Virginia Teachers Struggle to Keep Up as History Guide Rollout Lag

Virginia teachers are still flying blind months into a new school year — trying to adapt to overhauled history standards without the full set of instructional guides the state promised to help them navigate the change.

Virginia history book materials. (Photo by Mechelle Hankerson/ Virginia Mercury)

Since early April, the Virginia Department of Education has continued to publish its history instructional guides to help ​​prepare teachers to instruct students in the state’s updated history and social studies standards.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Emily Anne Gullickson said at the Board of Education’s March meeting that part of the delay stemmed from staff adding web links to primary and secondary sources in the guides. Since then, the agency has been releasing instructional guides for its history and social science courses on a weekly basis.

The department says the instructional guides provide educators with directions for implementing the recently adopted 2023 History and Social Science Standards of Learning, which replace the 2015 version.

Danyael Graham, president of the Virginia Social Studies Leaders Consortium, said teachers have already begun lesson planning and receiving training on the 2023 standards. Educators have also been required to start integrating the standards into their instruction. However, Graham said, it has been difficult to build effective lessons without the necessary guides that clarify what teachers need to know — particularly in preparation for state assessments.

She explained that the 2015 standards, along with their accompanying curriculum framework, provided detailed expectations for what students were supposed to learn. In contrast, the 2023 standards do not include a curriculum framework and instead rely on instructional guides, which teachers are still waiting on to fully adjust their lessons.

As a result, Graham noted that teachers will likely spend unplanned time over summer break or in August reviewing the complex documents and modifying their lesson plans.

“They’re unsure what resources to turn to,” Graham said, “And while it’s great that (VDOE) is putting these links in here (and) is going to be supportive for teachers, it’s very late.”

Graham also worries the delay will also negatively affect elementary teachers who are already juggling other state curriculum changes in math and literacy.

Publishing the documents “earlier” would have been ideal, she said. However, “I at least do appreciate that they’re sticking to their timeline.”

In the meantime, Graham said the consortium is gradually releasing its own document to help teachers craft lesson plans and connect the instructional guides. She said the organization believes it’s important to support educators of all experience levels by offering teacher-facing lessons — educational content and activities designed to enhance their instruction during a time of major transition.

“We know they’re overwhelmed, we know they’re burnt out, or we know they’re entirely new to the field and need direction,” Graham said. “So we thought that by building out these inquiry-based tasks, we’re providing them with some high-quality instructional materials that they can then use and plug into their classes.”

In March, Gullickson took over the department after former Superintendent Lisa Coons resigned amid growing pressure from teachers and educational organizations calling for the release of the instructional guides.

Since then, the agency has kept to its rollout schedule. It plans to complete the release of the final four instructional guides over the next two weeks. These remaining courses include Grade 2, Grade 4 Virginia Studies, Grade 10 World History and Geography: 1500 to the Present and Grade 11 Virginia and United States History.

by Nathaniel Cline, Virginia Mercury

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