A Current Events Response by National Council for the Social Studies
September 2022

The development of education standards has often included some level of political undertones and for this reason, the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) has consistently avoided commenting on specific organization, state, district, and/or teacher-developed social studies content and skills standards. Our position has remained consistent that the standards that organizations, states, districts, and/or schools and teachers develop or adopt should be grounded in content area scholarship, reflect best practices in social studies education, and be inclusive for all student backgrounds and ability levels. Our ultimate interest in social studies standards has always been that any standards used for social studies curriculum and lesson development produce students who have strong content knowledge, strong inquiry and analysis skills, and who are ready to be active participants in civic life.

Although NCSS has consistently avoided commenting on specific organization, state, district, and/or teacher-developed social studies content and skills standards, the current political climate is resulting in the development of standards that do not align with our rigorous expectations. In addition, some organizations, state legislatures, local school boards, and community members have misrepresented or misunderstood the content and purpose of the NCSS guiding documents. As such, NCSS issues the following statement for the development and adoption of social studies standards.

As the largest organization devoted exclusively to the teaching and learning of social studies, the National Council for the Social Studies stands firm in its belief that:

1. The development of any social studies standards should be a transparent process that aligns with the best practices for standards development. The NCSS position regarding the development of social studies standards can be found in its 2021 statement on Developing State and Local Social Studies Standards .
2. Social studies standards should include both content and skills and should be rooted in pedagogy that promotes inquiry and disciplinary literacy as defined in The C3 (College, Career, and Civic Life) Framework for Social Studies State Standards . The C3 Framework supports the development of inquiry and disciplinary skill standards necessary to help students internalize and find meaning in social studies content. By design, the C3 Framework does not include lists of content that students should learn. This guidance document focuses on the skills that students will develop while engaging with state-selected content. The lack of content standards in the C3 Framework does not mean that NCSS does not support the teaching of rigorous and meaningful content.
3. When developing social studies content standards, developers should include themes and content that help students understand history, geography, economics, civics, and other social sciences (e.g., psychology, sociology, religious studies, anthropology, etc.) in a way that enables them to appreciate the past, understand the present, and impact the future. The National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment provide the themes that all social studies standards should be structured around but, like the C3 Framework, leave the decisions of the actual content to states, districts, and teachers. We do encourage states, districts, and teachers who would like more guidance in the development of or the selection of standards related to United States history and government to refer to the Educating for American Democracy (EAD) Roadmap. The Roadmap includes content standards and is aligned with the C3 Framework’s approach to inquiry, disciplinary literacy, and student engagement. Although the Roadmap’s primary focus is on United States history and government, NCSS remains firm in its belief that social studies standards should also include standards related to world history, geography, economics, and other social sciences.
4. Social studies standards should help students understand that not only is history complicated, but that not all people have experienced history, government, geography, and economics in the same way as others. Social studies standards should help students identify aspects of United States and world history that result in pride and patriotism while at the same time ensure that students have the reflective skills necessary to identify and analyze when the United States and other countries have fallen short of their reported goals and values. This reflection is crucial so that future generations can learn from both successes and failures of the past and to take action to continue to build towards societies that are inclusive and accepting. Social studies standards that include both positive and negative events in U.S. history do not teach students to hate the United States or to be ashamed of their heritage. Rather these types of standards show multiple aspects of an issue and demonstrate the ability of the United States to continuously take steps to rectify the wrongs of the past in the best tradition of American values. Those who argue to the contrary are those who often have political agendas and are using social studies classrooms and educators to promote divisiveness and attack inclusiveness. In 2021, NCSS issued A Response to the Attacks on Social Studies Education in State Legislatures and Local Boards of Education. That document more fully addresses the political motivations of these attacks.
5. Social studies standards should allow students to analyze how the United States and other nations have systems, often based upon race or ethnicity, that result in political, economic, and social success for some, while resulting in political, economic, and social struggles for others. Students should be allowed to grapple with these concepts, identify these patterns, analyze their causes and consequences, and propose positive solutions to change systems so that those from all racial, economic, and gender backgrounds can benefit and contribute equally to society.
6. Social studies standards should include world history content that focuses on the interaction of societies within a global context. Social studies standards should include the ideas, values, and experiences of both Western history and the history of the non-Western world. Any standards that focus primarily on European or Western history do a disservice not only to students from other backgrounds but to all students, who benefit from understanding the world so that they can best participate in a global economy.
7. Social studies standards should courageously address the history of and modern-day consequences of enslavement and systemic racism. Social studies standards should not minimize these topics and should not present them as simple deviations from American progress. The successes of the abolition and civil rights movements cannot be fully understood without understanding the atrocities that some Americans individually and the United States collectively committed against other humans. Furthermore, social studies standards should require students to understand other forms of enslavement throughout history.   The purpose of this is not to conclude that most societies have enslaved others but to understand the differences between the chattel slavery system that developed in the United States and other forms of enslavement. To minimize these realities or to create a narrative that alters these realities fails all our students.
8. Social studies standards should promote civil discourse and the discussion of diverse perspectives, biases, and motivations. Students should engage with diverse ideas in ways that do not glorify or defend those who have engaged in historical enslavement, misogyny, homophobia, genocide, and racism.