Teach Truth in Virginia History Classes by Implementing Previously Proposed Standards

Teach Truth in Virginia History Classes by Implementing Previously Proposed Standards

Started
December 2, 2022
Signatures: 2,385Next Goal: 2,500
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Why this petition matters

Started by Marianne Burke

Virginia’s 60-year-old history curriculum originally was built around Eurocentric content and perspectives. In 2019, Virginians began an extensive process of revision to the 2015 History and Social Science Standards and Curriculum, ensuring Virginia’s History and Social Science standards were inclusive, factually accurate, and reflected all facets of U.S. and Virginia History in an age-appropriate manner.

Hundreds of Virginia citizens and other subject matter experts for underrepresented communities took part in a 2-year process which added to the 2015 version content and the perspectives of Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and LGBTQ+ people. Multiple commissions, working groups, and citizen engagement sessions were formed, consulted, and included in the process which culminated in the production of the SOL Standards and Curriculum that was proposed during Virginia Board of Education (VBOE)’s August 2022 meeting. Those involved included volunteer Virginia subject matter experts, including historians, educators, parents, students, and citizens during the two public comment periods before August 2022: February 11 - March 11, 2020, and January 28 - March 1, 2021. These were followed by yet another public comment period from  August 17 to September 26, 2022.  

The revised standards and curriculum documents were well-received during VBOE’s August 2022 meeting. However, a couple of Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) representatives felt that more Eurocentric perspectives and “patriotic language” were needed (e.g., Christopher Columbus, why George Washington is called the “Father of our Country,” why James Madison is called the “Father of the U.S. Constitution,” etc.) and requested the VBOE delay implementation of the standards and curriculum beyond the scheduled date of implementation. Instead another version of the document was promised for consideration at the November 17, 2022 VBOE meeting. The document presented at that meeting bore little resemblance to the document proposed in August and was replete with significant omissions of history, misinformation, and grammatical errors.

On November 18, 2022, Governor Glenn Youngkin rejected the November Version and stated:

“...my fundamental directive to the teams has been to teach all of our history, the good and the bad, all of it, and to make sure that areas that sometimes are harder to discuss… slavery, civil war, civil rights movement, are fully, fully represented in our curriculum.”

With nominal changes, the August 2022 standards and curriculum meet the Governor’s stated directive and there should be no further delay moving forward with VDOE’s review process.

WHEREAS VDOE has lost the trust and confidence of Virginia citizens by refusing to publish, in full, its process documents and a complete list of “consultants” and individuals who contributed to date to its November 2022 standards and curriculum documents, and

WHEREAS the delay in approving the revised standards and curriculum has caused the deadline to pass for the final review of the 2022 standards, putting the implementation of the revised SOL at least several months behind schedule,

WE, Virginia citizens, call for:

VBOE to reject the November, 2022 standards and curriculum draft documents and vote to move forward with the 2022 SOL review process without additional delay, using the August 2022 standards and curriculum documents.

VBOE to immediately release the names of all advisors, contributing consultants, and others who had a role in the revision of the August draft of the standards and curriculum, and any amounts paid to them.

 

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Signatures: 2,385Next Goal: 2,500
Support now
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