The State Board of Education on Thursday launched a public review website to gather feedback on Tennessee’s newly revised K-12 social studies standards.

This is the first time the social studies standards, recently revised by Tennessee educators, will be available for public review, though it is the second public review in the revision process.

The teaching of world religions became an issue for some last year after objections were raised to lessons about Islam.

All Tennesseans are invited to review each social studies standard by grade level and provide comments, as well as any suggestions for changes, through Oct. 28, 2016.

“The public’s earlier online review of the current standards was very successful and paved the way for our educator advisory teams to make significant changes,” said Dr. Sara Heyburn, Executive Director of the Tennessee State Board of Education. “We hope all Tennesseans, especially teachers and parents, will now review the revised social studies standards and give even more feedback.”

The K-12 social studies standards set grade-specific goals that describe what students are expected to know and be able to do by the end of a given grade or course.

The initial social studies standards review website was made available for public comment last winter.

The website drew more than 63,000 public reviews from more than 1,400 reviewers. The data were shared word-for-word with the educator advisory teams during the summer to directly inform their review and revision work.

Once the public provides a second round of feedback, the Standards Recommendation Committee (SRC), appointed by the Governor, Lt. Governor, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, will review and suggest additional changes. The SRC will meet several times this fall and propose new social studies standards to the State Board of Education on first reading in January 2017.

If approved, the new social studies standards will be implemented in the 2019-20 school year. The 2018-19 school year will serve as a transition and training year for educators on the new standards.

In October 2014, Gov. Haslam introduced a similar process, in partnership with the State Board, for review ofthe Tennessee Academic Standards in English language arts and mathematics. This process was codified by the General Assembly in HB 1035.

For more information, please visit http://tn.gov/sbe/topic/standards-review.