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Executive Summary, Preface, and Standards,

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 20, 2022

VSSLC, VASCD, and AHA Respond to VBOE’s Request for 

Combined History and Social Science Standards

The Virginia Social Studies Leaders Consortium (VSSLC), the Virginia Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (VASCD), and the American Historical Association (AHA) have collaborated to share their collective knowledge, experience, and expertise to submit comprehensive and professionally reviewed standards that address the request made by the Virginia Board of Education (VBOE) at the November 17, 2022 Board meeting.

The Board moved, seconded, and voted for the department to:

• Incorporate a “de-coupled” August draft and the November draft along with public comment and feedback received
• Correct errors and omissions
• Provide a crosswalk that includes a comparison to the 2015 standards
• Communicate in a timely manner with a transparent process

To combine the strengths of the August and November drafts while also addressing public comment during the November meeting, representatives of VSSLC, VASCD, and the AHA collaborated to combine, compare, crosswalk, and enhance the two drafts.   

TIMELINE

• November 17 - VSSLC Executive Committee and members began drafting standards that combined and compared the August and November drafts while referencing the 2015 standards.
• December 2 - VSSLC and VASCD partnered to create a plan to collaborate with AHA
• December 12 - VSSLC finalized the first draft of combined standards and shared with the VASCD and AHA work teams
• December 14 and 15 - VSSLC, VASCD, and AHA met in Richmond to revise the draft completed by VSSLC
• December 15-19 - AHA completed a final edit and fact-check of the standards
• December 20 - Delivery of standards to the Virginia Board of Education

STRUCTURE OF THE PROPOSED COMBINED STANDARDS

The proposed combined standards represent a concerted effort to combine the strengths of the August draft and the November draft with reference to the 2015 standards.  

• Text highlighted in green represents content that appears in the November draft
• Text highlighted in blue represents new content intended to enhance the standards and address the public commentary as requested by the Board 
• Text that appears in black represents content from the August draft that does not appear in the November draft

Please note limited green text to indicate presence in the November drafts in grades K-3. The K-3 standards in this set of combined standards include consistency with the 2015 standards in an age-appropriate progression of Community (K), State (1st), Nation (2nd), and World (3rd).

In evaluating the two documents and making our own revisions, we worked to ensure that content was accurate, age-appropriate, inclusive, and vertically articulated in a manner that supports a natural progression of content, depth, and skill acquisition. The inclusion of specific disciplinary skills as the .1 standard for each grade-level and subject-area is necessary to explicitly communicate that skills must be embedded with content. In an effort to maintain consistency with the 2015 standards, there are essential questions connected to each standard for students to consider.

Critical to the proposed combined standards was also incorporation of Virginia’s 5 Cs (Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Citizenship) as well as the durable skills (5 Cs plus Character, Mindfulness, Metacognition, Leadership, Growth Mindset, and Fortitude). This incorporation prepares students for constructive participation in civic life and equips them with the skills to flourish, succeed, and contribute to the modern economy.           

RECOMMENDED NEXT STEPS 

VSSLC, VASCD, and AHA collaboratively present the combined standards to VBOE and recommend accepting them for first review as soon as possible. We recommend the Board and department follow that acceptance with implementation of the prescribed process for public comment period leading up to final review. An appropriate timeline will allow Virginia’s educators time prior to the 2023-2024 school year to:

• Collaboratively construct a curriculum framework in accordance with the established process; our organizations offer our services to lead, support, and facilitate as needed
• Prepare for implementation to align the written, taught, and assessed curriculum 

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About VSSLC

The Virginia Social Studies Leaders Consortium is an organization of social studies specialists, college educators, museum professionals, social studies education non-profit professionals, and representatives from the Virginia Department of Education. We represent all regions of Virginia. 

About VASCD

Virginia ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development), an affiliate of ASCD, is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to advancing excellence in Virginia’s schools. We have 1,800 members in Virginia who are teachers, superintendents, teacher educators, school leaders, students, and central office administrators. We represent a variety of roles and share a single purpose - ensuring a world-class education for every Virginia student.

About AHA

The American Historical Association is the largest professional organization of historians in the world, including all fields across a wide variety of workplaces.  The AHA is a trusted voice advocating for history education, the professional work of historians, and the critical role of historical thinking in public life.

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