Today the State Board of Education heard testimony about Colorado’s new mandatory Summative Assessment for Accountability. The Assessment committee has recommended that Social Studies not be assessed, against the recommendation of the assessment sub-committee. Many individuals testified today on the importance of assessing social studies such as Walt Rakowich from ProLogis, Kathryn Hill from the Colorado Historical Society, and Buz Koelbel from Koelbel & Co. They expressed their belief that Social Studies needs to be an essential part of education.
Kathryn Hill said, “social studies education provides context, without which we cannot hope to understand the world around us today. Social studies provides perspective to guide in decision-making for tomorrow. Social studies transmits the values we share as a nation which bind us even in times of dissension. And social studies education equips students to fulfill the most important job they’ll ever hold – that of citizen.” Les Volpe, a representative from the non-profit Center for Education for Law in Democracy stated, “while many students hone their knowledge and skills with support from family and through community involvement, others are dependent on educational institutions to learn about the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship and to practice participation skills.”
Testimonies drove home the point that math, science, and reading skills may be considered useless unless paired with the knowledge of how to apply these skills to the world; which is taught in social studies. Local business professionals like Walt Rakowich agree; “Math, science, reading, and writing are key for ProLogis’ workforce. But no less critical is knowing how to apply that knowledge in business, and that perspective comes from the understanding of history, civics, economics, and yes — geography. The lack of knowledge of the basic context of history, in addition to the reasoning behind historical and spatial thinking—or economics—amounts to a loss of memory about ideas, events, and important personalities and their collective impact on the development of the United States—and the world.”
We must have a system of accountability to ensure that no Colorado student is deprived of history, geography, economics and civics.
