Under The Dome: The Breakdown of Civil Society

Fred Jones, CCSS Legislative Analyst

January 2012

Whether one sympathizes with the “Occupy” movement or not (our current CCSS President spent a week in solidarity back on Wall Street when the protests first began), some of the demonstrations have revealed disturbing fractures in our civil society.

 

The protestors’ belief that multinational corporations are running – and ruining – society leads many of them to the conclusion that civil disobedience is their only recourse.  As a result, Occupy protestors – or those claiming the “OWS” mantle – have shut down banks, ports, streets and bridges, and in a couple of isolated events vandalized public and private property.

 

In response, there have been some notable clashes with law enforcement.  In their quest to bring order to some demonstrations (or break them up, entirely), we have been witnesses to some isolated incidents of police bullying and even downright brutality, as was arguably the case at UC Davis some weeks ago.

Is this how far we’ve come in the past two centuries since the ratification of the Bill of Rights?  Is the 1^st amendment devolving into a clash between unruly mobs and the heavy hand of Big Brother?

 

But all hyperbole aside, are you comfortable with what passes as today’s political discourse?  And does the growing unrest among our population bode well for our nation’s future? 

 

Watching the brinkmanship between the Congress and the President at the national level, and being witness to yet another year in which History/Social Science Frameworks fail to materialize in Sacramento, it’s appropriate to wonder whether the American experiment is failing … or whether our body politic is able to foster open and robust debate without violent clashes between citizens and state officials. 

It brings to mind the infamous query of a prior breakdown in civil society: “Can’t we all just get along?”

 

The answer lies with us and the CCSS mission to ensure that Social Studies is an integral, core experience for all K-12 students.  We will never get along without the tools necessary for a democracy to thrive, including respecting the rights of others and the responsibilities incumbent upon each of us as citizens of this Republic. 

To put it plainly, the American experiment will fail unless the next generation of Americans is exposed to and learn the principles taught in robust Social Studies programs and curriculum.

 

The very notion of taxpayer-funded, compulsory public education in the

United States was based on the desire to inculcate these principles into each generation.  The early so-called “community schools” were intended to ensure that each generation of youth would be raised with the necessary dispositions and knowledge to sustain our representative democracy.

And, yet, this core subject-matter of history, economics, civics, geography and related social studies disciplines has been marginalized by our elected representatives.  As a result of their policy and budgetary decisions, instructional time in these disciplines has been significantly reduced over the past couple of decades.

Could the rise of boisterous Tea Party rallies of two years ago and the civil disobedient Occupy demonstrations of more recent months  – and the elites’ condescending response to both – be evidence of our political system seizing up?  And can this all really be related to the peripheral placing of Social Studies in the classroom for the past generation of school children?

 

I think there is an undeniable correlation.  And the growing level of ignorance of these principles reaches beyond the average voter, piercing through the ivory towers of academia and hallowed halls of representative democracy.  Without the broad perspective of history, a clear understanding of the rights and obligations of citizenship, and the intellectual tools necessary to civilly engage one another, the American future looks bleak.

 

And we can’t simply blame the elites of our society.  We, the average citizens, determined our nation’s past and will surely shape its future.  The political and financial classes weren’t the ones sacrificing all by the tens of thousands at Gettysburg in the 19^th Century to free fellow Americans from bondage, or by the thousands in

Iwo Jimaduring the mid-20^th to protect nations from a ruthless imperialism sweeping over southeast Asia and the Pacific.  And it is not those who make up the upper classes who control the outcome of elections; it is the ordinary American voter, exercising her/his right of suffrage.

Therefore it is incumbent upon our institutions of learning to adequately prepare all Americans for their inevitable role in charting our nation’s course.

 

A savvy thinker once surmised that we don’t have to change our political representatives to elect the right people; rather we need to change the environment to make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing.

 

So the answer isn’t electing philosopher-kings who will be led by pure principles and enlightened understanding.  The key is altering the political dynamics, compelling our elected representatives to do the right thing. 

 

So if some of the Occupy crowds have chosen to push the legal envelope of their 1^st amendment rights to peaceably assemble, and if some in law enforcement have abused their authority in their quest to uphold the law, it is certainly incumbent on those within CCSS to provide all California citizens the understanding, skills and dispositions to maintain civil society … and to make sure our elected officials prioritize this instructional content for all students and future voters.

