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North Carolina education officials met this week to put finishing touches on a new social studies and history curriculum for public schools. Instead they clashed over deep divides on race, gender identity and politics.
State education officials have been working on the new standards for almost two years. They’ve enlisted dozens of educators and fielded comments from thousands of people.
The new curriculum strives to include voices that have traditionally been left out and to help students explore struggles against oppression and injustice.
Catherine Truitt, North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction
This week’s special meeting of the state Board of Education was called to review the fifth draft of the standards, in hopes that it can be approved next week. Earlier this month, newly elected state Superintendent Catherine Truitt asked that references to systemic racism, gender identity and systemic discrimination be revised.
An Air Force veteran who now teaches science is one of four finalists for the 2021 National Teacher of the Year.
Maureen M. Stover, who teaches at Cumberland International Early College High School, is the 2020 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year. She and the other three finalists were announced Wednesday by the Council of Chief State School Officers, which facilitates the recognition program.
Stover, who served as an intelligence officer in the Air Force, is known by her students as the “Science Mom.” She has been teaching biology, earth and environmental science for more than three years at the early college and also holds a number of leadership roles there.
Republican appointees to the State Board of Education (SBE) fired a volley of criticism at the state’s new social studies standards Wednesday, charging that the language in the revision is “divisive” and “politically charged.”
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson led the attack, doubling down on complaints he made earlier this month about the new standards, which the state board could approve next week.
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson
“I do not like the tone of these standards, what’s written in them,” Robinson said during a special board meeting Wednesday. “I think they’re politically charged. I think they’re divisive, and I think that they, quite frankly, smack of a lot of leftist dogma.”
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper inaugurated for second term Share Updated: 7:58 PM EST Jan 9, 2021 The Associated Press Share Updated: 7:58 PM EST Jan 9, 2021 The Associated Press Starting his second term, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Saturday called on residents to learn from the state’s recent triumphs and trials and to commit to shared goals for education, health care and racial equality, and to “cherish our democracy.”The Democrat emphasized COVID-19′s continuing challenges and condemned this week’s violence at the U.S. Capitol during an inauguration ceremony for him and the other Council of State members truncated due to safety concerns about the pandemic. While he and eight other leaders came in person to be sworn in, his inaugural speech was prerecorded, as were other portions of the ceremony. During the address, he pledged to meet the state’s challenges squarely and professed North Carolina was pois