Hi Jacob! Here is an answer from Jerry Price at OSPI, hope this is helpful  He also asked that I share his contact info, so please feel free to follow up if you have further questions or comments: Jerry.Price@k12.wa.us

Thanks for the question. The Social Studies Cadre of Educators was deliberate about this shift in their recommendations that stems from two factors:

1. The difficulty districts had in adopting and maintaining two distinct sets of curriculum and materials for one grade, as well as the incongruity of the two areas in Social Studies. 

2. The new WA state requirement to teach local Tribal history. As a way of supporting this legislation we wanted to provide space for teaching local Tribal history as part of regular practice for Washington State History. Because most districts teach WA State history in middle school, expanding the course to a full year to pull in additional time and resources for teaching STI Curriculum alongside more traditional WA State topics made sense.

I am with you that that amount of time is unreasonable for the amount of content being covered. As discussed at the session, we hope educators and districts will make choices that allow for fewer, more targeted, deep dives into inquiry opportunities that connect multiple histories/causal factors/etc.