 

This is a fight CCSS wages every day throughout

Californiaand in our state capitol; it is a fight our state – and nation – cannot afford to lose.

Standing Up for Social Studies

            Last month I provided you an update about a key piece of legislation that was unfortunately vetoed by Governor Brown; the Senate leader’s bill, SB 547, would have created the “Education Quality Index”, providing a broader view of a school’s performance than the current, limited fixation of the API (primarily English/Math).  It was our hope and our intention to make sure that history and civic literacy, among other Social Studies areas, would have been included in a newly established “EQI”, given the importance of these subjects in the education and preparation of all students for their civic and economic responsibilities.  Our efforts with SB 547, and those like it, are intended to alleviate the narrowing of curriculum pressures facing history/social science (“H/SS”).

In this article, I would like to take a more expanded view beyond the inner workings of Sacramento’s “legislative sausage mill.”  It is my hope, which is shared by the CCSS leadership, that all of the readers of the Sunburst will get more involved in the defense of Social Studies.  It should not come as news to any of you that the core placement of our subject-matter is in jeopardy, and that this existential struggle is the direct result of federal and state policies created by politicians who lack the perspective, context or will to prioritize H/SS as an essential element of every child’s education.

This narrowing phenomenon has gotten so pronounced, it’s as if a cold war against Social Studies has been declared by policymakers and regulators, alike; and this battle has been waging for well over a decade, both in Sacramento and back in D.C. 

Fred Jones

CCSS Analyst

Under The Dome: Legislative Update

One of the marquee bills that CCSS worked on this past year was SB 547,

authored by the leader of the Senate, Darrell Steinberg (Democrat –

Sacramento). This fairly revolutionary measure was an ambitious, legislative attempt to alter the system by which we hold schools accountable by altering what is measured and reported to the public.

Specifically, SB 547 would have required the State Board of Education – in

consultation with the State Superintendent – to create a whole new accountability index to measure the performance of K-12 schools, called the “Education Quality Index.” The bill would have led to the development of measureable criteria that would have incorporated API scores, but also graduation rates, college prep/placement, career preparation indicators, and eventually student engagement indicators. Had this measure been signed into law, CCSS was going to diligently work to ensure the new EQI’s student engagement indicators would include civic literacy and other criteria relevant to the Social Studies disciplines (H/SS).

This exciting and transformative legislation enjoyed bipartisan support in the

Legislature, as well as support from most education establishment interests.

Unfortunately, Governor Brown vetoed SB 547.

 

His veto message was fairly abrasive and mildly condescending, leaving some

wondering if he will ever support any statewide effort to broaden the current reporting system by which we hold schools accountable. While the Governor expressed his frustrations with limitations of standardized testing and the use of theoretical data-points to measure a school’s effectiveness, he also provided little direction or hope of embracing a new system to curtail the curricular narrowing pressures of the current, API system (which is entirely based on our CSTs).

Fortunately, Senate Pro Tem Steinberg has vowed to continue this worthy effort next year, undeterred by the gubernatorial set-back and still totally committed to the need to broaden school curriculum and accountability matrices. CCSS will be deeply involved with this legislative endeavor, as we were with SB 547, as we strive to revive instructional time devoted to our H/SS discipline in the K-12 classrooms of

California. So stay tuned and stay actively involved in your support of CCSS!

CCSS has been closely monitoring several pieces of legislation in our State Legislature that could impact our Social Studies disciplines (your CCSS Legislative Analyst has been actively engaged in more than a few).  CCSS leaders have also been closely monitoring Congressional action on renewing the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (currently referred to as “NCLB”) and the ongoing, national discussions about developing Social Studies content standards akin to – and in parallel with – the Common Core State Standards.  I would like to focus this report on just California-based issues of concern to our discipline.

While the State Budget (and its impact on local districts) has been the primary focus in Sacramento this summer, there are many issues facing CCSS beyond just money concerns, illustrating the importance of our active presence and engagement in the policy-setting arena.  Here is an update on the key bills we have been working on this year, as the Legislature concludes the first half of its biennial, legislative session:

Standards/Frameworks Revisions

AB 1033 (Feuer):  Would have established a new process by which content standards and frameworks could be reviewed and updated, including History/Social Science (H/SS); however, due to the costs assocated with such reviews, the bill stalled in the first fiscal committee and will likely not be revived.

