Examining the connections among teacher characteristics, instructional decision-making, and student learning in social studies education are both complicated and contentious. In the current study, we shed light on middle grades social studies teaching and learning--a black hole of research in the subject area. Using data from the National…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress--commonly called "The Nation's Report Card"--tells a dismal story: Only 2% of high school seniors in 2010 could answer a simple question about the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark "Brown v. Board of Education" decision. And it's no surprise. Across the country, state educational…

Examines data collected from the 1981-82 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Compares various groups of extreme rural males, females, Whites, and Blacks regarding achievement in social studies. Concludes that findings from the study should be used to improve weak areas of social studies curricula and recommends skills that should…

Reviews developments in geography education since World War II. Finds reasons for cautious optimism as a result of the development of national standards in core curriculum subjects and earlier efforts by the Geography Education National Implementation Project. (CFR)

This report from the Goal 3 Technical Planning Subgroup focuses on three areas that have been identified as important to improving the citizenship education of students: community service, voter registration of 18- to 20-year-olds, and knowledge of citizenship. (The aim of Goal 3 of the National Education Goals is that by the year 2000 American…

Task 4 of an investigation coordinated by a committee working under the auspices of the National Council for Social Studies describes the model used by the National Assessment for data gathering and reporting on the citizenship area and discusses its potential uses for state and local assessment, curriculum development, and accountability…

Maintains that the choice of geography as one of the core subjects in the America 2000 and Goals 2000 reform plans provides an opportunity to increase its role in the school curriculum. Argues that those who chose geography have a different view of the discipline than professional geographers. (CFR)

Contends that geographic education has received increased attention during the past decade from professional geographers, K-12 educators, and the general public. Reviews current efforts and future directions of geographic education and states that all geographic educators share the responsibility for continuing the progress of the reform movement.…

National Assessment, a systematic survey of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, provides educators and the public with information on student achievement. The data-gathering model for the Assessment has yielded differences of various groups' performances in the area of political knowledge. These results seem to imply that the academic approach to…