On Tuesday, the Michigan State Board of Education is expected to adopt a final set of revised K-12 social studies standards.
The revisions began in the spring of 2014 but picked up steam in 2018 during a series of public hearings and work group sessions. That’s when a focus group proposed a slew of controversial changes, including deleting references to such topics as civil rights and climate change.
Since then, a taskforce has restored most of those deletions.
“Gay rights, climate change, differences between Islam and Christianity and other worlds religions…I think we have that worked out,” says Michigan Department of Education social studies consultant Jim Cameron.
Now, Cameron says, the proposed standards are more generic but include a variety of examples. That’s an effort to include more culturally inclusive lessons.
Even if the state board of education adopts the final standards, educators say it could take as long as five years for full implementation in the classroom.