SB 300 (Hancock): Taking heed of AB 1033’s demise, this bill focused only on updating our Frameworks (by providing a new process for adoption, that would have included a short opportunity for public input and alterations).  As many Sunburst readers are aware, those revisions were nearly completed before the rug was pulled out from under the Curriculum Commission by a Governor’s “blue pencil” veto (and subsequent defunding of the Commission in each Budget since).   SB 300 also creates a very streamlined process by which Science standards can be updated, but much less ambitious than what was called for under AB 1033.  Although the bill passed through the Senate with bipartisan support, the H/SS Frameworks provisions were stripped out at the last minute by the Assembly Appropriations Committee; that fiscal committee’s staff were concerned about the cost pressures that updated Frameworks could place on districts to update their instructional materials.  So the fight to finish the last round of Frameworks updating continues (although with Common Core and AB 250, below, that effort may be taken up via another avenue).

SB 48 (Leno):  The most high-publicity and controversial bill on this list, this measure requires the addition of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) communities to the list of existing, statutorily recognized groups whose historical contributions to our state/nation must be included in social studies curriculum.  The measure also more explicitly protects members of these communities from any bias during any educational activity or instructional program.  The bill was signed into law by Governor Brown in July and will take effect January 1 of next year.  CCSS’s own Peg Hill has created an excellent tutorial through the California 3R’s Project for districts to help implement this new law in a way that takes into consideration the delicate nature of this subject-matter, which I commend to your attention and use (note: this is not a CCSS endorsement of her work-product): http://ca3rsproject.org/pages/resource.html

P21 Frameworks/Standards Reforms

SB 402 (Correa):  As the frameworks are revised for all content areas, this bill would have required that the State Board of Education (and Department of Education) incorporate the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, including critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity/innovation.  The bill was gutted-and-amended (i.e., stripped of this content and replaced by totally new and unrelated matters), so this particular effort has stalled.

AB 250 (Brownley): Similar to the above measure, this bill would have these P21 skills including critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation, as a competency-based approach to learning in all academic content areas, including English language arts, mathematics, history-social science, science, health education, visual and performing arts, and world languages.

Including new curriculum frameworks and professional development opportunities, lessening the impact of the loss of AB 402.  This measure passed the Legislature the last week of Session and is now headed to the Governor’s desk for his signature (or, for your pessimists, a potential veto); since the Governor has until October 8 to decide, the ultimate fate of this measure will not be known before publication of this newsletter.

Accountability Changes

SB 547 (Steinberg): Would create a whole new accountability index to measure the performance of K-12 schools, incorporating but transcending the API, by including other measures to develop a more comprehensive “Education Quality Index.”  This measure would require the SPI and SBE to develop measureable criteria to include in the EQI (set to roll-out in 2014-15) that would incorporate API scores, but also graduation rates, college prep/placement, career preparation indicators, and eventually student engagement indicators, which CCSS will work hard to make sure will include civic literacy and other criteria relevant to the Social Studies disciplines.  The bill has enjoyed bipartisan support in the Legislature, as well as support from most education establishment interests, but we won’t know it’s ultimate fate until October (like AB 250).

I write this report in advance of any breakthrough on the State Budget, so I will not speculate in this article what the Governor and Legislature may finally settle on vis-à-vis more cuts versus tax extensions.  The one silver lining in all of the recent posturing by all sides is that nobody is willing to cut public education any further, therefore the eventual compromise will likely hold K-12 education essentially harmless (although further tuition increases for higher education is inevitable).

So turning my attention to policy matters, let me begin by highlighting the recently released NAEP scores for U.S. History … yikes!  Leaving aside all of the limitations of NAEP (e.g., lack of disaggregated data, inability to do state-by-state comparisons, etc.), suffice it to say the recently released scores clearly indicate that our nation’s schools, as a whole, are not sufficiently prioritizing and adequately educating our youth about our nation’s history.

