South Dakota social studies standards pass, despite opposition from educators, tribes

PIERRE − The South Dakota Board of Education Standards approved new social studies standards Monday after four public hearings across the state, despite opposition from a majority of South Dakota educators and the state’s nine tribes.

As of April 14, the Board had received 1,295 public comments on the standards, with most of comments (1,137), against the standards, 121 in favor and 37 neutral.

Despite Monday being a school day, dozens of educators, students and Indigenous education advocates protested before the hearing and also spoke during public comment time about why they opposed the standards.

Many had criticized the standards for not being age-appropriate, not coming from a majority of South Dakotans and not having enough emphasis on Indigenous history.

The standards will begin being taught to students as soon as the 2025-2026 school year.

A two-year implementation period will start in June at the Department of Education along with the state historical society and Office of Indian Education to help current teachers learn how to put the standards into practice.

The final vote on adopting the standards passed 5-2, with board members Julie Westra, Linda Olsen, Phyllis Heineman, Rich Meyer and Steve Perkins voting in support and former Huron superintendent Terry Nebelsick and Belle Fourche Superintendent Steve Willard voting in opposition. The sole proponent currently certified to teach in South Dakota is Olsen.

How did South Dakotans react?

Seconds after the board passed the standards, Gov. Kristi Noem issued a statement applauding the passage and said South Dakota’s students will be taught the “best social studies education in the country, one that is a true accounting of our history.”

Education Secretary Joe Graves said in a statement the vote was an “important step in equipping South Dakota students with the solid grounding in history and civics they need to exercise their role as citizens.”

Meanwhile, South Dakota Education Association President Loren Paul said the board’s decision is very troubling and that SDEA is disappointed the board chose to ignore educators, parents and community leaders who were almost unanimous in their opposition.

More:New social studies standards should be 'free from political agendas and activism,' DOE draft states

“While this decision is frustrating for educators, it is truly a complete disservice to South Dakota’s students,” Paul said in a statement shortly after the vote. “Unfortunately, the majority of the board decided to put politics ahead of the needs of students. Instead of working with the people who will be responsible for implementing these standards, the board decided to completely ignore them.”

Paul said it’s “abundantly clear” the board doesn’t value or respect the work teachers do every day in their classrooms.

SDEA is asking legislators to bring more clarity for the composition of the board, because the majority are not certified to teach or be an administrator in South Dakota.

Samantha Walder, principal of Tea Area Legacy Elementary School and a member of the workgroup tasked with developing the standards, said she wished the board had compromised and done better by bringing the workgroups from both 2021 and 2022 together.

Walder said the next steps for educators are careful reflection and evaluation in school buildings, and talking with teachers. She compared Monday’s decision by the board to one of the new standards themselves: tyranny.

“There’s a place in the standards now that talks about the definition of tyranny: when a small group of people are able to direct what a larger populace is doing,” Walder says. “I hope that that’s not the case here. I wish we could have found consensus.”

'There is no win-win in this process"

Before the board voted, board president Terry Nebelsick gave a statement during the hearing, explaining why he opposed the current rewrite of standards for South Dakota’s schoolchildren. He said he didn’t believe the standards, which had some influence from Hillsdale College curriculum that has been implemented in multiple states, follows state law on not adopting curriculum from a multi-state consortium.

“These hearings should not be a debate with point, counterpoint, where one side tries to win,” Nebelsick said. “There is no ‘win-win’ in this process. The longer it’s gone on, it’s become obvious that it will be a ‘lose-lose’ endeavor.”

More:Educators question ‘age appropriateness’ of South Dakota's proposed social studies standards

The board heard from proponents, like DOE officials, college professors, national historians and disgruntled legislators, along with opponents, Nebelsick said, but he took offense to legislators’ disrespect for public school teachers, administrators and board members.

“We are not a bunch of union workers in a non-union state,” he said. “Your comments are mean-spirited and totally unfounded by the work that we do.”

Willard added onto Nebelsick’s opposing comments, saying this process has become too divisive and this isn’t what South Dakota is about.

