The S.C. Department of Education has posted directions for accessing the new draft social studies standards to allow public review and feedback.  The deadline for submitting comments is October 11. 

 

You will be able to submit comments only on the grade bands/courses that you indicate when you access the survey. 

 

 

If you want to provide feedback on the high school standards, you might consider these criticisms from educators. 

• Many high school social studies teachers would prefer to see a requirement for two units of U.S. History and the Constitution, rather than one. Another possible improvement would be to increase the requirement for Government and Economics from a half-unit to one full unit. Increasing either of these requirements would require a change in state law.
• A third concern is that the draft standards emphasize facts, but not critical thinking or analysis skills. 
• There is a surprising emphasis on initiating a Western Civilization course, while the amount of instruction in geography has been substantially reduced. 

You are invited to provide feedback on any aspect of the draft social studies standards. The implementation plans for the new standards will not be written until after the November election, so the outcome of that election could potentially have an affect on how these content standards are put into practice. 

 

Below is the link for providing public input. The directions are at the bottom of the page.