Assessment is usually considered as an afterthought in the instructional design process. Given the many challenges of assessment design--and the lack of ready solutions--teachers may fall back on familiar forms of assessments and hope for the best. As a result, the problem is not a lack of will on the part of teachers. Instead, it is the lack of…

Equal access to education, that is to a high quality education, has increasingly come to mean access to an Advanced Placement program. In recent years, there has been steady attention paid to opening access to AP programs. The 9th annual College Board report (2013) stated "students who succeed on an AP Exam during high school typically…

On September 17, 2013 (Constitution Day), the C3 Framework was released under the title "The College, Career and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History." The C3 Project Director and lead writer was NCSS member Kathy Swan, who is…

Research has shown that formative assessment is a key ingredient in raising student achievement. The goal of formative assessment is not to grade students, but to pinpoint where they are having trouble and then to take appropriate instructional action. In a review of 250 studies, Black and Wiliam found that formative assessments had a more…

The roles and behavior of the process education curriculum of MACOS are meaningfully implemented in a college professional preparatory setting. (Author/KM)

In this article, an attempt is made to help administrators and teachers determine, evaluate and decide which social studies instructional materials most effectively meet their needs. A few guidelines, questions, and a response form are suggested by the author to help teachers cope with factors which make it difficult to choose materials. (SM)

Presents a General Assessment Model (GAM) to evaluate learning activities for secondary school students. Students summarize the content within the activity and relate the content to a core of social studies skills and knowledge. The teacher then constructs a graph which correlates GAM scores with the activity. (KC)

Suggestions for adapting NAEP procedures for local use are based on the assumptions that instructional decisions can be improved through systematic gathering of data and that every student is not tested. (Author/KM) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt with in this document: Procedures (Utilization).

This article deals with the selection process of social studies curriculum materials, introducing readers to the major ideas contained in the NCSS's Social Studies Curriculum Guidelines and SSEC's Curriculum Materials Analysis System. (SM)

Describes application of a language experience approach to social studies education and explains the use of student and teacher journals in social studies classes. The approach utilizes pupil-composed materials and stresses communication skills and the relationship between oral and written language skills. It can help students understand complex…

The intent of this article is to present a case study of the formative stage of evaluation of the two-semester high school course in American Political Behavior developed by the author. (JB)

Explores the pedagogy-content argument surrounding competency based teacher education. The authors argue that CBTE success or failure hinges on demonstrated competency in content manipulation and use. In turn, a reassessment of content competency is needed. (Author/JR)

Suggests methods to help social studies teachers integrate writing into courses along with and in place of verbal activities. Also suggests ways to decrease teacher's time in the evaluation of student writing. One method is to focus on a few primary features of writing as they are defined in the goals of the assignments.

The presentation of a new perspective on evaluation discusses the essential dimensions of student growth and classroom environment necessary to provide a structure for humanistic evaluation and accountability in education. Specific strategies are offered to teachers and students as ways to implement the approach in their own classrooms. (Author/KM)

Contends that a student gains knowledge through the act of writing as she joins bits of information into a whole. Presents a model for scanning students' written material to determine the way ideas are related. Notes that the value of a piece of information depends on how the writer joins it with other information. (KC)