California must change its history books before adopting Common Core.
California is at an important tipping point. I and my graduate students participated in the 2009 efforts to revise the History/Social Science curriculum frameworks and frankly the issue of Mexican American history was marginalized. It will require some effort to change this. It is important to intervene soon. Once the national common core standards begin adopting History/ Social Science, the new standards will most likely integrate the existing state standards- which ignore Mexican American/Latino history. The inadequate 1986 History/ Social Science Framework will become the national standards and will continue for another decade. New York is currently revising their civic standards to prepare for inclusion in the common core. To this date we have been unable to interest legislators in responding to this problem. See more here https://sites.google.com/site/chicanodigital/home/why-california-students-do-not-know-chicano-history
Students need to see themselves in the curriculum in order to believe they have a stake in the society. Textbooks for California schools are selected by the State Board of Education based upon recommendations of their Curriculum Committees and the state frameworks and standards. The current Framework reflects the historiography of the 1950’s. It was written in 1986 by senior scholars, they in turn were educated in the early 1970’s or before. It is substantially out of date.
Standards and frameworks are products of the people who make the decisions. Frameworks like standards pick winners and losers; the choices which committees make favor one group over another group. These choices are based upon the political power of those represented on the committees. The Framework is supposed to be revised each 7 years but it has not been revised. The current Framework reflects the historiography of the 1970’s and the political balance of power of the 1980’s.
During the winter and spring of 2009, a committee of teachers and other educators appointed by the State Board of