With another Presidential election year coming up – in which the incumbent saw a huge number of young voters get energized and mobilized on his behalf in 2008 – youth turn-out could be the electoral key.  But the less informed these young people are about current events and the historical context of important policy matters, the less likely they will turn-out in November 2012.  Beyond just youth, our nation is wholly dependent on an educated and enlightened voting populace, with our fragile Republic always just a single generation away from losing the hard-fought freedoms and opportunities that have made America the most prosperous, powerful and egalitarian nation in the history of humanity (despite our many historical shortcomings and a couple of travesties, as well as current, vexing challenges to realizing our hope to truly be “the land of the free and home of the brave”).

In that broad context allow me to briefly report only a few, key pieces of legislation in our State Legislature that could impact our Social Studies disciplines, and which your CCSS Legislative Analyst has been actively engaged.  As you can see, there are many issues facing CCSS beyond just budget concerns, illustrating the importance of our active presence and engagement in Sacramento.

Standards/Frameworks Revisions

AB 1033 (Feuer):  Would have established a new process by which content standards and frameworks could be reviewed and updated, including History/Social Science (H/SS); however, due to the costs assocated with such reviews, the bill stalled in the first fiscal committee and will likely not be revived.

SB 300 (Hancock): Taking heed of AB 1033’s demise, this bill would finally allow for the H/SS Frameworks revision to be adopted (after a short opportunity for public input and alterations).  As many Sunburst readers are aware, those revisions were nearly completed before the rug was pulled out from under the Curriculum Commission by a Governor’s “blue pencil” veto (and subsequent defunding of the Commission in each Budget since).   The bill also creates a very streamlined process by which Science standards can be updated, but much less ambitious than what was called for under AB 1033.  The bill has passed the Senate and is awaiting action in the Assembly.

SB 48 (Leno):  The most high-publicity and controversial bill on this list, this measure seeks to add the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) communities to the list of existing, statutorily recognized groups whose historical contributions to our state/nation must be included in social studies curriculum, as well as more explicitly protecting these communities from any bias during any educational activity or instructional program.  This bill passed the Senate is awaiting action in the Assembly.

P21 Reforms

SB 402 (Correa):  As the frameworks are revised for all content areas, this bill would require that the State Board of Education (and Department of Education) incorporate the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, including critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity/innovation.  This Senate bill is also in the Assembly.

AB 250 (Brownley): Similar to the above measure, this bill would have these P21 skills integrated throughout any future revision of content standards.  This measure passed the Assembly and is awaiting action in the Senate.

Accountability Changes

SB 547 (Steinberg): Would create a whole new accountability index to measure the performance of K-12 schools, incorporating but transcending the API, by including other measures to develop a more comprehensive “Education Quality Index.”  This measure would require the SPI and SBE to develop measureable criteria to include in the EQI (set to roll-out in 2014-15) that would incorporate API scores, but also graduation rates, college prep/placement, career preparation indicators, and eventually student engagement indicators, including civic literacy and other criteria relevant to the Social Studies disciplines.  This Senate measure is now in the Assembly awaiting action.

 

AB 250 Ltr of Support to Asm Brownley.pdf
Assembly Bill 250 introduced by Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, Chair of the State Assembly Education Committee will require the State Board of Education to revise curriculum frameworks, criteria for instructional materials, professional development and most importantly, formative and summative assessment strategies, with a focus on integrating 21st century skills including critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation skills in all academic core content areas.

SB402 Sup. Ltr to Sen. Lowenthal.pdf
Senate Bill 402 introduced by California State Senator Lou Correa will require the curriculum frameworks in all disciplines to describe how subject matter can be taught to intentionally build creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and communication into and across the content areas.

SB402 Sup. Ltr to Sen. Correa.pdf
Senate Bill 402 introduced by California State Senator Lou Correa will require the curriculum frameworks in all disciplines to describe how subject matter can be taught to intentionally build creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and communication into and across the content areas.

Letter to Arne Duncan.pdf

Letter urges Secretary Duncan to promote:

·       social studies education as a priority in our nation to prepare students for college, career and citizenship;

·       more funding, classroom instructional time and professional development dedicated to improving social studies, science, visual and performing arts, and career technical education, K-12; and

·       social studies to be included in any application for state or federal funding of education.

Letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer.pdf

Letter urges Senator Boxer to promote:

·       social studies education as a priority in our nation to prepare students for college, career and citizenship;

·       more funding, classroom instructional time and professional development dedicated to improving social studies, science, visual and performing arts, and career technical education, K-12; and

·       social studies to be included in any application for state or federal funding of education.