Feature Articles
The State of Ohio Social Studies Content
Standars: An Update
Reconnecting with Secondary Education:
The OCEAN Program at Oberlin College
The State of Ohio Social Studies Content Standards: An Update
By Scott C. Martin, Ph.D.
On December 10, 2002, the State Board of Education of Ohio adopted new academic content standards for Social Studies in grades K-12. The adoption of the new standards fulfilled the requirements of Amended Substitute Senate Bill 1, which instructed the State Board to develop and adopt “clear” academic content standards by the end of 2002 (i).1 The Social Studies Content Standards contain seven strands, or standards, which run through the entire K-12 curriculum: History, People in Societies, Geography, Economics, Government, Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities, and Social Studies Skills and Methods. Within these standards, content is organized by grade level band clusters (e.g., Grades 6–8), benchmarks (“a specific statement of what a student should know and be able to do at a specific time in his/her schooling”) and grade-level indicators (“a specific statement of the knowledge and/or skills that a student is expected to demonstrate at each grade level”) (3). Indicators are aligned with benchmarks, which serve as the basis for questions on the Ohio Graduation Test, administered in Grade 10. These indicators and benchmarks fit into the Scope and Sequence for K-12 Social Studies education in Ohio, which had been established before the Content Standards Writing Team began its work. Of greatest interest to Ohio Academy of History members will doubtless be the place of history within this sequence. Ohio history is taught in grade 4 (the yearlong theme is “Ohio: Its Past, Its Location, Its Government”). World Studies is taught in grades 7 and 9 (1000 B.C. to 1750 in 7th grade; 1750 to the present in 9th grade); while U.S. Studies are divided between grades 8 and 10 (9–11).
A team of forty-one teachers, professors, parents, and community members from all parts of Ohio wrote the new standards. More than 50 percent of the writing team were K-12 teachers; college and university faculty represented the major academic disciplines encompassed by the standards (e.g., History, Sociology, Geography). Prof. Philip Howard, a Latin American and Caribbean historian formerly of the University of Akron, and I were the higher education representatives from History. The writing process, whých took more than a year of periodic two- and three-day meetings in Columbus, resulted in a document that is undoubtedly an improvement on previous standards. Attention in the new standards to world history, women’s history, and the experiences and perspectives of racial and ethnic groups has expanded considerably, supplementing a more conventional focus on political, economic, and military topics.2
After the Writing Team completed its work, the Department of Education engaged “national experts” to review the new Standards for “content, developmental appropriateness and curricular considerations.” With some comment and suggestion, the reviewers “found Ohio’s standards to be clear and comprehensive, setting high expectations for student learning” (i). Using the reviewers’ comments, officials at the Department of Education edited the Standards document produced by the Writing Team. Some of the editing sought to make style and organization uniform; some tinkered with the content and structure of the document, deleting specific names or events from broadly conceived grade-level indicators, or moving indicators from one strand to another (e.g., from History to Government). Thus the finished product looked somewhat different than what the Writing Team had originally produced.
