Editor’s Note: We wrote this letter to provide Indiana education officials, policymakers, and citizens with a detailed assessment of the state’s revised 2026 social studies standards. It explains why we believe the revisions weaken the 2023 standards—particularly by removing concrete content, reducing rigor, and adopting elements of the C3 Framework—and recommends a systematic redrafting centered on clear, knowledge-rich instruction in history, civics, geography, economics, and liberty.

The following letter was sent to Katie Jenner, Secretary of Education at the Indiana Department of Education.

Dr. Katie Jenner, Secretary of Education
Indiana Department of Education
Indiana Government Center North, 9th Floor
100 N Senate Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46204

July 29, 2026

Dear Secretary Jenner,

The National Association of Scholars (NAS) and the Civics Alliance work to ensure that every state has academic standards that promote first-rate education and protect school children from political indoctrination. We promote reform of content standards in every state, along the lines modeled by the Civics Alliance’s American Birthright: The Civics Alliance’s Model K-12 Social Studies Standards,1 and we have been asked by Indiana citizens to comment on the 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies.

Our examination of the 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies leads us to conclude that the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) has revised the 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies distinctly for the worse.2 In our public comment on the 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies, we wrote that they provided “a solid basis for social studies instruction, although they would still benefit from systematic revision.”3 The 2026 Standards maintains the core structure of the 2023 Standards, so Indiana’s revised social studies standards retain some value. Yet they have lost large amounts of content knowledge and generally have degraded their rigor and specificity.

At a time when states including Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Virginia4 have been improving their social standards dramatically, Indiana has chosen to transform its social studies standards from the adequate to the mediocre. The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) has not served Indiana’s citizens and policymakers well in its revision of these social studies standards. We can no longer say that Indiana’s social studies standards provide a solid basis for social studies instruction—and, more than ever, Indiana’s social studies standards would benefit from systematic revision.

C3 Framework

IDOE’s worst overall decision was to adopt the National Council for the Social Studies’ College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework5 as a framework for the 2026 Standards: “IDOE’s formal review process incorporated principles of the C3 Framework to enhance critical thinking skills, increase rigor, and promote literacy skills within the standards.”6 The C3 Framework, alas, replaces content knowledge with insubstantial and opaque “inquiry”; replaces social studies pedagogy with identity politics ideologies such as Critical Race Theory; and inserts ideologically extreme activism pedagogies such as Action Civics.7

IDOE has not as yet incorporated the worst aspects of the C3 Framework in its revised standards—but its increased reliance on the C3 Framework’s characteristically wordy and obscure jargon registers the C3 Framework’s negative effect. For a notable example, the 2026 Standards worsened its Grade 7 standard on Japanese history by applying the C3 Framework’s language of “cause and effect”:

2023: Demonstrate how Japan became increasingly independent of earlier Chinese influences and developed its own political, religious, social, and artistic traditions. ● Examples: feudalism, shogunate court life, samurai culture.8

2026: Identify the cause and effect relationship leading to Japan becoming independent from earlier Chinese influences to develop their own political, religious, social, and artistic traditions.9

This change, aside from the removal of the concrete Examples, removes the instruction focus from the fact and the substance of Japanese cultural autonomy to the search for a “cause and effect relationship” that produced this autonomy. There are many reasons for Japanese cultural autonomy, and simplifying a complex process into a single “cause and effect relationship” isn’t even useful for a Grade 7 introduction to Japanese history—which ought to focus on the nature of that autonomy rather than mechanically seek a singular cause for its existence. Even were a teacher intelligently to bend the 2026 Standards and substitute “causes” for “cause,” the new standard would still pay less attention to the historical details of Japanese culture. IDOE did better on its own in 2023 than when it relied on the C3 Framework in 2026.

Worse effects from IDOE’s progressive alignment with the C3 Framework may be expected in IDOE’s other social studies curricular materials and programs, and in future revisions of the Indiana social studies standards.

Deleted Examples

IDOE removed all the “Examples” from the 2023 Standards.10 The Examples, although not mandatory, provided a strong suggestion of actually intended content knowledge in the 2023 Standards; their removal, more than any other change, reduces the 2026 Standards to abstract, unrigorous banalities. So the Grade 5 coverage of the American Revolution loses all historical specificity:

2023: Identify major British and American leaders of the American Revolutionary War and describe their significance in key events of the war. (E) ● Examples: King George III, Lord Charles Cornwallis, Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Thomas Paine, General George Washington, Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Lexington and Concord, publication of Common Sense, First and Second Continental Congresses, and drafting and approval of the Declaration of Independence (1776).11

2026: Identify major British and American leaders of the American Revolutionary War and describe their significance in key events of the war. (E)12

We have cited further examples in courses from Kindergarten to high school in Appendix One: Deleted Examples. The overall result of these deletions has been to remove so much content from the 2026 Standards that it minimizes their use for any educational purpose—for teachers and school districts to use as a guide to instruction, for textbooks to use as a guide for content, for assessment companies to use as a guide to creating state and local assessments. IDOE’s decision to label some content standards as essential (“(E)”) compounds this problem, since it licenses teachers to skip over all content judged inessential. In effect, the real 2026 Standards may include only the items labeled (E). There is sufficiently little content in the 2026 Standards that they are uncomfortably close to useless.

