Governor Kristi Noem addressed a joint house of the state legislature Tuesday at the opening of the 2021 legislative session. She talked about the importance of parents, education, and the need for greater civics education in South Dakota.
Guest: Tiffany Sanderson, the state's new Secretary of Education. She was named to the post after Secretary Ben Jones left the office to lead the state's historical society at the end of last year.
Lori:
Secretary Sanderson, thank you for sitting down with us today. We appreciate your time.
Secretary Tiffany Sanderson:
You bet. It's great to see you.
Lori:
We are looking at the start of a new legislative session. Governor Kristi Noem has given her State of the State Address and laid out some of her priorities. Lawmakers have gathered in Pierre, and I'm wondering as Education Secretary, what are some of your legislative priorities for the 2021 session?
Secretary Tiffany Sanderson:
I think there's probably three different buckets that are most important as we're looking over the next 36 days now. One, civics education, that the Governor mentioned in her State of the State yesterday. Two, as we look ahead in schools from COVID and all that we've learned over the last 10 months, making sure that we have priorities in place to help support our students in our schools and address some of the things that we've learned. And then there'll be topics that come to us from a variety of different places that we'll be engaged. In a couple of those that we're aware of right now are around the Initiated Measure 26 that the voters passed in November relating to medical marijuana, and other proposals related to schools. There's a bill out that brings back the discussion from last year on community-based schools and other proposals that we'll be part of.
Lori:
Let's start with civics education. Governor Noem had an editorial in the Federalist last week, and then this week in her State of the State she talked about how important good education was, including civic education of our kids. "They should see firsthand the importance of civic engagement. They should have robust discussions in the classroom so they can develop critical thinking skills, and they need more experience engaging with elected officials and practicing the art of debate. It's also our responsibility to show them how government works." Those were her big picture thoughts. So what does that look like in the form of legislation compared to what we already have in civics education in the state and where you think that we need to go?
Secretary Tiffany Sanderson:
Yeah. So I think this is a conversation about, one, continuing all of the good things that we have in motion in South Dakota, and then looking at, what are the additional supports that can provide to teachers and to students so that our students are prepared as they leave high school to be engaged and productive citizens throughout our communities in the state. So there've been some questions that have arisen around, what does this mean in terms of what we'll be adding to the curriculum or what we'll be displacing from what students are learning? So I think there's a couple of angles that we should look at as we're talking about, how do we best prepare students for their futures as citizens here in the state and the roles that they'll play as private citizens or as leaders in their community, if they're serving on school boards or county commissions or anything like that?
So we want to make sure that they have a strong foundation in understanding what our history looks like, how we got to this point, what makes it special, and how they can engage in civil discussion and have those critical thinking skills that allow them to participate wholly and in a civil way. So in terms of your question on legislation, "What does that look like?" So we've got a couple of opportunities as we look forward. You're probably familiar that the Governor proposed $900,000 in funding. That funding will help to accelerate efforts around instructional materials for the classroom, and I'll talk about that in just a bit in more detail, teacher training, and then making sure that schools have the resources that they need to engage students in real life experience, real world experience, seeing their government in action or participating in things like you mentioned, Laurie, debate, mock legislatures, service learning that give them firsthand experience while they're young and in a coachable environment with trusted teachers.
Lori:
Give me an idea of how this works now. You and I are both parents. My daughter's on to college now, but as an engaged parent, of course, at the time, she went to the Sioux Falls School District in Washington high schools where she graduated, I could go on that website and look up just a lot of things about the curriculum and what they were learning without even talking to my child about it. So I have a familiarity with the depth of that in the Sioux Falls School District. Are there problems with other school districts? Is there something? I guess what I'm wondering is if there is a demonstrated lack, or if there is a perceived, these students are coming to college and they somehow didn't gain this information? Or do we have a gap in curriculum across the state for civics education?
Secretary Tiffany Sanderson:
So some of the things that South Dakota is doing very well that other states haven't paid as close of attention to over time. So I give this credit to educators. I give this credit to school board members and policymakers. Our students graduate from high school, like you mentioned, Laurie, with American government in their backgrounds, with U.S. history and their background, plus an additional 1.5 units in other social studies content. So that might be econ or other similar areas. And they also have a speech or debate experience. Not all States require that. So that's one of the things that goes really well in South Dakota. Another strength that we have is that all of our schools have content standards in all areas, but as we're talking about social studies content here, from elementary level up through the high school years, as a group of educators and experts in that area, people have agreed on what's most important for students to know and understand and be able to do related to social studies content. So those are real strengths of what we've got in place already.
