Bear Flag Day and California’s history blind spot
June 14 is Bear Flag Day, the anniversary of the 1846 revolt that helped set California on the path to statehood. But how many California students could explain what the Bear Flag Republic was, why it mattered, or how California became a state?
The truth is, we have no idea.
California schools are expected to teach history according to the state’s history-social science content standards. Yet California has no reliable way to determine whether students are actually learning what they should.
Why not? Because in 2013, California eliminated statewide testing in history and social studies when it replaced the STAR testing program with the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, or CAASPP. The change was made to align with Common Core.
Today, CAASPP includes assessments in reading, math and science, but not history or social science. As a result, California has no reliable way to measure whether students are mastering the history standards.
The Bear Flag Revolt is more than a colorful footnote in California history. In the Spring of 1846, the Mexican-American War was breaking out, and California was a territory owned by Mexico. On June 14th, a group of American settlers captured Sonoma — at the time a settlement and military garrison — declaring California an independent Republic. They raised a homemade flag featuring a bear and a red star that flew until July 9th, when San Francisco and Sonoma were captured by U.S. forces, effectively bringing California under U.S. authority.
It’s a consequential chapter in California history — one that inspired the state flag. California expects students to understand the economic, social, and political developments of the Bear Flag Republic, Mexican-American War, and California’s journey to becoming a state.
The standards also say that seventh grade students should be able to discuss how the principles in the Magna Carta were embodied in the English Bill of Rights and the American Declaration of Independence. Eleventh grade students should understand the ideological origins of the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers’ philosophy of divinely bestowed unalienable natural rights, the debates on the drafting and ratification of the Constitution, and the addition of the Bill of Rights.
These aren’t obscure historical trivia questions. They are the foundational ideas of liberty, self-government and constitutional government that make America unique. Yet as a result of the state’s decision to drop history assessments, we cannot track whether California students are learning these fundamental lessons or how far off course they might be.
I started researching this issue when a parent in Southern California showed me a high school social studies lesson from her child’s public school. The lesson, created by the teacher, was heavily centered on contemporary socio-political issues, none of which appear in California’s history-social science content standards.
That raised an obvious question: if the standards emphasize foundational historical topics, why are some classrooms focused elsewhere?
Part of the answer lies in the fact that California educators are directed by two different sets of state guidance. In addition to the content standards, there is also California’s History-Social Science Framework, which provides lesson examples and teaching guidance rife with left-leaning socio-political themes.
For example, the Framework encourages teachers and students to “investigate the relationship between race, gender, sexuality, social class, and economic and political power,” to “ask how race has been constructed,” and to engage in “[s]tudent-led debate over issues such as climate change.”
Most of this material is not based in good pedagogy; it’s social justice activism. And while the majority of California educators are simply trying to navigate a minefield of competing demands, others have become active participants in advancing their personal political views.
Without meaningful assessments, we can’t know whether students are mastering history or merely absorbing the political agendas that increasingly shape classroom instruction.
So how does California course-correct?
First, the legislature should pass a bill to amend the state’s current standardized testing program, adding history and social studies assessments in elementary, middle and high school that are tightly aligned to the state’s content standards.
Second, the State Board of Education should revise the History-Social Studies Framework to better reflect the state’s content standards, removing biased socio-political content not grounded in those standards.
In the meantime, parents, educators and school board members should take a closer look at what is happening in their history classrooms — and demand schools teach history, not activism.
After all, the goal is not to impose a political viewpoint on students. It is to ensure schools teach the history and civics content California has already decided students should know.
Until California can assess students’ history proficiency, we’ll have no way of knowing whether our schools are succeeding or failing in that mission.
For a deeper dive into this issue, read The Forgotten Subject: California’s Failure to Assess History Education by Sheridan Karras.