State Standards
Oklahoma standards for teaching US History are divided into two groups. The first group is process standards that are loosely based on the ones from the common core. Since our state has officially abandoned the common core, these process standards may be rewritten soon. Nonetheless, they are excellent standards to help students identify, analyze and use history in new ways. We also have content standards that are very specific for all students to learn. As a matter of fact, the standards list hundreds of items that are supposed to be covered. As an “icing on top of the cake” challenge to both students and teacher, US History is the only social science topic that is subject to state end-of-instruction exams; part of a group of seven of which students have to pass four in order to graduate.
Specific content standards include both national and state items. Under the heading of the Civil Rights movement, students are required to assess the effects of the legal attacks on segregation by the NAACP and Thurgood Marshall and to know about the Supreme Court cases of Sipuel v Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma (1948) and McLaurin v Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma. The Ada Sipuel case is of particular importance because it reversed an earlier case and became the precedent that Brown v the Board would hang upon. Students are required to analyze Brown and explain de jure and de facto segregation. Both the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School and the lunch counter sit-ins led by Clara Luper are also content requirements. Of course they also need to know about the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. There are also lists of specific items that are not implicitly covered in the presentation of this unit, but which pertain to the civil rights movement. Please see Appendix B, for a complete list. After reading the content of Central High School’s history, it is very easy to see how the whole movement and its effects can be taught from a local perspective as well as the national one.
No matter what standards are given, or what state or country the teacher is from, we can find that the national or official story doesn’t completely represent the whole story. Even towns such as Little Rock, Greensboro, or Selma can explore their history from the perspective of others. The more inclusive we make our academic history the more open we become to the voices of others; the more we make lasting connections.
Comments: