The Making of California's History-Social Science Standards: Enduring Decisions and Unresolved Issues

In 1995, California officially adopted standards-based reforms for public education when the Governor signed the Leroy Greene California Assessment of Academic Achievement Act into law. The legislation called for a new state system of standards-based tests and created the Academic Standards Commission to develop content and performance standards for math, English-language arts, science, and history-social science. Once adopted, standards would serve as the basis for state tests, textbooks, professional development, and curriculum frameworks. Political appointments to the commission led to protracted, pedagogical battles over the math standards and charged debates that almost derailed the Science Committee. By comparison, the adoption of the history standards proved less contentious. The nine members of the History-Social Science Committee met nine times between November 1997 and June 1998 to draft the standards. After some final revisions, the State Board of Education officially adopted "The History-Social Science Content Standards for California Public Schools" in October 1998. Over fifteen years removed from their adoption, California's history standards remain intact and unchanged. Despite their impact and staying power, relatively little has been written about the California history standards. In this article, Brad Fogo provides an account of the how the California history standards were created that, in many respects, runs counter to what has been written about this process. Focusing on the work of the Academic Standards Commission's History-Social Science Committee and the small group of consultants who drafted the standards between November 1997 and July 1998, he chronicles many of the questions and decisions that drove the development of the standards. This narrative challenges claims that the standards were developed by consensus, with little debate, and with considerable public oversight. Rather, he details a process with clear winners and losers and shows how a small handful of consultants and politically appointed committee members--none of them history educators--navigated charged political and pedagogical issues, often below the public's radar, to determine the content of the standards. Further, he highlights unresolved issues regarding the content, organization, scope and sequence, and assessment of the California history standards that continue to impact history-social studies education in California and the rest of the country today.