In fall 2022, the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy (the Institute) and UnidosUS, the largest Latino civil rights organization in the country, designed a project to better understand the representation of Latinos in U.S. History textbooks for high school. Recent years have brought increased awareness that students learn best when they…

In this article, we describe a collaboratively developed information literacy curriculum that was embedded into three core 8th grade subjects: Algebra, American History, and English Language Arts. The curriculum was rooted in the concept of generalist literacy and supported students as they developed their curiosity, skepticism, commitment to…

The scope of this article is twofold: to revisit the foundational importance of Business Spanish to the United States and to track its early formalization in American secondary and higher education. It will focus on the years surrounding American Independence in 1776, followed by the key role played by the American Association of Teachers of…

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 purpose of this Action Research study was to investigate and strengthen the culturally responsive curriculum for American history teachers and Black and Latinx students at an urban high school. Participants and data collected in cycle 1 consisted of ten urban public charter school history teachers. Action steps including interviews, focus…

This study examines the movement to integrate LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) history into high school US history courses. Using such primary sources as government documents, classroom resources, and organizational agendas, and oral history interviews with teachers, gay rights activists, and scholars, the study probes grassroots…

This study examined how U.S. entry into World War I and related pedagogical reforms of the early twentieth century impacted elementary social education at a local level. Analysis of state curriculum guides, records from the collection of a rural school educator, report cards, and daily attendance registers for four counties indicated that…

In this article, the authors discuss how to explore the agency of ordinary citizens using local institutions to combat Jim Crow segregation laws during Freedom Summer. Primary sources from Miami (OH) University website about Freedom Summer and Susan Goldman Rubin's trade book ground the inquiry. Through the series of activities discussed, middle…

When planning a GCSE period study on the American West, Alex Ford wrestled with reconciling the content demands of the examination specifications with the need to provide his students with a memorable narrative. In this article, Ford shows how he drew on the latest academic scholarship to construct a rigorous, coherent narrative outlining the…

There are few topics more engaging, polarizing, controversial, and relevant than the issue of race relations in the United States. As race and racism are enduring issues of importance and popularity, it seems fitting to explore the topic through one of the more engaging and divisive eras in U.S. history; the Civil War. National and state standards…

From the very founding of the United States, education's actual influence on American society has not measured up to Americans' belief in education as a vehicle of meritocracy. Shortly after the American Revolution, the lexicographer, editor, and would-be education reformer, Noah Webster noted that in the United States "The constitutions are…

This article will analyze where the Amherst Project stood within the evolution of educational thinking since the early twentieth century and then show in detail how its activities developed fromits inception in 1959 to publication of the last pamphlet in 1972. The Amherst Project began among a group of instructors from Amherst High School and…

Contemporary American education initiatives mandate half of all English language arts content is non-fiction. History topics, therefore, will increase within all elementary and English language arts middle level classrooms. The education initiatives have rigorous expectations for students' close readings of, and written argumentation about,…

In the United States courses on civics or government are often marginalized in most states' social studies curricula in favor of courses in United States or world history. The origins of this history-dominated approach have roots in the debates between the American Historical Association and the National Education Association at the turn of the…

In recent years, educators in the USA have emphasized disciplinary literacy as an essential path forward in cultivating adolescents' understanding of subject matter in tandem with literacy practices. Yet, this agenda poses challenges to teachers who have been tasked with its implementation. Here, we examine two expert US history teachers' efforts…