On August 24, 2019, Governor Ralph Northam signed Executive Order Thirty Nine establishing the Commission on African American History Education. The Governor charged the group with reviewing Virginia’s history standards, and the instructional practices, content, and resources currently used to teach African American history in the Commonwealth; and with examining and make recommendations on the professional development supports needed to equip all teachers for culturally competent instruction.

Members of the AAHEC met on a monthly basis at various locations throughout the Commonwealth. Meetings after March 2020 were postponed and held virtually.

Although we had a collective desire to be inclusive beyond the scope of our charge, our stated mission was to enable all Virginia students and educators to develop a comprehensive understanding of the African American voices that contribute to Virginia’s story.

Links to our final deliverables should be stored on the AAHEC’s official website at https://www.education.virginia.gov/initiatives/aahec/

Unfortunately, multiple links—including the link to our final report and original executive order document—appear to be broken.

The Youngkin administration has claimed “significant errors” in the form of omitted content as the reason for restarting the SOL history standards drafting process.

You can access and review the redline edits made by the AAHEC to the current 2015 SOL curriculum here.