Dear Neighbor,
The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) is currently reviewing and revising Minnesota’s K-12 Academic Standards for Social Studies Standards. State statute requires that Minnesota’s K-12 academic standards be reviewed and revised on a 10-year cycle on the wide variety of subjects taught in our schools.
This review is timely as of late there has been a lot of discussion within our communities on what is being taught in this area. The subject of critical race theory (CRT) has recently become part of that discussion. Here is some basic information on this topic.
- CRT is not a part of Minnesota’s K-12 school curriculum or academic standards.
- Local school boards are responsible to provide the courses necessary for students to meet Minnesota’s high school graduation standards.
- Elected school boards, staff and parents are responsible for the specific curriculums and textbooks chosen to be used within their respective school districts.
- The courses taught must meet the state academic standards for that subject area.
Recently, MDE posted the second draft of the social studies academic standards for public comment. This is an opportunity for citizens to see specifically what changes are being proposed and weigh in directly on those changes.
The 168-page PDF document and the details of the review process can be viewed/downloaded here.
Minnesotans can use the public comment survey to provide feedback on the second draft. The survey allows citizens to provide comments on individual elements of the standards and benchmarks, as well as the draft document as a whole. If you are unable to use the online survey there is also a provision for you to send your comments via email or postal mail.
Making sure that our children receive an excellent education is critical to the continued success of our local communities, to Minnesota and our nation. By design a major portion of the decisions on how Minnesota’s individual school district operate rests at the local level, not in Saint Paul. However, K-12 academic standards serve as statewide guideposts for parents and school boards, thus updating them is a statewide project.
The current social studies standards revision process provides an important opportunity for citizens to directly impact what is contained in those standards. Please consider participating in this important process, it sets the social studies academic standards for the next 10 years.
Sincerely,
Dale