The best thing to be said about deleting the Examples is that they make clear how little Indiana’s 2026 Standards require. Indiana’s 2023 Standards did not actually require the material in the Examples; they merely suggested it. Indiana teachers already were free to ignore most concrete facts of American history and government, especially those that spoke well of America; the Examples at least suggested that they ought not do so. The 2026 Standards remove that ambiguity. Indiana citizens and policymakers now may push for a comprehensive revision to include substantial content knowledge in every individual social studies standard.

IDOE actually has done this once:

2023: Describe, compare, and contrast the historical origins, central beliefs, and spread of major religions. (E) ● Examples: Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.13

2026: Describe, compare, and contrast the historical origins, central beliefs and features, and spread of major religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. (E)14

What IDOE did here, to add an “including” followed by list of concrete examples, can and should be done throughout. What was merely a good improvement when the 2023 Standards had examples is now imperative, when the 2026 Standards do not.

Alterations and Deletions

IDOE has not imposed as radicalized social studies standards as did its peers in Connecticut, Minnesota, and Rhode Island.15 The tenor of its alterations and deletions, however, does weaken, compress, or remove Western history, American history, political liberty, and economics.16 These alterations and deletions also serve to weaken academic rigor.17

They function, moreover, in conjunction with removing Examples, as ways that facilitate radical activists in curriculum development and other aspects of education administration who wish to reinterpret the standards in accordance with their ideological agenda. High-school United States Government, for example, replaces the phrases “foundational ideas of American government embedded in the Founding-era documents” and “commitment to foundational ideas in Founding-era documents” with “Founding Era principles of American government” and “Founding Era principles and values.”18This shift from the concrete “Founding-era documents” to the abstract and undefined “Founding-Era principles and values” would allow, for example, the use of materials from the radical Zinn Education Project that catechize students to believe America is evil to replace an actual study of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.19 The 2026 revision of United States Government also adds the direction to look at “contemporary examples of Founding Era principles of American government.”20 This direction would allow Zinn-inspired teachers to teach (for example) a contemporary example of identity-politics polemic and justify it as a way to teach “Founding-Era principles and values”. IDOE should not allow phrasing in its Standards that is so liable to abuse.

The 2026 Standards now also include some standards that promote “action civics”:

Sociology: Design school- and community-based projects to address a local aspect of a social problem.21

World Geography: Design school- and community-based projects to address a local aspect of a social problem.22

IDOE, furthermore, removed several standards referring specifically to Indiana. Grade 5 Geography changes study of “the watersheds that Indiana lies within” to “local and regional communities.”23 Benjamin Harrison, meanwhile, disappears from both United States Government and United States History.24

Some language susceptible to politicization has carried over from the 2023 Standards to the 2026 Standards; e.g, “bias” (passim) and “ethnocentrism,” which is academic jargon that seeks to stigmatize national affection and loyalty.25 And so too has language that is bland and banal to the point of incomprehensibility.

Analyze worldwide voyages of exploration and discovery by considering multiple perspectives of various people in the past by demonstrating their differing motives, beliefs, interests, hopes, and fears. [Grade 7, 7.H.10] 26

Formulate a broad understanding of the location of countries within Africa, Asia, and the Southwest Pacific. (E) [Grade 7, 7.G.1] 27

If “Formulate a broad understanding of the location” has any concrete meaning, it probably is that you’ll pass Grade 7 even if you mix up where China and India are on the map. IDOE should have higher standards both for its standards draftsmen and for Indiana students.

IDOE’s 2026 Standards have moved substantially toward bland, unrigorous abstraction that teaches no concrete affection for, commitment to, or knowledge of Indiana, America, and economic liberty—and which includes some commitment to action civics.

Misconceived Standards

Many of IDOE’s 2026 Standards simply are misconceived. This is more readily apparent, now that IDOE has added new standards for Global Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Indiana Studies, and World Geography. General comment on IDOE’s individual standards includes:

  • World History and Civilization:28 This is effectively a Western Civilization course weakened by interrupting its narrative to provide shallow coverage of select other areas of world history. Indiana policymakers and the IDOE should collaborate to change this course to Western Civilization, with coherent and detailed coverage of the ideals and institutions of liberty, republican self-government, and civic virtue that informed America’s Founders as they created our country. IDOE also should create a new elective in World History, to provide a full course of coverage for non-Western history.
  • Global Economics:29 This is a trendily named version of Macroeconomics. If Indiana is to have two Economics standards, they should be named and framed to provide a straightforward two-course introduction to economic thought.
  • Indiana Studies:30 This standard is so abstract that it could be applied to any other state, simply by replacing “Indiana” with a different state’s name. It is basically a repeat of United States History, with as it affected Indiana Indiana Studies ought to teach Indiana students what is distinctive about the Hoosier State, not that it is a cookie-cutter replica of every other state in the Union.
  • Geography & History of the World AND World Geography:31 Both these courses offer miscellaneous social studies, current events, and earth science material that ought to be taught in science class. Both lack the actual coverage of locational and historical geography high school students need—higher-level recapitulation of the exact location of the countries of the world and the geographical dynamics of world civilizations. They are also duplicative. These courses should both be eliminated and replaced with a Geography & History of the World that actually focuses on locational and historical geography.

