The New Social Studies Wars: Standards of Learning Revision in Virginia and the Role of the Public

Abstract

The established process for revising Virginia’s social studies standards of learning (SOLs) every seven years was interrupted by the election of Governor Glenn Youngkin, who campaigned on a platform of restoring excellence to public education and curbing the teaching of critical race theory. This study analyzes the SOLs revision process undertaken by the Virginia Board of Education (BOE) as a case to better understand the extent to which contrasting political ideologies can influence the writing of learning standards at the state level. This study also considers the role of public participation in the revision process and considers the extent to which members of the public were able to tangibly change education policy documents through their participation. I utilize qualitative content analysis to examine revisions made to the standards and public comment files. I find that while there were important revisions to the standards that might be attributed to ideological differences, the broader trend was toward the increased itemization of the standards and inclusion of long lists of content. Moreover, I find that while the public was able to effect some meaningful changes to the standards, their fundamental concerns went largely unaddressed because of the constraints placed upon their participation in the policymaking process. I argue that these findings have implications for teacher autonomy in K-12 public education and public participation in education policymaking.