The D.C. State Board of Education Social Studies Standards Advisory Committee (SSSAC) has been working since July 2020 to review and update the District’s statewide Social Studies Standards. The revision process presents an opportunity for the District’s Social Studies Standards to be culturally responsive, anti-racist, to impart important social studies content in the early grades, strengthen student knowledge of democratic principles and values, and promote civic engagement.

During its November 10 meeting, the Social Studies Standards Advisory Committee worked on finalizing a draft set of Guiding Principles (PDF) which will provide the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) with guidance on how to address structure and content, knowledge and skills, diversity and inclusion, and instructional flexibility of the District’s revised Social Studies Standards.

The SSSAC is now seeking input from the public on the proposed Guiding Principles that the State Board will vote on and transmit to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE). This is an opportunity for the public to engage with the standards revision process.

Please complete this short form to assist the Social Studies Standards Advisory Committee in this process or email comments to [email protected] with “Social Studies Standards Public Comment” in the subject line. The 10-day public comment period is open through 5 pm ET on Monday, November 30, 2020.

The 20 Guiding Principles focus on ensuring that revised D.C. Social Studies Standards will include fewer, higher, clearer rigorous standards that will be coherent, developmentally appropriate and vertically aligned across grades Pre-K–12. The Guiding Principles push for revised standards that expand on the types of skills and knowledge to which all D.C. students should be guaranteed access (e.g., digital literacy, student agency, democratic citizenship, power & bias), as well as recognize that the world our students are growing up in is—more than ever before—globally interconnected and culturally and racially diverse.