Short and Unpublicized Public Comment Period

In 2026, IDOE followed Indiana law about public comment—and provided a three-week period for electronic public comment. It did not have any public sessions and it did not do much to alert the public that new social studies standards were about to be promulgated. While IDOE is fully within the letter of the public comment law, it cannot be said to have encouraged any public discussion of the revised social studies standards—even though the revisions cumulatively were substantial. The 2026 Standards, in effect, were drafted and imposed by IDOE administrators, with no real provision for elected policymakers or citizens to voice concern. IDOE followed the law scrupulously—but in effect has used arbitrary discretion to create new social standards for Indiana. Whether or not they oppose the substance of the 2026 Standards, Indiana policymakers and citizens should have reservations, at the least, about the means by which they were introduced.

Scattered Improvements

Some parts of the 2026 Standards do improve on the 2023 Standards. Grade 7 coverage of modern Japanese history, for example, notably improves its language.

2023: Analyze the Japanese imperial period (1868-1945), including Japan’s involvement in World War II.32

2026: Analyze Japan’s rapid transformation (1868-1945) from an isolated feudal society to a global industrial power, and evaluate the causes and consequences of its involvement in World War II. (E)33

IDOE also improved other aspects of the 2026 Standards. We acknowledge these improvements—although, net, we judge that the 2026 Standards are substantially worse than the 2023 Standards.

Grade 6 Middle School Civics: Legal Note

Indiana statute states that the Grade 6 Middle School Civics standards may only be changed with the express authorization of the Indiana General Assembly: “(b) The standards established under subsection (a) and in effect on July 2, 2022, may only be changed by the express authorization of the general assembly.”34 For the 2026 Standards, IDOE has added alignment to the C3 Framework (2026 Civics Standards, p. 3) and deleted the following Examples from the Grade 6 Middle School Civics standards.

6.CIV.4: Describe and give examples of individual rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. (E)

  • Examples: The right to associate with whomever one pleases; the right to practice the religion of one’s choice; the right to speak freely, and criticize the government; the right to due process; and the right to be protected from unreasonable search and seizure; when those rights could cause conflict or disagreement.

6.CIV.11: Identify the three branches of the United States government and explain the functions of each. (E)

  • Examples: Separation of powers, shared powers, and checks and balances involving the legislative (law making), executive (law enforcing), and judicial (law interpreting) branches of government.

6.CIV.13: Explain the role citizens have in making decisions and rules within the community, state, and nation.

  • Examples: Participating in local and regional activities, voting in elections, running for office, and voicing opinions in a positive way.

6.CIV.15: Use a variety of informational resources to identify and evaluate contemporary issues that involve civic responsibility, individual rights, and the common good.

  • Examples: Responsible use of the internet, smoking in public places, payment of property taxes, development of highways, and housing on historic lands. 35

Deleting Examples has its worst effects on a Civics course, as they reduce the detailed and substantive civic knowledge to be taught to students. But IDOE also may have violated Indiana law by making changes to the Civics standards without approval from the General Assembly. At the very least to avoid legal jeopardy, we strongly suggest that IDOE restore the Grade 6 Middle School Civics standards to the exact letter of the Standards.

Recommendations

IDOE’s 2026 Standards are not nearly as bad as those of states including Connecticut, Minnesota, and Rhode Island. But the revision from the 2023 Standards to the 2026 Standards has worsened them from acceptable to mediocrity verging on the unacceptable. IDOE’s choice to align with the C3 Network, and the cumulative effect of the quality erosion in its social studies standards, give Indiana citizens and policymakers reason to fear for the direction of Indiana social studies, if the IDOE continues on its course.

We recommend systematic revision to Indiana’s social studies standards. We recommend that IDOE, and external policymakers, make this change as soon as possible, if necessary by legislation. At the least, these changes should be made during Indiana’s next revision process for its social studies standards.

Independent Commission: We recommend that IDOE, following the successful example of other states that have successfully revised their standards, should appoint an independent commission to redraft Indiana’s social studies standards. Participants should include teachers from traditional public and private schools who have proven themselves by their students’ academic performance to be highly effective teachers, homeschool parents, and history and civics professionals with proven knowledge of the American founding and our country’s ideals and institutions of free self-government.

IDOE might also ask Indiana policymakers to pass legislation informed by our model American Birthright Taskforce Act, to create an independent commission charged with creating properly revised social studies standards for Indiana.36

Don’t Hire the American Institutes for Research (AIR) or Anyone Affiliated with AIR: States that hire AIR to take part in their social studies standards revision process standardly produce social studies standards that recapitulate the flaws of the NCSS’ C3 Framework: insufficient content knowledge, extensive use of “inquiry” pedagogy, heavy use of “skills” instruction; action civics; and at least some identity-politics ideology influence on content. All these consequences are the predictable results of hiring AIR-associated personnel. IDOE should not hire AIR, or in any way involve personnel associated with AIR, in any part of the revision of its social studies standards.

Remove Alignment with the C3 Framework: IDOE should ensure that its social studies standards are not informed by the National Council for the Social Studies’ (NCSS) ideologically extreme definition of social studies.37IDOE also should remove all structures, concepts, and languages from its social studies standards that draw upon or parallel the concepts and language of the C3 Framework.38

Lucid, Content-Knowledge Framework: IDOE’s social studies standards should use a straightforward list format and plain and precise language. They should use a content knowledge based framework rather than an “Inquiry-Based Learning” framework. Each individual standard should have an “including” with a list of specific topics, to replace the Examples provided in the 2023 Standards.