Heineman said she’s hopeful the passion that came from all sides on this issue will be channeled into making the standards work in the future. Westra said she believed the standards were good, and she’s appalled by what some students don’t know.

Olsen said she appreciated the representation of Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people who attended the hearing, but the current standards are a step in the right direction and set our standards high.

Meyer admitted in his comments that while he’s not a teacher, he finds students don’t know enough about American history and the status quo isn’t good enough. Perkins said he blesses those who teach, but that South Dakota has to do better. Both Perkins and Meyer are the newest additions to the board, appointed by Gov. Kristi Noem.

After the vote, Nebelsick said on behalf of children in the state, he’s optimistic educators will do the best with the decisions made. He also said he believes in the process and doesn’t doubt the integrity of any board members who listened and made their best decision.

'Children need heroes,' DOE Secretary argues

Workgroup facilitator William Morrisey, a former Hillsdale College politics professor, was present for Monday’s hearing and told the Argus Leader beforehand he was “cautiously optimistic” of how the board would vote.

By the end of Monday’s hearing, the tally of social studies workgroup members from either the 2015, 2021 or 2022 workgroups who have spoken out about the standards grew to 30, with at least 11 of them voicing support and 19 of them voicing opposition throughout the last four hearings.

Overall, the proponents argued the standards as they're written form a strong foundation that will lead to a more informed and engaged citizenry, that past civics education wasn't up to par and that the sequence and spiraling of the standards will help students build on what they learned in past grades and memorize important facts.

Meanwhile, opponents largely argued the board would be disregarding educators if they passed these standards, they aren’t what’s best for children, not enough standards point to South Dakota or Oceti Sakowin history, this will burden thousands of educators across the state with choosing and purchasing new curriculum, and that this will contribute to the state’s teacher shortage.

Multiple students spoke during the hearing on both sides of the standards, but the strongest visual representation of students came from Lakota Tech High School and Todd County High School, a dozen of whom took time from their school day to ask that more Indigenous consultation and history be included in the standards.

One of those students was Jordan Rahyn, who told board members students used to make fun of her culture, because they weren’t informed about it. Standards should teach more Indigenous curriculum to prevent that, she said.

Aspen Taylor, a South Dakota State University student going into early childhood education, said the standards didn’t include enough age-appropriate or culturally-appropriate practices.

In his rebuttal to the opponents, Graves had DOE staff bring up easels to hold portraits of former presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to be on display while he spoke. He explained he wanted their pictures shown, because “children need heroes.”

In a rare sight, audience member and Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribal education director Sherry Johnson called for a point of order in the paintings being displayed, explaining nobody else was able to have visual aids throughout the hearing. Nebelsick agreed to this, calling for the visual aids to be removed. Graves then gave his rebuttal.

'Trashed and put by the wayside'

Students from Lakota Tech High School and Todd County High School, along with educators and Indigenous leaders from SDEA and the South Dakota Education Equity Coalition, stood in solidarity against the standards before the hearing Monday morning.

Honz Fuller, a 17-year-old at Lakota Tech High School, said he wanted to speak up for the next generation in opposition to the standards so that more of his relatives know where they come from, and so even non-Native people learn more about history.

Alyssa Plamk, a 15-year-old at Todd County High School, said the standards are “ridiculous,” and she and her classmates wanted their voices to be heard on this issue.

“I haven’t learned much of my own culture in school, which is funny, because I’m on the reservation,” she said. “I’d like to learn a lot more about my culture, not the Declaration of Independence.”

Johnson, a member of the workgroup that drafted the original social studies standards in 2021, said the first workgroup was able to find a consensus together by talking in roundtables until each and every standard was agreed upon.

“Coming out of that session, it was a beautiful feeling, a collegial feeling of working with all the rest of the teachers,” Johnson said. “It was just a big letdown to know that our whole standards document that we painstakingly spent a lot of our time creating… to have it just trashed and put by the wayside.”

Cherie Farlee, education director of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, said she didn’t know who she was until she was 21 years old and believes without the ability to learn more about one’s culture and identity, “We don’t have anything.”