Despite the positive appraisal by outside reviewers, the Social Studies Content Standards have drawn fire. In part, this reflects growing dissatisfaction in the historical profession and beyond with social studies as a way of teaching history.3 A report entitled “Effective State Standards for U.S. History: A 2003 Report Card,” which was commissioned by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation of Dayton, gave Ohio’s new Content Standards a grade of “D”, assailing the Ohio Standards for squeezing history into “abstract and synthetic categories” while slighting “crucial political contexts.” The report, authored by Sheldon M. Stern, described the Standards as “fragmented” due to its division of historical content into different social studies standards. Stern invites Ohio educators to consider how “the social studies organization itself undermines historical coherence,” and concludes with a call to “liberate history entirely from social studies.”4
Emanating as it does from an organization notorious for its reactionary agenda, this type of biased and self-righteous criticism would be easy to dismiss as the mere carping of those resistant to any change in historical scholarship and teaching. Certainly, history can be taught effectively in a variety of ways; commitment to historical knowledge as a fundamental component of K-12 education does not preclude new approaches, among which might be a social studies orientation. But many historians and concerned observers from around the state (Ohio Academy of History members prominent among them), representing a wide range of political opinion, have expressed concern and/or dissatisfaction with the new Standards. Much of this, as noted earlier, represents hostility toward social studies in general, and one can hardly deny that in its present state, social studies education is far from perfect. Still, the social studies approach is unlikely to disappear in the near future, given the inordinate (and, in the view of many historians, regrettable) influence of colleges of education on public school curricula and instruction. That being the case, it is desirable to have the best possible presentation of history within the existing social studies framework. Without doubt, the new Standards are an improvement over previous curricula in Ohio, even if they do not appease their severest critics by jettisoning social studies altogether. If, while addressing a host of topics and groups not previously covered, the new Standards produce the added benefit of sparking reasoned discussion and debate about how best to teach history to Ohio’s K-12 students, they will exert a salutary influence indeed. More information on how well the Standards work in the classroom will emerge once teachers begin incorporating them into their day to day instruction.
At present, a Social Studies Curriculum Model Writing Team selected by the Department of Education, of which I am a member, is developing model lesson plans aligned to the benchmarks and indicators. These lesson plans will be field-tested by Ohio school teachers during the fall of 2003 and the winter of 2004. Using feedback from the field tests, the Curriculum Writing Team will revise the lesson plans. The revised plans will then be posted on an Ohio Department of Education website so that they will be accessible to teachers, administrators, parents, and other interested parties. These lesson plans will provide a model curriculum on which teachers can build as they prepare their students for the Ohio Graduation Test. Beginning with the class of 2007, all Ohio high school students will be required to pass this standardized test, of which social studies comprises a part, in order to graduate. Anyone concerned about how history is taught and learned in Ohio schools, especially the members of the Ohio Academy of History, should monitor the progress and effectiveness of the newly adopted Social Studies Content Standards as they are implemented in K-12 classrooms around the state.
Scott Martin is Associate Professor
of History (19th-century U.S. social and cultural history and U.S. alcohol
and drug policy) at Bowling Green State University.
1. Unless otherwise noted, all
quotes are from Academic Content Standards K-12 Social Studies (Columbus:
Ohio Dept. of Education, 2003).
2. The Social Studies Content Standards are available
online, through the Ohio Department of Education website: http://www.ode.state.oh.us/academic_content_standards/acssocialstudies.asp.
3. See, for example, James Leming, Lucien Ellington,
and Kathleen Porter, “Where Did Social Studies Go Wrong?”
http://www.edexcellence.net/foundation/publication/publication.cfm?id=317.
4. Sheldon M. Stern, “Ohio,” in “Effective
State Standards for U.S. History: A 2003 Report Card,” at www.edexcellence.net/foundation/publication/publication.cfm?id=320#top.
Reconnecting with Secondary Education: The OCEAN Program at Oberlin College
By Carol Lasser, Ph.D.
As college and university faculty, Ohio historians frequently lament the general inadequacies of preparation our students bring with them to their post- secondary education. Lack of state recognition of the centrality of history in the social studies curriculum especially at the high school level; concern about the inadequate subject matter preparation some teachers bring to their history classrooms; low levels of student learning and students’ failure to grasp notions of historical thinking—all these, with good reason, distress us. But can we do anything to improve the situation? Oberlin College answered this question by establishing OCEAN: the Oberlin College Educational Alliance Network.