Depoliticize: IDOE should remove all tendentious language, such as bias and ethnocentrism, and all prompts to “action civics.”

Adopt New Definitions of Social Studies and its Disciplines: IDOE should adopt new definitions of Social Studies and the individual disciplines, and explicitly reject the the National Council for the Social Studies’ (NCSS) ideologically extreme definitions of social studies and the disciplines. (See Appendix 2: Recommended Definitions of Social Studies and its Disciplines.)

Restore Instruction in Liberty: IDOE should add to its four core Domains (Civics and Government, Economics, Geography, and History) the Discipline of Liberty, which should have coverage in every grade band.39 IDOE should incorporate throughout K-12 instruction a series of named documents that illustrate the Western and American commitment to the ideals and institutions of liberty into the Standards, including at least the 24 documents specified by Kentucky in KRS 158.196.40 The series also should include a broader selection of documents illustrating the intellectual background of the Founding Documents and American history. (See Appendix 3: Recommended Historical Documents.) IDOE should also publish a Documents of Liberty Readerand provide lesson plans and professional development to facilitate instruction in the Documents of Liberty.

Restore the 2023 Version of Grade 6 Civics: IDOE should restore the exact letter of the 2023 Grade 6 Civics Standards, both as a substantive improvement and to ensure that it follows Indiana statute.

Restore Geography: IDOE should incorporate into the Draft Standards substantial detailed expectation in Grades K-8 for factual geographical knowledge of Indiana, the United States, and the world, including the locations of continents, countries, states, country and state capitals, oceans, and major mountain ranges, rivers, and deserts. IDOE also should eliminate the duplicative standard for World Geography and teach Geography & History of the World to focus on locational and historical geography. (See Appendix 4: Suggested Outline, Geography & History of the World Outline.) IDOE should ensure that Geography instruction does not include miscellaneous social studies, miscellaneous current events, earth sciences instruction, or material that promotes ideologically extreme activism (e.g., climate change activism or open borders activism).

Restore Economics: Many of the changes in the 2026 Standards deleted Economics standards. IDOE also created a new course with the trendy name of Global Economics. IDOE should go through the entire standards to restore Economics at least to the level of the 2023 Standards. IDOE also should consider whether it should simply rename its two high-school economics classes as Microeconomics and Macroeconomics, and frame their instruction appropriately.

Restore Study of Western Civilization: IDOE should include a required Western Civilization sequence, consisting of spiraled instruction in Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, and high school, which provides the coherent narrative of the ideals and institutions of liberty that formed America, as well as the histories of liberty, faith, science, and technology. IDOE’s high school instruction should include a required course in Western Civilization that replaces the existing course in World History and Civilization.

Bolster American History: IDOE should incorporate more material on America’s colonial history—the first 150 years of our nation’s history. It also should include substantial coverage of America’s and Indiana’s common culture, including the history of religion, integrated throughout its coverage of American and Indiana history. The history of common culture is the history of what unites Americans and Hoosiers, rather than what divides them. It is also the history of people enjoying themselves—their stories and their music—and students need to learn that history is more than a dour series of political and social problems and crises.

Add Military, Religious, Economic, Scientific, and Cultural History: Indiana students cannot understand the true history of the West, America, or Indiana if they do not learn full accounts of our wars, faiths, free markets, scientific discoveries, and exemplary cultural practices and artistic masterpieces. Indiana’s social studies standards should make central these fundamental themes of history.

Redraft Indiana Studies: The current Indiana Studies is a bland, cookie-cutter outline that could be applied to any state in the Union. IDOE should entirely redraft Indiana Studies so that it teaches Indiana’s distinctive history, government, geography, and culture.

Create a World History Elective: The Department should create a World History high school elective, which provides fuller coverage of Asian, African, and Latin American history. This course can inform expectations for K-12 social studies teachers’ professional development.

Use Indiana’s 2001 Standards to Inform Revision: Indiana’s 2001 Academic Standards for Social Studies are far stronger than either their 2023 or 2026 successors.41 IDOE does not apparently maintain a copy of the 2001 Standards on its own website; it should restore the 2001 Standards to its Social Studies webpages, not least for the use of teachers ill-served by the more recent standards. Hoosiers, as a short-term measure, could simply go back to their 2001 Standards. The 2001 Standards then could be used to inform a more comprehensive revision of Indiana’s social studies standards.

Conclusion

The Indiana Department of Education’s (IDOE) 2026 Standards are distinctly worse than its 2023 Standards. They are abstract, shorn of content knowledge, unrigorous, bland, and touched with politicization—near professional minimums, although not yet below them. IDOE or other Indiana policymakers should appoint an independent commission to systematically revise Indiana’s social studies standards. We suggest that such a commission should examine our model American Birthright social studies standards, but we also suggest that it examine the fine alternate models of Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Virginia.42

Respectfully yours,

Peter Wood
President, National Association of Scholars

David Randall
Executive Director, Civics Alliance

Appendix One: Deleted Examples

Kindergarten

2023: Identify ways by which people, heritage, and events are commemorated and recognized. (E) ● Examples: George Washington; Chief Little Turtle; Abraham Lincoln; Harriet Tubman; Martin Luther King, Jr., July 4th, Grandparents’ Day, cultural holidays, birthdays.43

2026: Recognize and explain the ways people, heritage, and events are remembered and celebrated in families, schools, and communities. (E)44

