Last updated on 2025-11-12
Proposed K-12 curriculum standards for math and health caught flak at their second public hearing yesterday in Sioux Falls, for different reasons.
Expert math educators want South Dakota to stick with the current standards because the proposed standards, borrowed from ideology-obsessed Hillsdale College, are oversimplified:
Sharon Vestal, a math professor at South Dakota State University and president of the South Dakota Council of Teachers of Mathematics, said she was concerned the simplification removes clear language from the current standards, which could lead to new educators not teaching material students should know because it’s not explicitly laid out.
Stephanie Higdon is with the Center for the Advancement of Math and Science Education at Black Hills State University. She worked with the state Department of Education when it surveyed school districts with higher math test scores prior to Graves’ appointment as department secretary. Those “bright spot schools,” she said, taught more closely to the current math standards.
“The current math standards are not broken when teachers believe in their students, believe that they can meet these standards and receive the support to do so,” Higdon said.
Gail Jacobsma, a math teacher at Arlington, said the current standards aren’t perfect, but “are quite good.”
“For schools like mine, which have enviable math scores, they are vital,” Jacobsma said. “They provide a detailed, coherent map for us to follow and help ensure that the instructional materials we purchase are well aligned” [Makenzie Huber, “Math Educators Push State Board to Keep Current Standards in Place,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2025.11.10].
Meanwhile, the health standards, which Hillsdale appears not to have touched, are catching heck for not proposing to educate children about Alzheimer’s and sex trafficking:
Several people representing the South Dakota chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association pressed for language about caregivers to be added to the health standards during the state board’s first hearing in Aberdeen last month. They did so again on Monday morning at the second hearing in Sioux Falls.
Also coming forward on Monday were people representing Call To Freedom South Dakota, a Sioux Falls-based not-for-profit that fights human trafficking and sexual exploitation [Bob Mercer, “Chair Suggests K-12 Health Standards Might Not Pass,” KELO-TV, 2025.11.10].
Sex trafficking is a banner issue for the Christian fundies (except, of course, when their Lord and Savior Donald Trump is implicated). The Noem-nominated Christian conservatives on the Board of Education Standards sound keen on letting Christian-centric Call to Freedom into the standards and the schools to tackle the “epidemic” of sex trafficking, while conservative Education Secretary sounds surprisingly and pragmatically uneager to march with this fundie crusade:
State Education Secretary Joe Graves, speaking for the South Dakota Department of Education that oversees preparation of the revisions, said the department’s stance remains that local decision-making is best. He said South Dakota has 147 public school districts, and the department’s position has been that reading, social studies, science and math are what he called “the biggies” for the standards.
Graves added that, if it were up to him, more awareness about vaping, obesity and social media would top his list for additional health standards.
…But the state board’s vice president, Rich Meyer of Rapid City, said it’s apparent sex trafficking is “an epidemic in our state. Actually, so is Alzheimer’s.” Meyer pointed out that the board has an obligation to provide information on these topics. “I guess I’d like to see that happen,” Meyer said.
…[BOES President Steve] Perkins asked whether the department could at least “tee the issue up” on Alzheimer’s care and human trafficking, similar to what was done with the revised social studies standards when they were approved two years ago. “I’m trying to think of something that will address the problem and still address your concerns,” Perkins told Graves.
Graves responded that the department could build a document of suggested topics but that would take thousands of pages: “The list will be endless.”
Perkins said he’d like to see trafficking reflected in the revised health content standards. Otherwise, Perkins indicated, the department might find difficulty.
“It may be left to local districts, but you’ve got feelings of some members of this board. You may have a little problem getting four votes to get it passed,” Perkins told Graves.…
“We’ve had situations in our own family, and I know of others,” Perkins continued. “That it seemed to others, if it (training) is in the school, it’s not happening anyplace else, and we’ve got kids that literally have their lives destroyed, if not taken, because of this trafficking that’s gone on, and I understand also on the Alzheimer’s [Mercer, 2025.11.10].
The curriculum standards get two more public hearings, in Pierre on February 23 and in Rapid City at a later date to be determined.
Math is one of those things that has been taught for so long I can’t believe there’s even discussion about it.
I guess Alzheimer’s and sex trafficking go together like peanut butter and jelly.
My wife reminded me that there used to be sex education but I’m sure that never took off in South Dakota. I remember our coach who taught biology in Highmore handed out a sex pamphlet one day and left the room. Many of the girls in my class got pregnant and couldn’t attend school. Its the turning point world of ed in action.
Sex ed reduces pregnancies so you can’t have that.
When it comes to the”basics,” three “R’s,” I don’t think most people know how high the standards are — how high-level the skill requirements are of ALL high school students. Even what is being asked of middle and elementary grades is astounding to see on paper and even more astounding to see going on in classrooms.
When schools are labeled “failing,” it would be edifying to see exactly what students are being asked to do.
It would be edifying to see a survey of teachers’ opinions on this, with the scores grouped by the SILT levels of those teachers.
I endorse O’s comment. It’s darkly hilarious to hear most adults bemoan lack of proficiency in students. If they had to take the same tests as the students right now, I’d bet on the students to do better.
I would also add that in this accelerated information age, when computers are being programmed to perform tasks once thought only the fields of humans, an even more soured attitude toward learning has emerged.
Why should I learn that? The computer can do it for me.
For all but the top students, that may well be true. It will certainly be true in the context of the jobs they get out of HS. In fact, I would argue that HS graduates proficient in all HS requirements are FAR over-skilled for the jobs they walk into. Businesses are failing to utilize the skills HS graduates are asked to master — especially in SD.
I will never accept the idea that SD needs to get curriculum standards from out-of-state colleges especially an ideology based school like Hillsdale College.
I suspect the same people who said at Monday’s hearing that it is vital we teach kids about sex trafficking would raise holy hell if their schools offered comprehensive sex education.
The Health Department reported last summer that it reversed the surge in syphilis through a strong education program.