The debate over the next generation of social studies standards in the state has its final public hearing in Pierre next Monday. Now, some school administrators are joining the opposition.
While the proposed standards aren’t without supporters, the proposal has faced steep pushback from the state’s education community. This week, an open letter signed by the board members of the South Dakota School Superintendent Association added to that voice.
Dell Rapids School District Superintendent Summer Schultz is president of that board. She questioned the proposal’s priorities.
“I’m not against rigor for our kids. What I am against is saying that because there’s more, that’s better. 'More' isn’t 'rigor,'” Schultz said. "I do away with geography in my high school, and yet I would have to add a social studies teacher to cover all these standards, and they wouldn’t get geography on top of that.”
Schultz said there is an age-appropriateness problem with the proposal.
“I did an activity with my board and read off some of the standards to them and had them guess which age group it was, and they were multiple years off in their guessing," Schultz said. "So that kind of made me know, okay, we’re onto something here, we really need to take a look at it.”
Schultz said that concern extends to teachers in her classrooms.
“My middle school and high school teachers really were concerned that they would just be teaching students to memorize facts, timelines, that sort of thing," Schultz said. "Rather than having them understand some basic principles we’d want them to know.”
Another worry – the cost of implementation. Schultz said she is concerned about the potential price of buying curriculum from Hillsdale College, which played a large role in the standards-writing process.
In a statement, Department of Education Deputy Secretary Mary Stadick Smith said the department stands behind the fundamental aspects of the standards. She also pointed to changes the department made following testimony, including adding a year to the implementation timeline.
