Date: July 29, 2003
Subject: Missing from the Virginia standards

When held up to the standard of founding principles, even the celebrated Virginia standards for civics falls short, according to an analysis by the Maple River Education Coalition. This shows that even content-based, measurable standards can be based on incomplete content. Standards from Virginia, Kansas, Alabama, California, and Arizona were provided to each of the social studies committee members by the MDE. I will be looking at the other standards in this sample to see how they stack up.

Two more days until our first July 31 meeting. The meeting is scheduled to run from 8 am to 5 pm, with a gathering time over coffee to begin at 7:30 am, and a working lunch from 11:15 am - 12:30 pm that includes an invitation to Governor Pawlenty to address the committees. We will start with a large group assembly, and spend from 9:30 am working in subcommittees. The subcommittees are arranged by subject matter (science and social studies) and grade level: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12.

The "framework" or outline we received for building the standards lists History, which is divided into American History and World History; and Social Studies, which is split into Government and Citizenship (civics), Geography, and Economics. Minnesota History is covered in the grade 6-8 framework.

Click here for the MDE web page of official documents (schedule, member roster, etc.) related to the Academic Standards Committee.