Exploring the Commonalities Between State Social Studies Standards, Curriculum, and High-Quality Instructional Materials
Legislative policies, pedagogical shifts, and approaches to implementing guiding frameworks inform and impact the social studies standards development processes around the country. The various influences have led to challenges in national alignment or coordination of content and rigor for what students should know and be able to do in social studies. To explore supports and needs for the alignment of social studies education, AIR created a commonalities database that compiles the content and structure of every social studies standard across all 50 states and the District of Columbia to assess and identify regional and national themes.
On April 15, 2025, AIR hosted a panel discussion with leading experts in civics, economics, geography, and history and state representatives from Alabama, Alaska, Oregon, and Rhode Island to unpack the commonalities database and trends in the preliminary data. Expert panelists reacted to the trends for their discipline across state standards and implications for the field. State representatives reflected on the conversation to consider the value of this data for informing social studies education, discussions around HQIM, and future work.
Watch the recording on the social studies standards commonalities database to learn more about its purpose and functionality. Contact the session moderators Peter Mabli and/or Beth Ratway for more information on the database.
