Arkansas history faces less time in classroom
Posted on Monday, July 2, 2007
Historians are criticizing Arkansas’ new social studies curriculum, claiming it will water down the study of Arkansas history at the elementary level and leave high school students studying seventh-grade textbooks.
Schools must start using the new curriculum when the 2007-08 school year begins in August.
“I’m just astonished and appalled,” said Jeannie Whayne, chairman of the history department at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. “It’s a devastating blow to Arkansas history.”
The Arkansas Curriculum Frameworks define what students must know in major subject areas such as math, English and science. It’s left to individual school districts to design their curricula based on the frameworks. Arkansas Department of Education officials must revise all frameworks every six years. The changes to social studies were intended to strengthen the subject’s instruction in general, said department spokesman Julie Johnson Thompson. “We do believe Arkansas history is important for our students and the intent... was certainly not to water down any standards,” she said. The historians’ complaints are two-fold:
Before the new standards were adopted, social studies and Arkansas history were separate subjects at the elementary level. The group of 44 educators who devised the new frameworks combined the subjects.
Social studies and Arkansas history frameworks remain separated at the secondary levels.
Critics said the elimination of separate curricula for kindergarten through the sixth grade will lead to less Arkansas history instruction in those grades. The new frameworks require teaching world history in the seventh and eighth grades. That means there’s not a lot of time for schools to offer Arkansas history in those grades, where it is traditionally taught.
The Conway School District, in reaction to the new standards, has added an extra period for seventh- and eighth-graders. Conway eighth-graders will take the state history course in addition to a full year of world history.
Margaret Grimes, an Arkansas history teacher at Courtway Middle School, agreed to teach an extra class each day to accommodate the change.
“Otherwise, I was fearful that kids wouldn’t take it during high school, and then, of course, those children lose out on learning about Arkansas history,” she said.
A junior high Arkansas history teacher in Fayetteville said school officials there will keep the class in the eighth grade by offering a reduced course and trying to blend it into world history.
Carolyn Anderson, who teaches at Ramay Junior High, said district administrators believe state officials will allow it.
But most school districts will probably bump the course up to high school, where there aren’t any Arkansas history textbooks designed for those classes. Arkansas history isn’t part of high school graduation requirements, so some students may not take the class.
The University of Arkansas Press is publishing the fourth edition of Arkansas History for Young People, which has traditionally been used in the seventh and eighth grades.
Larry Malley, the press’ director, said the text still can be used at the high school level as more Arkansas history courses move there.
State Sen. Sue Madison, DFayetteville, sent a letter on May 17 to state Education Department Commissioner Ken James protesting the changes to the social studies frameworks.
Madison helped pass legislation in 1997 that mandated Arkansas history instruction in public schools.
The law requires one unit of instruction during elementary school and one semester of Arkansas history in the seventh through 12 th grades.
“Why are they messing with this ? It beats me,” Madison said in an interview. “I thought it was working real well.”
James, who declined comment through a spokesman, wrote to Madison on May 23 in response to her letter that state law was “strongly regarded” during the revision process.
In the response, James said the department considered survey responses from history educators across Arkansas. James wrote that teachers felt the previous social studies frameworks were too vague.
He wrote that the new frameworks, with Arkansas history incorporated in the early grades, provide specific learning expectations.
According to James, the new frameworks allow schools to teach the one semester Arkansas history course any time from the seventh to 12 th grades, and it’s up to individual districts to decide whether they will teach the course in junior high or high school.
Tom Dillard, president of the Arkansas History Education Coalition, said the changes could lead to a reduced market for Arkansas history books published within the last few years.
Publishers had to submit their materials for state approval prior to completion of the new state standards. They designed the texts based off the previous standards. Jack Bennett, vice president of Nashville-based AAI Corp., said his company spent between $ 500, 000 and $ 1 million producing an eight-book Arkansas history set for kindergarten through fifth grade. Bennett believes the new social studies standards decrease Arkansas history requirements in these grades. He worries an already small market for his books will shrink further. “There’s a reason no other publishing companies do this. It’s because the market is so small and the risk is so high,” he said. “We understood we’d never make a lot of money for this, but we’d like to not lose our shirts.”
To contact this reporter: jkrupa@arkansasonline. com
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