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| Maryland Social Studies Framework | |
|---|---|
| Name | Maryland Social Studies Framework |
| Jurisdiction | Maryland |
| Adopted | 2014 |
| Publisher | Maryland State Department of Education |
| Subject | Social studies |
| Grades | PreK–12 |
Maryland Social Studies Framework
The Maryland Social Studies Framework is a statewide curricular guidance document created to align instruction across Maryland State Department of Education, district, and school levels. It situates grade-level expectations within national and regional contexts such as the Common Core State Standards Initiative, the National Council for the Social Studies, and federal statutes guiding public instruction like the Every Student Succeeds Act. The Framework connects local histories and institutions—ranging from Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland to Fort McHenry and the Chesapeake Bay—with broader narratives involving figures, events, and documents.
The Framework outlines grade-specific expectations for learners, integrating studies of notable individuals and documents such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells, Dolley Madison, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams', and texts like the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Gettysburg Address. It maps local landmarks—Antietam National Battlefield, Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park—to curricular strands, referencing national institutions such as the Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, Smithsonian Institution, National Park Service, and scholarly authorities like the American Historical Association.
Development involved collaboration among state officials, local educators, and advisory groups including representatives from University System of Maryland, Towson University, University of Maryland, College Park, Salisbury University, Morgan State University, and teacher associations like the Maryland State Education Association. Public comment processes echoed inputs from civic organizations such as the Maryland Humanities, AARP, NAACP, and League of Women Voters. The adoption process intersected with legislative and executive actors including the Maryland General Assembly, the Governor of Maryland, and the Maryland State Board of Education. Federal frameworks and prior models—Common Core State Standards Initiative, Next Generation Science Standards—informed alignment efforts.
The Framework is organized by grade band and thematic strands linking regional and national subjects: civics and Citizenship in the United States, economics and Economic History of the United States, geography and Chesapeake Bay watershed, and U.S. history and world history that reference events such as the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, World War I, World War II, the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Vietnam War. It embeds study of landmark legal decisions and statutes like Brown v. Board of Education, Plessy v. Ferguson, Marbury v. Madison, Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Framework also incorporates cultural works and movements linked to individuals such as Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Bob Dylan, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and organizations like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Regional case studies include Dorchester County, Maryland, Mount Vernon, St. Mary’s City, Maryland, and sites connected to the Transatlantic Slave Trade and immigration linked to ports like Baltimore Inner Harbor.
Implementation guidance aligns formative and summative practices with state assessments and accountability tied to the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program. The Framework suggests performance tasks modeled on national exemplars from the College Board, the Educational Testing Service, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress in social studies. Local districts such as Baltimore City Public Schools, Montgomery County Public Schools, Prince George's County Public Schools, Anne Arundel County Public Schools, and Howard County Public School System develop curricula and pacing guides grounded in the Framework. Assessment strategies reference primary sources housed in repositories like the Library of Congress, National Archives, and the Maryland State Archives.
The Maryland State Department of Education partnered with teacher colleges and professional groups including National Council for the Social Studies, Maryland Council for the Social Studies, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Annenberg Foundation programs, and university centers at University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Johns Hopkins University to produce training modules. Resources include primary source sets from the Library of Congress, lesson plans aligned with the Common Core State Standards Initiative and the National Coalition for History, and professional learning communities modeled after initiatives by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
The Framework has prompted debate over scope, sequence, and representation, drawing commentary from civil rights groups like the ACLU, grassroots organizers such as Mothers of the Movement, political actors including members of the Maryland General Assembly, and media outlets in The Baltimore Sun and regional broadcasters. Content disputes have centered on portrayal of figures like Christopher Columbus, treatment of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and inclusion of topics related to LGBTQ rights and Reproductive rights. Revisions have been proposed following legal and policy developments at the federal level and in response to community feedback from bodies like the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights.
Educators, historians, and civic leaders from institutions such as Historic St. Mary's City, Baltimore Museum of Industry, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Maryland Humanities, and university history departments have evaluated the Framework's influence on instruction, civic participation, and student outcomes. Scholarly reviews reference comparative work by organizations like the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Academy of Education. Reception varies across districts—some praise alignment and primary-source emphasis while others call for further curricular diversification and resources to support equitable implementation.