Virginia is taking a closer look at how it teaches history and social studies and that’s led to some disagreement and some delays.
A Virginia Board of Education vote planned for November to finalize revised state standards for history and social studies lessons has been pushed back to January 2023.
Public hearings scheduled for this month, followed by final approval in November had been expected after the revision process was first postponed back in August.
Now, public hearings are scheduled for Dec. 5-9.
This would be the first change to the Virginia’ History and Social Science Standards of Learning — or SOLs, the standards that determine what students are expected to know, since 2015.
As WTOP previously reported, some of the revisions in the proposed standards include more emphasis on local history and Virginia’s role in the American Revolution. That includes a reference change, using “North America’s Indigenous Peoples” instead of “Native Americans.”
There’s been criticism about what the new standards might look like, but Board of Education President Daniel Gecker said, “as of today, comments that we are changing or not teaching all history are just not factually correct.”
WTOP’s John Aaron contributed to this report.
