Advocating for the adoption of National Standards in your state: A success story

I began teaching late last century in metro Birmingham, Alabama, just as the drive for standards in education was hitting full speed. APA had just finished drafting the first version of the National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula, and it was the first time that high school psychology teachers had an organized, cutting-edge, and scientific guide to teaching the course. I was thrilled. When I began teaching, I was fortunate enough to take over from a veteran teacher who had taught the course for more than 20 years, Tommy Norton. Thanks to him, I inherited a legacy of teaching scientific psychology to high school students. But, I knew that others in my state did not have that advantage.

I attended the Northern Kentucky University/National Science Foundation Summer Institute for the Teaching of High School Psychology in 1997, and there I met several outstanding high school teachers, including institute coleader Charlie Blair-Broeker and small group leaders such as Carol Dean, Michael Sullivan, and Rob McEntarffer. Charlie had served on the committee that wrote the National Standards, and he encouraged those of us in attendance to work to get them adopted by our districts or states. I knew my district would be easy. I was the only psychology teacher in the district, and my administrators trusted me as a professional. But getting the state of Alabama to adopt them would be another story. I knew there were no standards for teaching psychology in Alabama. As a preservice teacher earning psychology certification, I was tasked with finding the state or national standards for a class, and of course, I had only found the work of APA. I realized that I didn’t even know how to get standards adopted in Alabama, so I started researching using a new-fangled tool called the World Wide Web.

I began by searching key words like “standards,” “Alabama,” and “education” (I think my choices of browsers were Internet Explorer 3.0 or Netscape). I eventually found the Code of Alabama, which are the laws that regulate everything from whether you can carry ice cream in your pocket on Sunday to how education is run in the state. Reading through this vastly boring document, I discovered there was a legally mandated process for adopting standards, or what we call in Alabama, “courses of study.” Each year, a different discipline gets to seat a course of study committee made up of educators and laypeople appointed by the governor to write and/or update the minimum standards teachers have to follow when teaching any course. Most of the courses of study focused on required courses for graduation, but there were a few electives in the mix that had standards. Once I learned of this process, I searched the Alabama State Department of Education website and found the name of the person in charge of the course of study committees. And then, I called her.

To my surprise, I got her on the phone. I asked her what I would need to do to advocate with the committee about getting psychology standards in the science course of study. Her response was interesting. She first said something like, “I’m not sure we teach psychology in high school,” and then, “If we do, it’s not a science.” She also said, “Are you sure you want standards? If you have them, you will be held accountable to them.” Of course, she was talking to someone teaching psychology in an Alabama high school, and I explained how psychology uses scientific methodology just like biology and chemistry. I also explained how important it was that teachers across the state taught scientific psychology and not “pop” psychology. She listened a bit, and then said, “Well, the methods may be scientific, but the content isn’t.” And before I could protest, she said, “But that doesn’t matter, let me just tell you how the process works.”

She explained that my two choices were to get appointed to the social studies course of study committee or work with someone who was appointed to bring the issue up. She made sure I knew this was my best option at the time. Since I wrote for a textbook at the time, I could not serve on the committee, but fortunately one of my Alabama colleagues, Scarlett Gaddy, was appointed, and I approached her about bringing up the addition of psychology standards. Scarlett was a rock star, and the committee was welcoming to the idea. I made sure Scarlett had APA’s National Standards on hand, and we collaborated on writing the first draft for the committee. To our joy, it was adopted, and finally, Alabama high school teachers had state standards to work with as they planned their courses.

A few years later, the Alabama social studies courses of study were up for revision, and again I could not serve on the committee due to my work on a textbook. However, by this time, I had met so many wonderful educators across the state by presenting at our state social studies conferences. I had also met the person in charge of social studies at the state department, Dr. Nettie Carsen-Mullens. By this time, the APA had done a revision of the National Standards, so the timing was perfect to update Alabama’s course of study for psychology. Dr. Carsen-Mullens reached out to me and asked if I could provide a draft of what the committee should consider for the revision. She needed APA’s standards translated into Alabama’s format, and she hoped I could help her with that work. So, I got to work and provided her a draft of what the committee could consider. Again, the revisions were adopted, and to this day, Alabama is one of only three states with state standards that directly align with APA’s National Standards. I am so proud to have been a part of that effort.

This type of work is not always an easy road, as bureaucracies in government or state departments and stereotypes about psychology can slow down or stall the work. Sometimes, the processes for doing this work are not clear or can seem cumbersome or outdated. I believe the keys to success in getting your state to adopt standards can be summed up like this:

• Make your goals clear and simple: You want the state to adopt standards based on APA’s National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula. Don’t get bogged down in credit policies or certification, just get the standards adopted. Other issues can be addressed later.
• Focus on the process instead of the politics: Even if the initial answer is “it can’t be done” or “not now,” make sure you know what the processes are and follow them.
• Build relationships: Meet key people in the decision-making process. Go to your local or state conferences and present about psychology. Use those forums to educate people about what psychology is—and what it is not. Building trust will make you the go-to person when the time is right.
• Never, never, never give up (using my best Winston Churchill voice)

And, remember that you are not alone. The staff at APA and other teachers in your state or area would love to come alongside you and do this work. The more these standards are adopted by states, the more psychology becomes part of the conversation about what students should learn in high school. The value of learning psychology early and often cannot be overstated, and I hope you will join us as we work to make sure every student takes a scientific, engaging, and comprehensive high school psychology course before they graduate.

Advocacy tips for teachers for communicating or meeting with state-level contacts

From the APA Advocacy Office:

• You will be more successful if you prepare content in advance and tailor your communication to your audience: Research the officials you will be meeting so you can put yourself in their shoes. What goals do they want to accomplish? What values do they hold? How does your request line up with that?
• Practice different ways of explaining why your request is important: Find the balance of facts, anecdotes, and general explanations that work best for you.
• What happens before and after an interaction with an official is as important as what happens during your time with them: After you have made your pitch, open the dialogue. Ask policymakers if they have any questions. Conclude with offers to help if they have other psychology issues they want to talk to you about.
• Don’t be frustrated if the conversation or change you are seeking is slow to come: Advocacy is a series of steps, rather than one single, big action. You will need to follow up and keep elevating your request so that it stands out among the many competing demands officials receive. Familiarity builds trust, which in turn builds influence.
• It’s okay to say you don’t know and ask for help from others: If you receive questions you do not know how to answer, officials completely understand if you don’t know. They will trust you more if you say that than if you make guesses that could be inaccurate. Organizations such as APA/APA Services are here to help. We can help you answer policy questions, find data, and connect you to other advocates.

Amy C. Fineburg (she/her) is the director of AP psychology for College Board. She earned her PhD in educational psychology from the University of Alabama, researching teacher explanatory style. She started her career last century as a high school psychology teacher in Birmingham, Alabama (originally land of the Muskogee Creek Nation). She taught for 14 years before spending 10 years as an administrator, where she advocated for teachers of all subjects to use psychology in teaching and learning. She served as president of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (APA Division 2) in 2020. She has been a part of several major projects and events where she has advocated for high-quality psychology instruction and training, including chairing the 2011 National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula revision committee and co-chairing the 2017 APA National Summit for High School Psychology Education. She has written teaching resources packages for AP and on-level psychology textbooks. She is a 2019 alumnae of APA’s Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology (LIWP), and she serves on its Advisory Committee and as chair of the LIWP Professional Development Committee. She lives in Birmingham with her husband, Lee Meadows, and she is mom to two sons, stepmother to two sons, and grandmother to two grandsons.