AHA senior program analyst Julia Brookins and member Steven Mintz testified in public comments to the Texas State Board of Education sharing their concerns about ongoing revisions to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) social studies standards. Quoted in the Dallas Morning News, Brookins said, “The last big question today is, what is worth knowing? There is a real opportunity here to support social studies instruction that opens up worlds of learning to Texas students.” Mintz criticized the new course sequence approved in September as “imbalanced,” stating, “This is an abomination of history, if we want to prepare students.” AHA member Yolanda Levya was named to the panel of content advisers supporting the standards revision. “I’m hopeful that when we talk about people fighting for freedom, we include people of color, because people of color have been fighting for the U.S. to live up to its equality and liberty ideals,” Levya said to the Morning News.