Grade 3

2023: Give examples of people, events, and developments that brought important changes to your community and the region where your community is located. (E) ● Examples: Developments in transportation, such as the building of canals, roads and railroads, connected communities and caused changes in population or industry.45

2026: Give examples of people, events, and developments that brought important changes to your community and the region where your community is located. (E)46

Grade 5

2023: Examine accounts of early European explorations of North America, including major land and water routes, reasons for exploration, and the impact the exploration had. (E) ● Examples: Viking explorations and settlements in Greenland and North America; Spanish expeditions by Christopher Columbus, Hernán Cortés, Hernando de Soto, and Francisco Vásquez de Coronado; expeditions by French explorers Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain; and expeditions for England and Holland by explorers Henry Cabot, Henry Hudson, and John White.47

2026: Examine accounts of early European explorations of North America, including major land and water routes, reasons for exploration, and impacts of the exploration. (E)48

Grade 7

2023: Describe the dynastic cycle and the cultural and technological contributions of major Chinese dynasties (Zhou, Qin, Han, Tang, Song, and Ming). (E) ● Examples: Zhou – established Feudalism leading to Warring States Period, Mandate of Heaven, start of Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism; Qin – “China”, Terracotta Army, Great Wall; Han – Silk Road starts, paper & compass, merit-based jobs; Tang – gunpowder, woodblock printing, clocks & porcelain; Song – paper money, moveable type; Ming – international trade/isolation, porcelain arts.49

2026: Describe the dynastic cycle and the cultural and technological contributions of major Chinese dynasties (Zhou, Qin, Han, Tang, Song, and Ming). (E)50

Geography & History of the World

2023: Analyze and assess the rise of fundamentalist movements in the world’s major religions during contemporary times (1980–present), and describe the relationships between religious fundamentalism and the secularism and modernism associated with the Western tradition. (E) ● Examples: Shiite Islamic fundamentalism in Iran and its view of the West in general and the United States in particular as “The Great Satan” (1970–present); fundamentalism in India and its relationship to the government of India (1980–present); ISIS; U.S. Christianity (1970s to present); Myanmar/Burma (Buddhism).51

2026: Analyze and assess the rise of fundamentalist movements in the world’s major religions during contemporary times (1980–present), and describe the relationships between religious fundamentalism, extremism, secularism, and modernism associated with the Western tradition. (E)52

Appendix 2: Recommended Definitions of Social Studies and its Disciplines

Social Studies: Social studies are the disciplines that study the history and nature of mankind, above all history, political theory, economics, and geography, and which teach the student about the ideals and institutions of liberty, civic virtue, and republican self-government. The primary purpose of American social studies is to educate students to become self-reliant citizens who respect the dignity and the rights of their fellow Americans, who love their country, and who cherish their liberties and their laws.

History: Understanding of the distinctive histories of the world’s enduring faiths and nations, significant historical individuals, political, military, religious, social, and cultural events and developments, relationships between the past, the present, and the future, multiple historical interpretations and ideas, how scientific discovery and technological innovation have improved the welfare of humanity, exemplary masterpieces in literature and the fine arts, the distinctive common cultures of the free peoples of the United States and Texas, characterized by the habits of liberty and the pursuit of happiness, these cultures’ roots in the Western heritage, and how the evolution of the ideals and institutions of liberty and republican self-government in different times and places has contributed to the formation of modern American ideals.

Government: Understanding of how governments function, provide order, and allocate resources, how individuals and groups achieve their goals through political systems, the interdependence of liberty, law, and civic virtue, and the Western heritage of republican self-government to preserve natural liberty, and of how the American and Texas republican governments have institutionalized the practice of liberty and continue to work to preserve and expand the principles and practices of liberty.

Economics, with emphasis on the free enterprise system and its benefits: Understanding of the ideals, institutions, and benefits of economic freedom and how people’s activities give rise to economic systems that manifest private and public choices of how to produce, distribute, and consume goods and services, which will prepare students to make informed economic decisions.

Geography: Understanding of maps and ability to locate the natural and physical contours of Texas, the United States, and the world, including knowledge of physical geography, regional geography, demographic analysis, and the role of geography in civilization formation.

Civics: Understanding of the rarity of free government in human history and of the slow development and application of the ideals and institutions of religious, political, and intellectual liberty, particularly those embodied in republican self-government, and of why liberty should be cherished, how it can be preserved, what natural rights cannot be abridged by government, and why government exists to preserve those natural rights; understanding of the ideals, duties, and benefits of citizenship in the United States and other polities, and of how American and Texan individual citizens have worked to preserve and expand individual liberty, which will prepare students to preserve our federal republic through an understanding of the principles of liberty and equal opportunity, and of civic virtues and habits; and understanding of the primary sources that document and provide enduring articulations of the evolution of the ideals and institutions of liberty and republican self-government, and of the words, original intent, and significance of the great documents of liberty, especially those that illuminate the history of liberty and republican self-government in the United States and Texas, including, as referenced in the Texas Education Code (TEC), §28.002(h), the entirety of the Declaration of Independence, the entirety of the United States Constitution, the Federalist Papers, including the entirety of Essays 10 and 51, excerpts from Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, the transcript of the first Lincoln-Douglas debate, the writings of the founding fathers of the United States, the entirety of Frederick Douglass’s speeches “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” and “What the Black Man Wants”; and the entirety of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “I Have a Dream”.

