Japan; and the Crusades through European and Middle Eastern perspectives.
In seventh grade, the standards require students to explain how values and beliefs influence human rights, justice and equality for different groups of people. As example topics to examine, the guiding document lists, among other things, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Medieval feudalism and modern social structure based on money.
In eighth grade North Carolina history, the standards require students to compare access to democratic rights and freedoms of different groups in the state. As example topics, the guiding document lists, among other things, suffrage, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
In American history, the standards require students to explain how slavery, xenophobia, disenfranchisement and intolerance have affected people’s perspectives of themselves as Americans. As example topics, the guidance document lists, among other things, Black Codes, Indian removal and the Wilmington Coup of 1898.
In Founding Principles, the standards require students to explain the impact of social movements and reform efforts on government. As example topics, the guiding document lists, among other things, farm workers movement, the LGBTQ movement, Miranda v. Arizona and the Voting Rights Act.
In world history, the standards require students to be able to explain how competing religious, secular, racial, ethnic and tribal group identities have impacted societies. As example topics, the guiding document lists, among other things, apartheid, various pogroms and genocides and the encomienda system.
The new economics and personal finance course is focused on managing money, consumer education and understanding taxes and financial institutions. But the guiding document still includes example topics for objectives, such as analyzing disposable income, retirement planning or cost of living while critiquing income and spending plans for various individuals.

Concerns about the new standards have surrounded whether they were too negative or just honest. Proponents contended more diverse perspectives on historical issues would leave students better prepared to be leaders when they’re older, while opponents argued emphasizing too much negativity would keep students from supporting their country.

What’s taught in the social studies classroom has also been a part of the recent conversation around “critical race theory,” which refers to studying history or current times through the lens of how race may play a role. Oftentimes, it involves examining the possibility of systemic racism contributing to different problems.

It’s not a set of beliefs, though critical race theorists may draw similar conclusions.

The notion of teaching through this lens has sparked concerns among conservative parents that white children will be made to feel bad or that an overemphasis on identity groups will lead to more divisiveness.

Proponents of broadening social studies education argue that learning about other perspectives and less-talked-about historical events, such as the Tulsa Race Massacre, are essential for understanding current events and classmates and ultimately improving unequal outcomes between groups.

Oxendine, after Thursday’s meeting, said the new standards have a “tone of critical theory.”

“It doesn’t smack in your face, but it’s there,” she said. “If you read the standards closely enough, you can pick up on that.”

Critical theory, from which critical race theory is drawn, involves critiquing society and ideology and challenging power structures. Oxendine noted the standards call for students to make critiques of and to “deconstruct” ideas and systems, prior to identifying contextual time periods or events.

Heavy emphasis on critique suggests a negative view of the United States, she said. A teacher can choose to teach the standards without using critical theory, if they are able to recognize it, she said. For example, they can teach terms and history before exploring critiques or offer counter examples to negative critiques.

Earlier this year, other board members argued for the inclusion of the terms “systemic racism,” “systemic discrimination” and “gender identity” in the standards, among concepts to learn. Board member James Ford had said the existence of systemic racism and systemic discrimination was undeniable, when looking at various laws and systems that have disadvantaged people of color.

The standards approved did not include those three terms.

Educators, parents and academics disagree on whether critical race theory is taught in K-12 schools but largely agree it is often used in some higher education settings.

North Carolina updates content standards every five or more years. State Department of Public Instruction officials began working on the new social studies standards in 2019, and they were passed in February. The previous standards were approved in 2010.

Typically, the State Board of Education doesn’t vote on guidance documents for new standards; it only approves the standards, and DPI staff compose the guiding documents. But the board stipulated, as a part of what it approved in February, that DPI return to the board later in the year with the guiding documents for the board to vote on.

DPI plans to have the new social studies standards implemented in the classroom by this fall.

A bill in the North Carolina legislature, related to school COVID-19 pandemic provisions, seeks to delay implementation of the standards by a year. It passed the House but not the Senate and is being reworked in committee.

Truitt to present alternate social studies ‘template’

On Thursday, officials discussed a Fordham Institute report that graded North Carolina’s social studies standards a “D,” largely because they lacked more specific learning requirements.

The conservative think tank every so often publishes a report grading each state’s social studies calendar, and North Carolina has never scored better than a “D,” according to DPI officials.

DPI Deputy Superintendent of Innovation David Stegall blamed the poor grades on two things. First, the institute didn’t have access to the unpacking documents that would have added more specific recommended subject recommendations. Second, the state defers curriculum planning to local school districts, and the standards are written to afford those districts maximum flexibility.

“The focus on critical thinking and the understanding of our nation’s complex history is the goal,” Stegall said.

Truitt disagreed. She said the state’s standard-writing misunderstands local control over curriculum.

Standards should say what students are required to learn and specify historical events and people, she said. Local school districts should determine texts, resources and how those things will be taught, not which things should be taught, she said.

Truitt, who took office this year, said she was also frustrated that the standards are written thematically, rather than laying out what students should learn chronologically.

“We see a list of topics here that cover wide range of time periods,” Truitt said, referring to example topics for a single learning objective. The standard didn’t require a specific event to be learned.

“It’s conceivable a teacher could teach Gilded Age labor conflicts instead of the U.S. Civil War,” she said. “That is why our standards have been downgraded.”

Truitt said she plans to present in August a new standard-writing template that would resolve these concerns and intends to ask the board to approve its use.

Truitt hasn’t asked to once again revise the standards.

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