BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) this past Friday announced the launch of an online social studies standards comment portal, allowing the public an additional opportunity to share their feedback on every single social studies standard.

The portal can be accessed in the Standards Review Committee Library throughout October.      

LDOE says the goals of the standards revision process are to shift the standards towards an approach that balances the acquisition of disciplinary skills along with content knowledge, to create a more coherent sequence of content, to strengthen knowledge and skills at the elementary level, to ensure students are prepared for secondary and post-secondary work, and to better integrate the historical perspectives of people from all different backgrounds.

In referring to the purpose of the new portal, Dr. Cade Brumley, State Superintendent of Education, stated, "We live in a great country, rich with successes, opportunities, diversity, and resolve. Students deserve to learn an accurate account of our civics, economics, geography, and history that is free from indoctrination. It is our duty as citizens to educate our students on what a truly exceptional nation America is."

During their September 25, 2021 meeting, the Social Studies Standards Steering Committee voted 19-1 to endorse a revised set of K-12 Louisiana Student Standards for Social Studies and have the Department submit them to BESE for approval in December.

The steering committee was composed of Louisiana teachers, higher education representatives, school and school system leaders, parents, students, and community members from all regions of Louisiana.

Two groups of Louisiana educators, a K-5 elementary content expert workgroup and a 6-12 secondary content expert workgroup, have been drafting social studies standards since March 2021.

Feedback received from the Social Studies Standards Steering Committee and members of the public has been reviewed and incorporated into the revised standards.

The next step in the process is this public comment portal, which is currently receiving submissions throughout October.