Virginia Organizations and Community Leaders call for the Virginia Board of Education to Pass the August 2022 version of the proposed History and Social Studies Standards of Learning and Curriculum
Virginia’s 60-year-old history curriculum originally was built around Eurocentric content and perspectives. In 2019, Virginians began an extensive process of revision to the 2014 History and Social Studies Standards and Curriculum, ensuring Virginia’s History and Social Studies standards were inclusive, factually accurate, and reflected all facets of U.S. and Virginia History in an age-appropriate manner. In the spring of 2022, after extensive consultation with subject matter experts, historians and after two public comment sessions, a revised draft of History and Social Studies Standards of Learning and Curriculum was ready for approval.
In August of that year, the revised standards and curriculum documents were well-received during Virginia Board of Education’s (VDOE) August 2022 meeting. However, a couple of VDOE representatives felt some minor additions needed to be made. Instead a completely rewritten version of the document was presented at the November 17, 2022 Virginia Board of Education (VBOE) meeting. That document bore little resemblance to the document proposed in August and was replete with significant omissions of history, misinformation, and grammatical errors.
4 Public Education and collaborating organizations are preparing a letter for the Virginia BOE to be delivered to the chair on Nov. 30. This statement will demand that the August 2022 version of the History and Social Studies SOL be accepted and implemented.
If your organization would like to sign onto the letter please contact Marianne Burke at Marianne.VaGrassrootsCoalition@gmail.com by noon on Wednesday, November 30, 2022.