Comment on NYS Curriculum related to Haudenosaunee

Please consider taking some time to provide input to New York State as it develops new curriculum for Social Studies in public schools.

The New York State Department of Education is seeking comments on their draft Common Core Social Studies Framework. The deadline for comments is Monday, January 20th at midnight. The main document has two parts, grades K-8 and 9-12, both of which can be accessed by scrolling to the bottom of this webpage:

A survey form is available here.  The survey can appear completely overwhelming, but I think you can provide meaningful input in 10-15 minutes. I believe that survey questions 1, 2, 7 and 10 are most relevant for our concerns (particularly 2 and 10) so if you’re looking to economize on your time, focus on those.

Question #2 offers an opportunity to comment on anything which you think should be added, deleted or revised.  See the Comments on Social Studies Framework document includes many possibilities to include for this.  It’s best to be selective about your comments though and please take these concepts and put them in your own words.

Question #10 asks about other resources which would be good for them to include.  The Resources to cite document includes a number of sources which I think are quite useful.  If you have other ideas please use them (though they ask for people to include the citations for grade level, key idea and conceptual understanding which it addresses, which are numbered within their documents).  Please also send us ideas for additional resources which we can share with others.

The survey results will be reviewed and they hope to have a completed document ready for Board of Regents review and approval at the March meeting.  The draft framework is complicated and includes a good deal of educational jargon. However, given the importance of what is taught to our children about the Haudenosaunee and other Native Peoples, it is important for as many of us as possible to participate.

If you have questions as you proceed with this, feel free to email Andy.  Remember that it’s more likely that they’ll seriously consider our input if the responses are individualized rather than identical.