COMMENTARY: The importance of setting standards

By Judge Michael Warren

For approximately 5 years the Michigan Department of Education has been working on revising the K-12 Social Studies Standards. One would hope that with this much time and energy, that the document would provide precisely defined terms and consistent use of terminology to help teachers and students improve academic achievement. Alas, such naive hopes have been dashed through.

I served on the civics committee as part of the most recent revisions.

We spent a vast amount of time on providing specific definitions of terms and using them consistently throughout the document. We did this to assist teachers, students, and test designers to have clarity on what was expected to be taught, learned, and assessed. We proposed accurate, political neutral defined terms. A few weeks ago, the State Board of Education sent out for public comment the most recent draft standards. The suggestions of the civics committee were all but
entirely rejected and replaced with imprecise, inconsistent, and confusing language.

Instead of using clearly consistent defined terms, there is a mishmash of various undefined phrases sloshing throughout the document. For example the draft uses the following phraseology (capitalization and non-capitalization is as displayed in the current draft): Democratic Values, democratic values, Constitutional Principles, Constitutional principles, constitutional principles, Constitutional principles of American government, democratic values, principles, basic values and principles, values and principles of American Democracy, ideas about government, ideas, philosophical origins of constitutional government, ideals, core ideals, core principles, and U.S. Constitutional Principles. Oh my.

This is not a minor matter. The whole point of the standards is to provide clear guidance to teachers. Words have meaning. Either the drafters carefully choose these words but failed to explain the difference between each of these 17 different phrases, or they utterly failed to consider the confusion using these various terms might bring to the classroom. Either way, the work of the civics committee to carefully craft and use defined terms has been rejected for chaos.

What is the difference between “basic values and principles” and “constitutional principles?” Between “ideals,” “core ideals,” and “core principles?” Between “Democratic Values” and “values and principles of American government?” The document provides no clue. One can speculate about the differences and one can guess about what the drafters meant, but that undermines the whole point of the standards. The standards are to help clarify—not obfuscate—what teachers and students need to know. Here, they fall woefully short.

Similarly, the current draft uses at least three different ways to refer to our system of government (again, capitalization is as presented in the draft): American democracy, American Democracy, and American Constitutional Democracy.

The task force that was convened to revise the most recent draft standards went through an exercise to determine the best terminology of how to describe the federal government. There was a thoughtful discussion about whether America was a “democracy,” “republic,” “democratic republic,” etc. At one point, two competing terms basically tied. However, as far as I recollect, “American democracy” and “American Democracy” were not among the top two. Apparently the drafters decided to dodge the problem but slipped in the current three terms. Michigan should pick an accurate, nonpolitical descriptor and use it consistently.

Michigan’s ranking in K-12 education has been plummeting for several years. The State Board of Education is dedicated to making Michigan a “Top Ten” education state. The K-12 Social Studies Standards are a wonderful opportunity to make such progress. Instead, the current draft is a step backward into deepening mediocrity or worse.

The State Board of Education will be reviewing and likely approving the standards at its June 11, 2019 meeting. The State Board should insist that standards be clear, concise, and politically neutral. As a taxpayer and citizen, you have right to make the such a demand. Let your voice be heard and contact the State Board with your thoughts. Our children deserve nothing less.
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Michael Warren is an Oakland County Circuit Court judge, former member of the State Board of Education, co-founder of Patriot Week (www.PatriotWeek.org), and author of America’s Survival Guide (www.AmericasSurvivalGuide.com).