LCAP - Allowing ALL Students Access to High Quality Instruction in the Social Studies

Yesterday I met informally with Dr. Guadalupe Solis, Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Tulare County.  Under his direction Educational Resources Services, the curriculum and instructional service arm of the County Office, embraced the Common Core Standards, and collectively became one of the premier expert organizations in the nation.

As a county office of education, one of the primary services offered to districts, particularly to small districts, is assistance to develop plans.  Currently Tulare County Office of Education (TCOE) is working with their fourth cohort of districts to develop the LCAP.  I asked him about using the LCAP to support social studies.  He offered several comments.

First, social studies is part of the LCAP.  Secondly, he stated that most of the social studies people he talked to seemed more interested in money than in what is good for students.  Social studies representatives need to state more than social studies is important because all content areas feel their content is important.  In his opinion social studies needs to hop on the "need for expository text" bandwagon.  He agreed that they need to emphasize the need for ALL students to have access to good social studies teaching, but primarily because all students need to be able to read, and social studies text provides the content of reading.

The point I don't feel that I communicated well was one that I read in an article today about primary and secondary sources.  One of the main reasons to teach children to analyze and read well, is so that they can think and make decisions, and therefore become good citizens.   Just throwing expository texts at students in no particular order does not help them to learn to think critically or learn the skills they need that go beyond reading to clear, logical thinking.  I advocated for a structure in teaching history social studies.  I also advocated for new standards that align with the thinking behind the Common Core movement in language arts and mathematics. Along with that, I mentioned the C3 Framework for Social Studies.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the document with me.

When you talk to your district planners, be prepared as to why social studies is important to students.  This is about more than money, it's about what our children learn in public education in the next few decades.  Common Core Standards are the best advocates for teaching social studies that the content area has had in ten years.  But we stand on a cliff, and we could totter over the edge very easily as I felt that nearly did with my former boss.  We want all students to have access to critical thinking skills, and become empowered to make all our lives better in the future through persuasion and the rule of law rather than violence or corruption.