Beebe supports new curriculum
Posted on Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Gov. Mike Beebe expressed support Monday for the state’s new social studies curriculum, which some Arkansas historians say shortchanges the teaching of state history.
Spokesman Matt DeCample said Monday Beebe won’t back the Arkansas History Education Coalition’s call for a oneyear moratorium of the new curriculum. The governor also refused to create a special committee to study the revision process.
Beebe believes the new curriculum, which incorporated previously freestanding elementary Arkansas history requirements into the larger social studies curriculum, gives students a better grasp of the link between state and national historical events, De-Cample said.
“The Department of Education put a lot of work into these guidelines, and the idea is to let them go into effect and see how they work for us,” De-Cample said.
The Arkansas Curriculum Frameworks define what students must know in major subject areas such as math, English and science. Individual school districts design their curricula based on the frameworks. Arkansas Department of Education officials must revise all frameworks at least every six years. The new social studies frameworks go into effect this fall.
Beebe’s decision came two days after the coalition and a number of other disgruntled educators requested his support at a Saturday news conference in Little Rock.
They claim the new frameworks will water down Arkansas history instruction in two ways The new frameworks combine the study of social studies and Arkansas history at the elementary level. Previously, there were separate frameworks for socials studies and Arkansas history. The group believes teachers will stop teaching Arkansas history at the elementary level because the standalone frameworks no longer exist. Social studies and Arkansas history frameworks are separate at the secondary level. But critics say new world history demands in junior high school forces schools to bump a required one-semester Arkansas history course to the high school level.
Because Arkansas history isn’t a graduation requirement, the educators argue few students will take the course. Plus, there are no existing Arkansas history texts written specifically for high school students, they claim.
Jeannie Whayne, chairman of the history department at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, said Monday she was surprised and disappointed with how quickly Beebe reached his decision.
Whayne doubted the governor or his staff researched the group’s complaints thoroughly and suspects he simply followed the recommendation of Education Department Commissioner Ken James.
“I think Ken James is listening to the people who work for him, and the governor is listening to Ken James, and I think both are misinformed,” Whayne said. “Gov. Beebe is, in my mind, the best governor we’ve had in a long time... and that makes it all the more disappointing to me that he has failed us in this regard and failed the children of Arkansas.” Julie Johnson Thompson, a state Education Department spokesman, said Monday that James still plans to meet with members of the coalition Thursday morning to discuss the frameworks revision process, not negotiate its merits.
State officials previously accused the group of spreading “misinformation” through the media.
Thompson maintained the new frameworks strengthen Arkansas history instruction.
Arkansas teachers told state officials through surveys that the previous elementary frameworks were too vague. Some teachers didn’t know what they needed to teach and when they needed to teach it. The new elementary social studies frameworks layout exactly what students need to learn about Arkansas history and when.
Schools still have the freedom to offer the one-semester Arkansas history course at junior-high-school level. State officials just gave schools the option to also teach it at the high-school level.
Thompson’s office Monday posted the previous and current frameworks side-by-side at www. arkansased. org / teachers / frameworks _ arkhistory. html. The Web site also gives a history of the frameworks’ development.
“I don’t think we are going into this meeting with any plans of making changes. One, we stand by our frameworks, and two, that’s a process that would have to go through the state board,” Thompson said. “The meeting is definitely more with the intent of getting the two sides talking to each other instead of through press conferences.” State officials also have been criticized for being secretive about the revision process. Whayne and others said any educator or historian interested should have been allowed to participate in the process, and the revisions should have been made public before approval.
Thompson said the process was open to the extent practical.
About 100 educators from across Arkansas were invited to participate, with 43 ultimately agreeing to serve. They spent two weeks last July working on the frameworks.
Committee members signed a confidentially pledge to not discuss the revisions in light of a 1992 mishap when early copies of math frameworks were leaked. The frameworks were later amended, but some educators taught off the leaked frameworks.
Lloyd Clark, a history teacher from Walnut Ridge High School, served on the frameworks committee this year. Clark said he and about 10 other teachers crafted the Arkansas history requirements in the new frameworks.
Clark said “three or four” of the teachers had serious problems with the handling of Arkansas history in the frameworks.
They believed the new frameworks would force Arkansas history to the high school level, where the subject would be shortchanged, he said.
“The frameworks, as they are written, weren’t something everyone agreed on,” he said. “We argued, debated and such, and a couple people went home.” Tom Dillard, president of the Arkansas History Education Coalition, said Monday he expects litigation over the issue if the department doesn’t bend.
A lawsuit would likely claim the new frameworks don’t meet the requirements of a state law enacted in 1997 related to Arkansas history, said Dillard, who played a key lobbying role in getting the law on the books.
Arkansas Code Annotated 6-16-124 requires “a unit of Arkansas history shall be taught as a social studies subject at each elementary grade level in every public elementary school in this state, with greater emphasis at the fourth- and fifth-grade levels.” The code also requires one semester of Arkansas history sometime between the seventh and 12 th grades. Dillard said a lawsuit would argue the new social studies frameworks don’t fulfill the one “unit” requirement in the elementary levels. The law does not define a “unit.” Dillard also argues that the frameworks violate the law because they create a condition where Arkansas history would be bumped to the high school level, but some students would not take it because it’s not a graduation requirement. “I think unless there is some movement toward solving the problem, I would not be surprised if this ends up in court,” Dillard said. “I think there are lots of people who believe that our heritage is important enough that going to court over this would be a small price to pay.” To contact this reporter: jkrupa@arkansasonline. com
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
