By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
The Kentucky Local Superintendents Advisory Council approved changes this week to the Kentucky Academic Standards for Social Studies, which now includes a list of fundamental documents and speeches into middle and high school standards, required under new state law.
Documents that must be taught under legislation approved by the General Assembly this year include:
• The Mayflower Compact
• The Declaration of Independence
• The Constitution of the United States
• The Federalist No. 1 (Alexander Hamilton)
• The Federalist Nos. 10 and 51 (James Madison)
• The June 8, 1789, speech on amendments to the Constitution of the United States by James Madison
• The first 10 amendments to the Constitution of the United States, also known as the Bill of Rights
• The 1796 Farewell Address by George Washington
• The 1803 U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Marbury v. Madison
• The Monroe Doctrine by James Monroe
• What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? speech by Frederick Douglass
• The 1857 U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford
• Final Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln
• The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
• Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States by Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• The Sept. 18, 1895, Atlanta Exposition Address by Booker T. Washington
• Of Booker T. Washington and Others by W.E.B. DuBois
• The 1896 U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson
• The Aug. 31, 1910, New Nationalism speech by Theodore Roosevelt
• The 1954 and 1955 U.S. Supreme Court opinions in Brown v. Board of Education
• A letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.
• The Aug. 28, 1963, I Have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King Jr.
• A Time for Choosing by Ronald Reagan
The legislation does not prohibit districts from including other documents as part of the local social studies curriculum. Kentucky Education Commissioner Jason E. Glass stressed the importance of adding other documents to add context.
The regulation will be presented to the Kentucky Board of Education for approval in December and, if approved, will go into effect for the 2023-2024 school year when the regulatory process is complete.