With help from historian Peter Rutkoff, director of Kenyon College’s long-standing KAP Program, Oberlin has developed a concurrent enrollment initiative that builds capacity in secondary school students, their teachers, and their institutions. Centered around partnerships between Oberlin College faculty and high school teachers, OCEAN provides an intensive content-rich summer seminar coupled with academic year support to enrich the curricula Ohio’s teachers bring to advanced secondary school students. Participating OCEAN schools nominate well-qualified teachers who are trained to offer special sections of selected courses; high school students apply for the opportunity to take these courses. The syllabi for these special courses meet specifications developed in conjunction with supervising Oberlin College faculty who, at the end of the year, review the work of those students nominated by teachers to receive OCEAN credit for a college-equivalent course. Successful students are entitled to receive an Oberlin College transcript providing 2 to 4 credits for their OCEAN work, to be used as transfer credit at their colleges and universities.
American history is at the heart of the OCEAN partnership; indeed, Oberlin initiated the OCEAN program with an American history offering in 2000–01 for four schools. Since then, OCEAN has grown to include twelve schools and six courses. Schools may apply to offer any combination of these classes, which now include, in addition to American history: Global Politics, Shakespeare and Performance, College Writing, Coming of Age in African Literatures, and Statistics. But our American history offering remains the model.Each summer, participating teachers gather for a full week of reading, discussion, and hands-on work in American history. Seminar topics change yearly, introducing teachers to new scholarship and new approaches in a variety of areas. Themes have included: Slavery and Antislavery; America since 1945; and the Challenge of Multicultural Histories. In-depth discussions of historiography and sources are combined with forays into the Oberlin College library, exploration of web resources, and video showings. Teachers leave the annual session with new ideas, new methods, and renewed enthusiasm, as well as collaboratively built course guidelines for their syllabi. Courses emphasize depth, and we encourage teachers to draw on their own strengths as well as the interests their students bring to their classrooms. Inner city schools, for example, are encouraged to include more African American history, while rural schools may emphasize themes that encourage students to place their hometowns into the larger national narrative. Frequent writing assignments strengthen student writing, and classes stress the use of primary documents. All students are required to complete a research project demonstrating their ability to locate and interpret primary materials. This curriculum clearly differentiates OCEAN American history from the Advanced Placement track, which too often privileges coverage at the expense of in-depth exploration, and rewards fact-oriented mastery over the development of historical thinking.
During the academic year, most teachers consult with the supervising faculty team on matters ranging from essay questions to grading practices. We try to arrange a class visit to Oberlin, where OCEAN students sit in on an Oberlin history class, explore the library, and perhaps undertake research. Oberlin faculty also visit participating schools, providing lectures, guiding discussions, or perhaps offering advice on primary research papers. Oberlin began the OCEAN program with particular concern to reach out to under-resourced schools, both rural and urban. Particularly for these schools, this ongoing contact provides support and encouragement for teachers, while helping students connect their aspirations to the realities of college. These young people are guided through a college-equivalent course so that they can bring to their institutions of higher education a more realistic sense of the college and its expectations.
OCEAN classes, and especially OCEAN American history, have been well received by administrators, teachers, and students. Administrators appreciate the professional development provided for teachers, who earn “continuing education units” for their participation in summer workshops. Teachers enjoy the opportunity to immerse themselves in content-rich work, and the opportunity to teach advanced courses that stress the experience of learning, not just student performance on yet another test; participating teachers look forward to what has now become a summer reunion with others who share their engagement and their interest. Moreover, it is clear that teacher capacity built in OCEAN summer workshops has a broader impact on classes and students throughout their schools. And OCEAN students have thanked us for adding challenging courses to their education.
What do Oberlin College faculty involved in OCEAN make of their participation? We have certainly learned more about the pressures faced by under-resourced schools and the committed teachers working in them. Lack of money, lack of staff, lack of time, and lack of support all have a negative impact on the education of young people. Yet as we reconnect with secondary education, we see more clearly our opportunity to intervene. A network of concurrent enrollment courses in history, offered by a range of institutions across our state, could really make a difference in the education of our students.
Carol Lasser is Professor of History at Oberlin College and Director of OCEAN: Oberlin College Educational Alliance Network.