Social Studies Skills: Understanding of how historians interpret and write about the past, which will prepare students by the time they graduate from high school to identify methods used by archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and geographers to analyze evidence, explain primary sources in their own words, explain how to analyze sources for frame of reference, historical context, and point of view to interpret historical events, and analyze primary and secondary sources to determine frame of reference, historical context, and point of view.

Appendix 3: Recommended Historical Documents

Founding Documents, Intellectual Background

Magna Carta (1215)

Petition of Right (1628)

English Bill of Rights (1689)

Toleration Act (1689)

John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government (1690)

Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws (1748)

United States Documents

Articles, Laws, and Orders of Virginia (1610)

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639)

Massachusetts Body of Liberties (1641)

Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges (1701),

John Woolman, Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes (1754)

John Adams, Braintree Resolves (1765)

Common Sense (1776)

Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)

Massachusetts Constitution and Declaration of Rights (1780)

Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786)

Northwest Ordinance (1787)

Anti-Federalist Papers: Brutus No. 1 (1787)

The Federal Farmer, Letter III (1787)

The Federalist Nos. 9 (Alexander Hamilton), 39 (James Madison), and 78 (Alexander Hamilton) (1787-88)

Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1791)

Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address (1801)

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume I (1835) and Volume II (1839)

Abraham Lincoln, “Speech on the Dred Scott Decision” (1857)

Abraham Lincoln, “House Divided” speech (1858)

Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address (1865)

Niagara Movement Declaration of Principles (1905)

Theodore Roosevelt, “The Man with the Muck-rake,” speech (1906)

Woodrow Wilson, “Peace Without Victory,” speech (1917)

Schenck v. United States (1919)

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ dissenting opinion in the case of Abrams v. United States (1919)

Herbert Hoover, Rugged Individualism (1928)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address (1933)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “Four Freedoms” speech (1941

Justice Robert M. Jackson’s opinion for the Supreme Court in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)

Learned Hand, The Spirit of Liberty (1944)

The Truman Doctrine (1947)

George Kennan, “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” (1947)

John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address (1961)

Ronald Reagan, Berlin Wall Speech (1987)

Ronald Reagan, Speech at Moscow State University (1988)

George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Address (2005)

District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022)

Appendix 4: Suggested Outline, Geography & History of the World Outline

Geography & History of the World should instruct students in, at a minimum,

  1. the historical development of geographic tools, including medieval charts, Mercator projections, atlases, sextants, land surveying tools, computers, and satellites;
  2. the different purposes and uses of reference maps, thematic maps, and map projections;
  3. the distinctive characteristics of the geography of the following regions:
    1. United States and Canada;
    2. Latin America;
    3. Sub-Saharan Africa;
    4. Southwest Asia and North Africa;
    5. Central and South Asia;
    6. Southeast Asia and Oceania;
    7. East Asia;
    8. Russia and the Transcaucasian Republics; and
    9. Europe;
  4. locational knowledge of each of the nine regions mentioned in (3), including major political features, major geographic features, and major climatic characteristics;
  5. political and military geography knowledge from 3000 BC to 2000 AD of each of the nine regions mentioned in (3), including major civilizations, empires, and historical developments and the effects of physical geography on their historical dynamics;
  6. economic geography knowledge from 3000 BC to 2000 AD of each of the nine regions mentioned in (3), including the history of economic development, natural resources, major historical communication and trade routes, environmental modifications, and contemporary economic and demographic characteristics; and
  7. civilizational geography knowledge from 3000 BC to 2000 AD of each of the nine regions mentioned in (3), including the historical spread of civilizations, religions, languages, technological innovations, intellectual and artistic traditions, and major architectural sites and the effects of physical geography on these historical dynamics.

1 American Birthright: The Civics Alliance’s Model K-12 Social Studies Standards, Civics Alliance, https://civicsalliance.org/american-birthright/.

2 Indiana’s 2026 and 2023 Standards are 35 individual PDFs located at Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://www.in.gov/doe/students/indiana-academic-standards/social-studies/.

3 Letter: Comments on Indiana Social Studies Standards, Civics Alliance, March 29, 2022, https://civicsalliance.org/letter-comments-on-indiana-social-studies-standards/.

4 Florida’s State Academic Standards Social Studies 2025, Florida Department of Education, https://www.fldoe.org/file/20885/7-3.pdf; 2022 K-12 Louisiana Student Standards for Social Studies, Louisiana Student Standards Social Studies, Louisiana Department of Education, https://doe.louisiana.gov/docs/default-source/academic-curriculum/k-12-louisiana-student-standards-for-social-studies.pdf?sfvrsn=df396518_2; Oklahoma Academic Standards Social Studies, Oklahoma State Department of Education, https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/osde/documents/services/standards-learning/social-studies/Final%202025%20SS%20OAS.pdf; South Dakota Social Studies Standards, South Dakota Department of Education, https://doe.sd.gov/contentstandards/documents/SS-Standards-2023.pdf; 2023 History and Social Science Standards of Learning, Virginia Department of Education, https://www.doe.virginia.gov/teaching-learning-assessment/k-12-standards-instruction/history-and-social-science/standards-of-learning-1276.

5 College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards, National Council for the Social Studies, https://www.socialstudies.org/standards/c3.

