The course standards documents for required social studies courses have been revised to include the newly adopted standards and are available on the Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE) Course Standards webpage.

Course standards documents were created in 2017 to ensure Kentucky schools provide equitable opportunity and access to research-based student experiences that impact student success. Course standards documents align core academic course codes to Kentucky Academic Standards. The standards aligned to the academic course codes cannot be changed. The alignment serves as a guarantee that students across the Commonwealth have equitable access to Kentucky Academic Standards.

After undergoing a rigorous revision process that began in January 2018, revised standards for social studies became law on July 5. The newly adopted standards will be implemented in Kentucky classrooms beginning in the 2019-2020 school year and may be accessed at kystandards.org. A “Getting to Know Your KAS for Social Studies” module also is available at kystandards.org to support educators in the implementation of the new social studies standards.

Senate Bill 1 (2017) calls for the KDE to implement a process for reviewing all academic standards and aligned assessments beginning in the 2017-2018 school year. For more information on the standards revision process, visit the Kentucky Academic Standards Revision Process webpage.