A couple of things that we need to consider though, as our teachers are preparing for careers, going through university programs, not all of them have a background in U.S. history, American government, or South Dakota history. And so we can have conversations about, is that something that we jointly think is an important experience for our pre-service teachers to have if they're going to be an elementary teacher or a middle school or high school social studies teacher? In a similar vein, we don't have any cohesive, easily accessible instructional materials or resources to teach South Dakota history or South Dakota government, economics, geography and that $900,000 will help to develop those kinds of instructional materials so teachers have lesson plans to be able to provide that instruction in the classroom and students have access to things like primary documents, historical photos, and videos or interviews with South Dakota experts that really bring the rich story of our state to life.
Lori:
Let's talk a little bit about the push for civics education in previous years, 2019, and Secretary Ben Jones was on this show talking about that at this time. Lots of debate. Those bills did not pass. What do you think you learned from that experience as you look back on it and say, "This is what we need to fine tune the legislation to create something lawmakers can get behind"?
Secretary Tiffany Sanderson:
Sure. So I think the major debate in 2019 was around requiring students to pass the Citizenship Test, the United States Citizenship Test for graduation, and the crux of that came down to, is it right to add more assessment requirements to our students' experience? People agreed that our students, South Dakota students, should know what new citizens in the United States know about our country. And as we've looked at what's already in our content standards for social studies between 2nd grade and 12th grade, our South Dakota students experience every one of those 100 questions on the Citizenship Test at least three times. So our students have that experience in the classroom, that knowledge. And so, as we're looking at the 2021 conversation, rather than what are the assessment requirements, let's talk about, what the experiences that our students and our teachers have, what are they equipped with so that they are prepared, our students are prepared, as they enter adulthood to be engaged citizens?
Lori:
Who looks at the curriculum and makes choices about content? Do lawmakers get to see that and make choices about what they like and what they don't like? Is that up to the Department of Education? Tell us how curriculum development works in the state.
Secretary Tiffany Sanderson:
Thanks for asking that. And so I'm going to answer in a pretty nerdy or a wonky education way, if that's okay. And so we'll distinguish between content standards and curriculum. The Department of Education oversees content standards for all content areas. That's outlining what students should know, understand, and be able to do, whether that's in math or science or social studies or business education or fine arts. And so if you think about content standards, it's like baking a very basic cake. There are certain elements that any cake is going to need, and so that's what our content standards also reflect. Curriculum is something that school districts use to bring to life in the classroom those content standards.
So, in this case, if students are required in fourth grade to understand geography of the state, where is pure South Dakota, our State Capitol? Teachers, school districts are deciding, what's the curriculum? How do I deliver that instruction in the classroom so that my students understand and know what their State Capitol is, where it's located on a map and what might be unique about South Dakota's State Capitol? So there's a distinction there. The Department of Education, again, charged with the content standards, school districts are charged with curriculum.
Lori:
When you talk about the $900,000 and giving the teachers the resources they need though, is there a purchase of curriculum on the state level for distribution to schools that want it? Tell me more about that. I think I feel like there's one little piece of information that I'm not quite connecting, so help me out.
Secretary Tiffany Sanderson:
I would say that the conversation that we're having around instructional materials for South Dakota history and government are unique in this content standards versus curriculum. There isn't a textbook creator in the country that's going to create instructional materials on South Dakota, history, and government, and so that's why we're talking about bringing together the experts in that area, educators, historians. We've gotten great partners in this state. South Dakota Public Broadcasting with the instructional materials and resources that you all provide, museums throughout the state that have resources that can all come together and help students experience firsthand, understand our rich history.
Lori:
All right. Let's talk a little bit about number two bucket, which is COVID-19. We're still very much living with that. Even as vaccine distribution in the state is going quite well compared to other states, this is still a pandemic and we still are behaving accordingly moving forward. What do we know about how the pandemic has infected this generation of kids in K through 12? Because it's easy to hear lots of doom and gloom stuff about this lost generation and how they'll never catch up. And as a parent, I question that and I think, "Well, don't throw them out just yet because they had a difficult year." But what are you seeing from test scores, from hearing from schools, superintendents about how is it going? How dire is the situation and how much has COVID-19 really impacted students longterm in South Dakota?
Secretary Tiffany Sanderson:
Yeah. Great question, and I so appreciate that you recognize the resiliency of kids in their interest to be positive and hopeful. And I would say that's what we see in the classroom with kids right now is, yes, it is a very interesting time and education looks different and their experience has been different, but they are resilient and they're ready to learn, they're ready to engage, and their educators are there to support them. So I would say we're in Phase Three of pandemic response for schools. Phase One was last spring as schools moved to a remote distance learning environment. Everybody turned on the fly and did their best to address student needs and finish out the school year. Phase Two was coming back in-person this fall and mitigating viral spread, making sure that students had the resources that we needed.
