After a long delay and significant controversy, the Virginia Board of Education approved new standards Thursday for how students learn history.
The standards, which must be reviewed every seven years, are defined as broad goals for student learning and achievement in grades K-12. They are set to be fully implemented by August 2025.
“I think we’ve labored thoughtfully and collaboratively,” said board member Alan Seibert. “We have listened for months during public comment and during our visits to the different parts of the Commonwealth.”
Tammy Mann, vice president of the board, added that “in the process of getting to a final product, compromises are made.”
It took the board several months to make amendments following intense, public criticism that the standards were being politicized by Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration and conservative-leaning groups.
“A lot of the changes that they made had to do with content and creating a little bit more consistency across the different grade levels,” said Brendan Gillis, the manager of teaching and learning at the nonpartisan American Historical Association.
Board members added more references to organized labor, the gay rights movement and Indigenous people, for example.
The topic of slavery was heavily amended.
“They shifted language to acknowledge that the slavery that developed in the Americas was different from forms of slavery that had come before,” Gillis said. “The representation of slavery is much more accurate after a few changes that were put in place.”
Despite that, critics were quick to continue making their arguments known.
“These standards fail at every level,” said Virginia Education Association President James Fedderman said. “While the board can try to whitewash history, I promise they will not ultimately succeed.”
Gillis said it’s a back and forth that ultimately will never end, especially in the politically divided atmosphere that exists in Virginia and across the nation.
“History is a subject that is defined by debate,” Gillis said. “There’s never going to be any full consensus about how we tell the history of our country or the history of the world, and that’s important.”