6 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Kindergarten, p. 3: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NA4K5eCqsjNd8f0fK4TBBTU6ywp7rhpv/view. Identical language appears in each of the 2026 Indiana social studies standards.

7 David Randall, Issue Brief: The C3 Framework, National Association of Scholars, https://www.nas.org/blogs/article/issue-brief-the-c3-framework Stanley Kurtz, “Consensus by Surrender,” National Review, June 10, 2021, https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/consensus-by-surrender/.

8 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Grade 7, p. 4 [7.H.9]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://media.doe.in.gov/standards/indiana-academic-standards-grade-7-social-studies.pdf.

9 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Grade 7, p. 5 [7.H.9]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E1qZRdSF3rcBdhVo9ucpfbTZ4AcDjNg6/view.

10 Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://www.in.gov/doe/students/indiana-academic-standards/social-studies/, passim. We believe we saw no remaining Examples in the 2026 Standards, although some stray Examples may have survived IDOE’s cull.

11 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Grade 5, p. 5 [5.H.11]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://www.in.gov/doe/files/Indiana-Academic-Standards-Grade-5-Social-Studies.pdf.

12 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Grade 5, p. 5 [5.H.10]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PpWCSOA5xfmxhudKUmlluBepH0WiMjot/view.

13 2023 Standards: Grade 7, p. 4 [7.H.2].

14 2026 Standards: Grade 7, p. 5 [7.H.2].

15 David Randall, Disowned Yankees: How Connecticut’s Social Studies Standards Shortchange Students (National Association of Scholars, 2024), https://www.nas.org/reports/disowned-yankees; David Randall, Taken for a RIDE: How Rhode Island’s Social Studies Standards Shortchange Students (National Association of Scholars, 2023), https://www.nas.org/reports/taken-for-a-ride; Wilfred M. McClay, National Expert: Minnesota’s Academic Standards Among the Nation’s Worst: Review of the 2021 Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards in Social Studies, Draft Three (American Experiment, 2022), https://files.americanexperiment.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Among-The-Nations-Worst.pdf.

16 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Grade 1, p. 4 [7.H.2]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://media.doe.in.gov/standards/indiana-academic-standards-grade-1-social-studies.pdf; 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Grade 1, p. 5 [1.H.2]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FjeSpAsjRXCC8XpybjpejIhWDJThCJz4/view; 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Grade 4, p. 7 [4.E.5-7]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://www.in.gov/doe/files/Indiana-Academic-Standards-Grade-4-Social-Studies.pdf; 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Grade 4, p. 7 [Deleted]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LvSKJC1tp59fliH13SDqPgVsX4EQC9y_/view; 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Grade 6, pp. 4, 7 [6.H.3, 6.E.5]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://www.in.gov/doe/files/Indiana-Academic-Standards-Grade-6-Social-Studies_.pdf; 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Grade 6, pp. 5, 7 [Deleted]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://www.in.gov/doe/files/2026-Indiana-Academic-Standards-Grade-6-Social-Studies.pdf; 2023 Standards: Grade 7, p. 6 [7.E.2]; 2026 Standards: Grade 7, p. 7 [Deleted]; 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Grade 8, p. 7 [8.E.4, 8.E.6]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://media.doe.in.gov/standards/indiana-academic-standards-grade-8-social-studies.pdf; 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Grade 8, p. 8 [Deleted]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://www.in.gov/doe/files/2026-Indiana-Academic-Standards-Grade-8-Social-Studies_a.pdf; 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Economics, p. 5 [E.5.2]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://media.doe.in.gov/standards/indiana-academic-standards-economics.pdf; 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Economics, p.  [Deleted]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://www.in.gov/doe/files/2026-Indiana-Academic-Standards-Economics.pdf; 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Geography & History of the World, p. 7 [GHW.8.3]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://media.doe.in.gov/standards/indiana-academic-standards-geography-and-history-of-the-world.pdf; 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Geography & History of the World, p. 7 [Deleted]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sf2ZhfVWEE9eQ7D4QSWqtnCs3zoCSHgq/view; 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: U.S. History, p. 5 [USH.4.3]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://www.in.gov/doe/files/Indiana-Academic-Standards-U.S.-History.pdf; 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: U.S. History, p. 6 [Deleted]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jS_6dWJJEp-ly9orMqLbgfmz6sIEWLz3/view.

17 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Kindergarten, p. 5 [K.G.2]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://media.doe.in.gov/standards/indiana-academic-standards-kindergarten-social-studies.pdf; 2026 Standards: Kindergarten, p. 6 [K.G.4]; 2023 Standards: Grade 5, p. 7 [5.G.1]; 2026 Standards: Grade 5, p. 8 [5.G.1]; 2023 Standards: Grade 6, p. 5 [6.H.12]; 2026 Standards: Grade 6, p. 5 [6.H.11]; 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: U.S. History, p. 4 [USH.1.1]; 2026 Standards: U.S. History, p. 5 [USH.1.1].

18 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: United States Government, p. 4 [USG.2.4, USG2.5]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://www.in.gov/doe/files/Indiana-Academic-Standards-U.S.-Government.pdf; 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: United States Government, p. 6 [USG.2.4, USG2.5]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vwLgMsd5ZC7_9489yPh66wZ7t4O_ck9k/view

19 E.g., Mimi Eisen, ““Founding” Documents We Don’t Learn About,” Zinn Education Project, 2025, https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/founding-docs-we-dont-learn-about/.