You had asked about what are we seeing? I would say, yes, we saw things across the board. We had students who had done really well in remote learning and were on pace from last school year when they moved to remote learning. We saw students who had fallen behind in academics for a variety of reasons and needed some additional supports academically. And we saw the stress of the entire situation. It might be parents, aunts, and uncles, grandparents losing jobs or having a different home environment over the spring and summer impacting mental health and social emotional needs. We had students, special populations through special education, English learners, who needed some additional supports, and so schools have been working in multiple ways to offer a variety of options for instructional delivery to their families and provide supports this last fall.
It helped address students where they were at and and move them forward in their full well-being, both academic and mental health. And I think we're entering Phase Three now of COVID response as we get into the second semester. Schools have figured out mitigation strategies that are working very well, have come into stride with the variety of instructional options that they're offering their families. And as you mentioned, we're very much in this pandemic, but we're also looking at the strides out of it as vaccines are becoming available. Our School of Nurses right now are part of the group who have access to the vaccines and are our teachers, administrators, and staff will be part of the next group that's projected to start vaccinations in February.
Lori:
So when teachers get vaccinated, they will do so through their school?
Secretary Tiffany Sanderson:
Correct.
Lori:
And high school nurses, okay.
Secretary Tiffany Sanderson:
They won't receive the vaccines typically through their school nurses, but being regional approach to vaccine distribution, the first group in schools to receive those vaccines will be the school nurses. That's currently happening. And then all other staff will be part of the group that is projected to start in February.
Lori:
I want to talk just a minute about urgency, because I want to be careful not to minimize anybody's concern about how difficult this year has been for their students. And as parents, we watch our kids grow up so quickly and all of a sudden, hey, fourth grade is done and that whole unit on South Dakota history or that first year in orchestra, that's the year my student missed, or you're in high school preparing for college graduation and this ACT was a nightmare for us and you don't get another chance at it. You're a mom as well. Speak to that, that sense of urgency that can almost spill into panic, if you're anybody like me, where every once in a while you think, "How much should I be worried?" And you let your head get a little bit far away. But it's important and when you have a child going through the system, you only get so many chances to build certain developmental skills. Talk about that for a little bit in a year that has been so disruptive for so many people.
Secretary Tiffany Sanderson:
Right, right. And I see it through the growth in my own son. He's now 13. When he started remote learning last spring, I could still look him eye to eye, and at this point I have to look up to see his eyes. That really puts in perspective that this time is fleeting and so much is happening developmentally in a short period of time for all of our kids, whether they're itty bitties in kindergarten, to ready for adulthood at the senior level. I read a study about students and educator perspectives on priorities of the school year. It was done in August and it was a group of in the classroom teachers who were polled and then high school students who are interested in becoming educators themselves. And one of the questions was student activities, extracurricular activities, what priority level do we give them in this time?
And there was a huge divide between student perspectives and adult perspectives. In that study, about 10% of adults viewed that as a high priority, and about 60% of our young people viewed that as a high priority. They crave that social engagement with their peers, the opportunity to connect, the ability to interface and discuss what's weighing on their minds or what they're experiencing, and to find some normalcy. So to your question, Laurie, we have to, as adults, think through all the perspectives here. This is a blip in our lives, but this is a big moment in our kids' lives, and we need to make sure that even in a different time, a different approach, we're addressing their full well-being and needs as developing young people.
Lori:
Yeah. It's been sobering as well. On to a third area of discussion. You mentioned Initiated Measure 26 and medical marijuana. Make the connection to me between education and that legislation.
Secretary Tiffany Sanderson:
You bet. Many agencies, many legislators are looking at the passage of Initiated Measure 26 and what that means for implementation as we go forward. You might be familiar that there was a section in the Initiated Measure that spoke to implementation in schools, medical marijuana implementation in schools. And so we're having conversations about what that looks like and means as we go forward, and I think that will be an ongoing discussion throughout session.
Lori:
All right. And, again, the school nurses come into that conversation pretty strongly. Tell me who some of the people around the table really need to be for that conversation.
Secretary Tiffany Sanderson:
You bet. So a wide variety. As I talk with superintendents and school board members, major interest is understanding the issue and how do we ensure the safety of our staff and students and the public who comes onto school grounds? So school nurses, bus drivers, teachers, the full support staff, teaching staff within a school. It really will impact everybody and we're all working to learn more about those impacts and how we can best recognize what the voters put in place this year.