Education

Incremental improvement isn’t enough: Oklahoma’s draft standards fall short

February 6, 2026

David Randall, Ph.D.

The National Association of Scholars (NAS) and the Civics Alliance deeply regret the lost opportunity for reform in Oklahoma’s just-released 2026 Draft Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies. Oklahoma had the chance to adopt thoroughly reformed social studies standards—and has instead chosen a far more cautious reform. 

We fear that cautious reform will not be enough to reform Oklahoma social studies instruction. In 2024, just 41 percent of Oklahoma high school students got proficient or advanced scores in U.S. history. Cautious reform might raise Oklahoma proficiency to 42% or 43%—but Oklahoma should aim for 100% proficiency.

The 2026 Draft Standards provide the minimum amount of reform to distinguish them from the Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies (2019). The 2026 Draft Standards at least build upon the more content-rich structure of the Draft Social Studies Standards (December 2024), rather than returning to the 2019 Standards, and this is a real gain. But while the 2026 Draft Standards provide substantially more content knowledge than did the 2019 standards, they have restored the radicalizing and counterproductive ideological framework of the 2019 standards. 

The 2026 Draft Standards also have removed virtually all content in the Draft Social Studies Standards (December 2024) that would give students reason to question the ideological predilections of the liberal-to-radical education establishment. Oklahoma’s 2026 Draft Standards are better than the 2019 Standards—but they are also a lost opportunity for Oklahoma to provide thoroughgoing reform to its social studies standards.

We understand that political circumstances have led to a point where no better social studies reform may be possible at the present moment. The 2024 Draft Standards, significantly informed by American Birthright: The Civics Alliance’s Model K-12 State Standards and History of Communism: Model State Academic Standards for Social Studies (jointly created by the Civics Alliance and NAS), were themselves already a compromise between a stronger vision for social studies reform and the radicalizing predilections of the Oklahoma education establishment. That compromise, however, included substantial elements of positive reform. 

Unfortunately, there were procedural irregularities in the revision process between the 2024 Draft Standards and the promulgation of the 2025 Standards, including the last-minute introduction of controversial new content. These irregularities led an Oklahoma court to suspend the new standards altogether.

Lindel Fields, Oklahoma’s new State Superintendent, decided that the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) would “restart the process of reviewing the social studies standards, obtaining public input, and presenting a draft to the Oklahoma State Board of Education and the state Legislature for approval.” We urged that the new social studies standard should build on the 2024 Standards rather than the 2019 Standards—and this has been done. 

But the Oklahoma education establishment has taken advantage of the new revision process to remove much of what was good in the 2024 Draft Standards. It may not be possible to do better at present, given the unease aroused in many Oklahomans by the procedural irregularities that attended the promulgation of the 2025 Standards. But the 2026 Standards do sacrifice many of the gains of the 2024 Standards.

Some of the more important changes imposed by the Oklahoma education establishment on the 2026 Draft Standards include:

• Reintroduced “Practice Standards.” The 2026 Standards reintroduce the counterproductive “skills” standards associated with “inquiry-based education,” action civics, and the radicalized social studies model of the National Council for the Social Studies’ College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. These should be removed from each individual standard, as should the entire Appendix: Social Studies Practices (pp. 143-51). Oklahoma would do well to replace all these “Practice Standards” with the elegant one-page summary of needed social studies skills in Louisiana’s 2022 Social Studies Standards (p. 6).
• Deleted Electives. The 2026 Standards delete the electives in Ancient and Medieval World History and History of 20th Century Totalitarianism. The material covered in these two electives ought to be required rather than elective, since it strengthens knowledge of Western Civilization and American history, and strengthens coverage of the histories and the nature of America’s ideals and institutions of liberty, faith, civic virtue, and self-government—as well as of the challenges posed to these ideals and institutions by tyrannies such as Nazism and Communism. But even if only electives, the 2024 Draft Standards gave Oklahoma’s students a chance to learn core elements of our history. These electives should be restored.
• Removed Material. OSDE removed material throughout the 2026 Draft Standards that challenged or complicated the radicalizing preferences of the education establishment. Some examples:
  • Removed from Grade One:
    • 1.C.1.6 Explain patriotic traditions that unite citizens.
      • A. Explain the purpose and meaning of The Pledge of Allegiance and the significance of the phrase “under God.”
      • B. Explain the purpose and the meaning of the Salute to the Oklahoma Flag. [This was retained.]
      • C. Describe appropriate flag etiquette for both the national and state flags.
      • D. Explain appropriate ways to show respect during the playing of the national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” by Francis Scott Key.
      • E. Examine ways citizens can demonstrate patriotism, including military service, honoring veteran cemeteries, and celebrating Independence Day.
      • F. Explain how we celebrate our nation and its history through patriotic songs (e.g., “My Country, ‘tis of Thee,” “God Bless America”).
  • Removed from Grade Seven:
    • 7.C.6.2 Trace the historic roots of representative democracy.
      • A. Explain why the government of ancient Athens is considered the beginning of democratic government and examine Greek political concepts, including the “polis” or city-state, rule of law, liberty, civic participation and voting rights, legislative bodies, and written Constitutions.
      • B. Describe the government of the Roman Republic and its contribution to the development of representative self-government, including separation of powers, liberty, the rule of law, and the concept of civic duty.
      • C. Describe influences of early English tradition related to the principles of limited government and individual rights, such as found in the Magna Carta and established by the English Bill of Rights.
  • Removed from 9-12 United States History:
    • USH.C.4.1 Examine the economic, political, social, and cultural transformations between the World Wars.
      • B. Describe the transition from wartime to peace under the Harding Administration, including the demobilization of drafted soldiers, federal budget cuts, and amnesty for political prisoners.
      • C. Examine the presidency of President Calvin Coolidge and his philosophy of limited government, debates over immigration policy, including the impact of the Immigration Act of 1924, which established national quotas related to origin.

We could multiply examples. But the 2026 Oklahoma Standards reflect the education establishment’s studied lack of interest in patriotism, the historic roots of the American republic, or any notable achievements by conservatives or Republicans.

NAS and the Civics Alliance would strongly prefer that Oklahoma adopt the 2024 Draft Standards—which were, after all, approved in regular form. We endorsed the 2024 Draft Standards before, and we would do so again. We acknowledge that the 2026 Draft Standards, as they now stand, are a substantial improvement over the 2019 Standards: they significantly improve Oklahoma’s social studies content-knowledge focus, even if they remain marred by politicized omissions and distortions and by commitments to counterproductive education-school pedagogy. But Oklahomans should not be satisfied with the 2026 Draft Standards: they retain far too much of the pedagogical models that have served Oklahomans badly.

Now or in the next round of revision, Oklahomans should urge the Superintendent not simply to entrust the social studies standards revision process to the same OSDE administrators who produced the insufficient 2019 Standards and who have minimized the reform elements in the 2026 Draft Standards. As recent events in Iowa demonstrate, establishment administrators are not temperamentally suited to produce reformed social studies standards. The Superintendent should appoint an independent committee to ensure that the principles and substance of comprehensive social studies reform become the basis for Oklahoma’s social studies standards.

If Oklahoma does approve the 2026 Draft Standards as they now stand, they should inspire Oklahomans to work to improve their state’s social studies standards during the next round of revision. What is now a lost opportunity may yet be the basis for comprehensive social studies reform. The 2026 Draft Standards at least provide a significantly improved amount of content knowledge. Oklahomans can build upon this improvement to work for truly reformed, truly excellent social studies standards.