Board passes vote for new statewide social studies standards in NC

RALEIGH — The North Carolina State Board of Education passed new state social studies standards Thursday in a 7-5 vote.

Republican members of the State Board of Education charged at a meeting earlier in the week that proposed social studies standards are “anti-American” and will teach North Carolina public school students that the nation is oppressive and racist.

The board on Wednesday reviewed new K-12 social studies standards that would have teachers discuss racism, discrimination and the perspectives of marginalized groups. Several GOP board members argued that the new standards are divisive and have a leftist political agenda.

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Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican, noted how he’s the state’s first Black lieutenant governor and that the U.S. previously had elected a Black president. He said the standards would inaccurately teach that the nation is racist.

“The system of government that we have in this nation is not systematically racist,” Robinson said. “In fact, it is not racist at all.”

State board member Amy White said North Carolina social studies teachers should be telling students that America is the greatest nation on Earth. She blamed the news media for promoting an anti-American viewpoint.

“While I think some of the revisions have been helpful, I still see an agenda that is anti-American, anti-capitalism, anti-democracy,” said White, who was appointed by former GOP Gov. Pat McCrory. She is a former social studies teacher.

Board members appointed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the board’s advisors were more supportive of the new standards. The state board is scheduled to vote on the standards next week.

“My students and all students in North Carolina deserve to see themselves represented and their stories told, said Antoinette Green, an American and African American teacher at Rocky River High School.

She sees the revisions as an opportunity to better serve students.

For the majority of our students, they want to connect to history,” Green said. They want to see themselves represented, and they want to know the truth.”

At a board meeting last week, the state Department of Instruction staff announced proposed changes to some of the wording.

“Systemic racism” changed to “racism”
“Systemic discrimination” changed to “discrimination”
Gender identity” changed to “identity”

The state superintendent said that would expand the definitions and recognize that there are multiple forms of racism and identity.

“My biggest problem is that they are trying to take out words that are the experience of all of our students,” Green said. “Systemic racism is what happened. What hurts my heart is that of our students don’t see themselves represented in our curriculum.”

UNC Charlotte professor Tina Heafner, who is a past president of the National Council for Social Studies, said, “I think we have to really step back and ask, ‘What kind of social studies have we been teaching in schools?’ Our social studies have been very superficial.”

Heafner explained what those standards mean for students.

“It governs and provides guidance to teachers on, ‘This is the way you should approach problems and issues from the human experience from these particular lenses, disciplinary lenses.’ But it also give guidance on well, what skills, progressions of learning in those skills that students would have to have,” she said.

The state board periodically reviews and revises the standards used in different subjects. North Carolina is consolidating U.S. history in high school from two courses into one class to make room for a new personal finance course required by state lawmakers.

“By having these standards, that means that every one of our kids in every classroom in North Carolina is going to get the same standardized social studies education with those multiple viewpoints and those multiple perspectives included,” said Maureen Stover, a board advisor and 2020 North Carolina Teacher of the Year.

Stover, who teaches in Cumberland County, was named Wednesday one of four finalists for National Teacher of the Year. The winner will be announced in the spring.

The latest standards have gone through multiple drafts, including an earlier one that would have had third-grade students study how monuments such as Confederate statues are valued by their community.