Action Alert: Ask Oklahoma State Legislators to Pause Implementation of Social Studies Standards
The American Historical Association (AHA) encourages Oklahomans invested in quality history education to contact their state legislators and ask them to return the newly revised Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies to the State Board of Education for further review.
In January, the AHA asked members to participate as part of the public review of draft academic standards. AHA staff submitted extensive comments and suggestions, as did many of our members and contacts in Oklahoma. On February 27, 2025, the State Board of Education both presented an updated version of the document and voted, without any opportunity for review, to approve its implementation for the 2025–26 school year. Citing members of the State Board of Education, local media outlets have reported that some problematic changes were introduced to the standards after they voted to approve them.
In finalizing the new academic standards, the State Board of Education made some changes based on input from historians and educators, including the AHA. But there are serious flaws that significantly diminish what might otherwise provide a solid foundation for history education in Oklahoma public schools.
Areas of concern include:
- apparent inconsistencies in standards review and approval. “I felt like I had been deceived,” State Board of Education Member Mike Tinney told The Oklahoman. “To know changes had been made without my knowledge is disturbing.”
- endorsing conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, unproven assertions about the origins of COVID-19, and other politicized content in the high school history course used for state assessments. It is unreasonable and academically dysfunctional to use specious standards as the basis for testing students and evaluating schools.
- oversimplified and distorted descriptions of religious life in the United States. The spiritual beliefs and practices of Americans vary and change over time. The interaction of many faith traditions has been a defining characteristic of our pluralistic society. The standards repeatedly invoke a singular “Judeo-Christian” tradition (a phrase coined during the Cold War) while ignoring or erasing the role of different denominations, doctrinal interpretations, evangelical movements, and values in shaping our country.
- deeply flawed, new elective courses on Ancient and Medieval World History (AWH) and Twentieth Century Totalitarianism. Both courses incorporate content copied without attribution from untested model standards published by the overtly ideological Civics Alliance. Neither is ready for classroom use. The first (AWH) is unreasonably narrow in its geographic focus and ignores insights from the last century of historical scholarship. The second misrepresents Nazism as a descendant of Communist ideology, neglecting to mention fascism.
The new standards have several praiseworthy features, including thoughtful attention to Native American history, historical thinking, and other key aspects of US history. The concerns outlined above relate to materials that threaten to undermine the integrity of history and social studies education in a state where many students already fail to achieve basic benchmarks in student learning.
We urge you to contact your legislators and the governor’s office as soon as possible to ask for them to restore integrity to this process. You can use the website Plural to find your state representatives and access their contact information, including email addresses. Feel free to adapt the AHA’s letter or craft your own.
The Oklahoma standards use a common labelling convention for academic standards. For example, you might wish to address standard 8.1.5F: “Evaluate the role of Judeo-Christian ideals in supporting colonial demands for independence, as exemplified by the Bible being a frequently cited authority by America’s Founders.” (The label 8.1.5F indicates that this is a clause (F) within the standard 1.5 in 8th grade social studies.)