Examining State Curriculum Standards

I chose to read through Illinois' State Curriculum Standards for History. Illinois seperates their standards into general "Learning Standards" and more specific "State Goals for History". Learning standards include things such as identifying and solving problems, sharing ideas, working with groups, using technology and making connections. I feel these are very broad standards that are things meant to be accomplished on a day to day basis. When it comes to the state's "Learning Standards", History is grouped in with the Social Sciences. The Social Sciences include anthropology, economics, geography, history, law, political science and sociology. It is directly mentioned that all of the social sciences are connected and that students need to realize how they relate to each other in order. However, Illinois does treat History as a seperate subject which has its own goals to meet.

Illinois breaks down their standards by grade bracket instead of individual grade. They specifiy standards for Early Elementary, Late Elementary, Middle/Junior High School, Early High School and Late High School. The general trend seems to be pretty well lined up with Indiana and a few other states where the early elementary grades focus on the local community, holidays, traditions and general ideas of time (past, present and future). Once the students reach late elemetnary school is when they start learning about specific events and U.S. and World history. The goals for each grade bracket are very specific about what time periods, events and topics should be discussed. For example in Middle/Junior High School students should be able to describe how the people of the Huang He, Trigris-Euphrates, Nile and Indus river valleys shaped their environments during the agricultural revolution, 4000-1000, B.C. There are four sections of specific content goals for each grade bracket and each section has multiple goals for U.S. and World History.

The state standards do include a section on goals for developing historical thinking skills. The first section of History Goals is titled "Apply the skills of historical analysis and interpration" and in this set of goals students are expected to ask historical questions, compare stories of events, read stories and analyze and compare different historical interprations of an event. By late high school students are expected to "analyze historical and contemporary developments using methods of historical inquiry (pose questions, collect and analyze data, make and support inferences with evidence, report findings)" I would say that Illinois definitly encourages historical thinking in their students.

One last thing I thought about while reading Tyrrell's "Historians In Public" was the emphasis on American history over other types of history in schools. Tyrrell discusses the push for more American history in schools because of American's apparent lack of knowledge over their country. While reading the book I began to think of my history classes throughout high school and I would say this alligns right up with my high school experience. I remember talking a lot about U.S. history and not much about the rest of the world. As I read through the chapters on schools I began to get confused because the chapter was describing how little Americans know about U.S. history and how a lot of people are upset and U.S. history should be taught all throughout schooling but then at the end of the chapter they begin to bring in the argument that students do not know anything about the world and are becoming isolated from the rest of the world. So what is more important and is it important that History maintain a subject all its own? Illinois seems to have equal content goals for U.S. and World History. They also seem to feel that History is important enough to be its own subject. In the standards they discuss how important it is for a student to be able to examine and analyze past events in order to understand the events of today. They also discuss how learning history will help students to "define their own roles as particiapating citizens." History has definitly maintained an important status in the state of Illinois.