20 2026 Standards: United States Government, p. 6 [USG2.5].

21 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Sociology, p. 9 [S.9.6]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://www.in.gov/doe/files/2026-Indiana-Academic-Standards-Sociology.pdf.

22 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: World Geography, p. 8 [WG.5.6]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://drive.google.com/file/d/17eZ6K5IiOJBxYiSLULBe8HTY4W7IKkvZ/view.

23 2023 Standards:  Grade 5, p. 7 [5.G.3]; 2026 Standards: Grade 5, p. 7 [5.G.3].

24 2023 Standards: United States Government, p. 5 [USG.3.9]; 2026 Standards: United States Government, p. 6 [Deleted]; 2023 Standards: United States History, p. 4 [USH.2.6]; 2026 Standards: United States History, p. 5 [Deleted].

25 2023 Standards: Grade 7, p. 6 [7.G.8]; 2026 Standards: Grade 7, p. 7 [7.G.8].

26 2023 Standards: Grade 7, p. 5 [7.H.10]; 2026 Standards: Grade 7, p. 5 [7.H.10].

27 2023 Standards: Grade 7, pp. 5-6 [7.G.1]; 2026 Standards: Grade 7, p. 6 [7.G.1].

28 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: World History and Civilization: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://www.in.gov/doe/files/2026-Indiana-Academic-Standards-World-History-and-Civilization.pdf.

29 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Global Economics: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cc5knF3IUxSrHWCh8OjBImMMacRC4nqA/view.

30 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Indiana Studies: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DleVxqlfkztUgDvAD9x7QGy8mLvTnnuq/view.

31 2026 Standards: Geography & History of the World; 2026 Standards: World Geography.

32 2023 Standards: Grade 7, p. 5 [7.H.12].

33 2026 Standards: Grade 7, p. 6 [7.H.12].

34 IN Code § 20-19-2-14.7 (2025), Justia, https://law.justia.com/codes/indiana/title-20/article-19/chapter-2/section-20-19-2-14-7/.

35 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Civics: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://www.in.gov/doe/files/Indiana-Academic-Standards-Grade-6-Middle-School-Civics.pdf; 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Civics: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JGNn6EYUBDO-4-ho3u3Odyl-n6svrMhS/view. For the deleted examples, see 2023 Standards: Civics, pp. 4-5; 2026 Standards: Civics, pp. 5-6.

36 American Birthright Taskforce Act, Civics Alliance, https://civicsalliance.org/american–taskforce-act/.

37 Comment on the NCSS’s New “Social Studies” Definition, Civics Alliance, https://civicsalliance.org/comment-on-the-ncsss-new-social-studies-definition/.

38 Randall, Issue Brief: The C3 Framework; Kurtz, “Consensus by Surrender.”

39 American Birthright, pp. 22-23. “Liberty” should be defined as: “The slow development and application of the ideals and institutions of liberty, particularly those embodied in constitutional self-government. Students generally should be able to identify the ideals, institutions, and individual examples of human liberty, individualism, religious freedom, and republican self-government; assess the extent to which civilizations have fulfilled these ideals; and describe how the evolution of these ideals at different times and in different places has contributed to the formation of modern American ideals.”

40 KRS 158.196, https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=53057. 

41 Indiana Academic Standards for Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, August 3, 2001, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED463991.pdf.

42 American Birthright: The Civics Alliance’s Model K-12 Social Studies Standards, p. 18, https://civicsalliance.org/american-birthright/; Louisiana Student Standards Social Studies, Louisiana Department of Education, https://www.louisianabelieves.com/docs/default-source/academic-standards/02-08-2022—draft-louisiana-social-studies-standards.pdf?sfvrsn=52de6518_14; Oklahoma Academic Standards Social Studies, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/fox23.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/9b/c9b26f13-94af-475b-9c8b-e37a2551d7a0/680aad526bfd6.pdf.pdf; South Dakota Social Studies Standards, South Dakota Department of Education, https://doe.sd.gov/contentstandards/documents/SS-Standards-2023.pdf; 2023 History and Social Science Standards of Learning, Virginia Department of Education, https://www.doe.virginia.gov/teaching-learning-assessment/k-12-standards-instruction/history-and-social-science/standards-of-learning-1276.

43 2023 Standards:  Kindergarten, p. 4 [K.H.2].

44 2026 Standards: Kindergarten, p. 5 [K.H.2].

45 2023 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Grade 3, p. 4 [3.H.4]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://www.in.gov/doe/files/Indiana-Academic-Standards-Grade-3-Social-Studies.pdf.

46 2026 Indiana Academic Standards: Social Studies: Grade 3, p. 5 [3.H.4]: Social Studies, Indiana Department of Education, https://www.in.gov/doe/files/2026-Indiana-Academic-Standards-Grade-3-Social-Studies.pdf.

47 2023 Standards: Grade 5, p. 4 [5.H.2].

48 2026 Standards: Grade 5, p. 5 [5.H.2].

49 2023 Standards: Grade 7, p. 4 [7.H.8].

50 2026 Standards: Grade 7, p. 5 [7.H.8].

51 2023 Standards: Geography & History of the World, p. 4 [GHW.2.2].

52 2026 Standards: Geography & History of the World, p. 5 [GHW.2.2].

Photo by Steven Van Elk on Unsplash