August 26, 2024
Gov. J. Kevin Stitt
Oklahoma State Board of Education
Oklahoma City, OK
Dear Gov. Stitt and Members of the Oklahoma State Board of Education:
The American Historical Association views with alarm State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’s plans for a “complete overhaul” of Oklahoma’s existing state academic standards for social studies. He would sacrifice historical accuracy and carefully framed learning outcomes to his extreme ideas about “American exceptionalism” grounded more in ideological commitments than in historical evidence.
In a press interview, Walters claimed, with no evidence, that “[t]eacher’s unions have been rewriting history, teaching students to hate America.” According to Walters, this dystopian view justifies radical reform to the structure and content of Oklahoma’s history curriculum. “The executive committee that we’ve assembled” to rewrite the standards “are experts in American exceptionalism, our Founding Fathers, and historical documents like the Bible. These things are essential to understanding our history.”
The American Historical Association will publish in September a report based on the most comprehensive study of US history/social studies education that has been undertaken in this century. Our exhaustive research documents a landscape of history education that departs dramatically from Walters’s inflammatory caricature. Almost all of the 3,000 teachers we surveyed cited critical thinking (97%) and informed citizenship (94%) as the top learning goals for their students. Standards should support these goals and encourage teachers to model independent thinking by affording them the trust and freedom to make decisions. Oklahoma’s current standards make this possible.
The Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies are among the best in the nation. They succeed on the terms laid out in their introduction, focusing on the four strands of social studies, to provide “a balanced study of history.” In every course, they return to the core practices of social studies that include using evidence and reading critically. These standards are comprehensive in their coverage of US history without being excessively detailed, moving at a steady pace, with examples that teachers can ground their lessons in. The state’s history receives sustained attention, not only in the Oklahoma history sequence but also within the teaching of US history, offering specific examples that connect to national topics.
Alongside its report on social studies education, the AHA is completing a separate assessment of all 50 state standards in middle and high school US history. This assessment evaluates standards on their own terms while also appraising their treatment of nine topics in American history, the use of state history, and historical skills. While standards should be continually revised and debated, Oklahoma received the highest green rating on all nine of its content areas for their clear and comprehensive coverage without any evident partisan framing. The current standards also acknowledge that students should learn how interpretations of history do change over time, such as “the role labels play in understanding historic events, for example ‘riot’ versus ‘massacre.’”
The greatest strength of the Oklahoma standards is their consistent reference to the relationship between Oklahoma and United States history. Specific topics in Oklahoma’s history such as the Oklahoma City lunch counter sit-ins led by Clara Luper are connected to the national civil rights movement. State history helps to engage students with their local context and explains a core reason why each state has its own social studies standards. Standards should reflect each state’s unique history and its national context. While textbook publishers and other resource developers may publish a single national curriculum, or tailor it to the largest states, every state can highlight its particular history through its standards.
In 2019, Superintendent Walters explained that he was “very pleased” with the social studies standards that he now opposes so vehemently. The state’s foundational guidelines for history and social studies instruction “provided a clear, concise guide for teachers to design their lessons and classes.” Oklahoma should be proud of its work and reject efforts by ideologues to undermine the integrity of the state’s public schools.
Sincerely,
James R. Grossman
AHA Executive Director