Culminating projects offer a sharp contrast to predominant practice in civics education. Although many schools require students to volunteer for a certain numbers of hours, most leave it up to the student to find a broadly defined "community application" of their learning, and students seldom inform their action with rigorous research.…

This highly acclaimed volume in the "Defending Public Schools" series is now available in paperback from Teachers College Press. It is a practical, necessary addition to the work of administrators, teachers, policymakers, and parents as they negotiate the difficult path of how to best teach and educate today's children and youth. This…

Commitment is combined to classic learning with innovative citizenship education grounded in public debate by the Northtown Academy campus of Chicago International Charter School (CICS). KIPP Academics rely on academic pressure and tough love to help students meet state standards.

In February 1990, the President and state governors proclaimed a set of six national education goals to prompt profound improvements in schools and student achievement by the year 2000. These six goals reflect widely held concerns that most Americans have not been receiving the kind of education they need to meet the challenges of twenty-first…

The objective of this article is to examine the rhetoric of educational leadership within a Scandinavian context, as it occurs within the framework of New Public Management. The study asks questions about new demands on leadership expressed in policy documents. Local culture and distinctive aspects of national life tend to modify external…

Discusses the Bradley Commission, which voiced concerns about the adequacy of the K-12 social studies curriculum. Suggests that the need for the history-centered curriculum endorsed by the commission is not supported by research. Cites findings contradicting commission claims that history instruction promotes good citizenship. (SG)

Provides an overview of the National Commission on Social Studies in the Schools' publication, "Charting a Course: Social Studies for the 21st Century." Reprints the report's curriculum characteristics and goals segments, which briefly outlines content placement. Presents conflicting conceptions of social studies education and questions…

Presents recommendations from the Ohio Council for the Social Studies for high school graduation requirements in social studies education and discusses the rationale behind proposed changes. Assesses the impact of the Council's recommendations, and defines potential cost factors involved in the recommendations. (RW)

Argues that dispute between history and social studies in the curriculum is not recent but goes back 75 years. Asserts the term "social studies" is not a separate discipline but simply an umbrella term to describe the broad field of social subjects offered in the school curriculum. Calls for an end to the dispute between history and…

Asserts schools in contemporary society have lost their internal compass and reason for being. Argues primary goal of education is provide young people with common intellectual resources to participate productively, exert intellectual and political leadership, participate actively in democratic society. Argues social studies teachers must…

Chronicles the process of reforming the liberal education program at Franklin Pierce College (New Hampshire), organized around the theme of the individual and community. Discusses objectives in integrating the "civic arts" into the core curriculum and challenges encountered in balancing "individual" and "community"…

This document contains a reprint of the 1916 "The Social Studies in Secondary Education: A Six-Year Program Adapted Both to the 6-3-3 and the 8-4 Plans of Organization and Report of the Committee on Social Studies of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education of the National Education Association" widely believed to be the most…

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)

Presents a review of Joan Barickman's book, "Schoolwise: Teaching Academic Patterns of Mind," which emphasizes performance-based student evaluation and portfolio assessment. Concludes that the book can help provide concrete ideas for positively altering teaching processes and for making learning more engaging for students and teachers.…

Cross-national study examines how social science, social studies, and civics instruction have evolved in public education. Finds that countries frequently adapt social science curricula independent of local conditions. Suggests that this produces a homogeneity of curricula over time and national boundaries. Illustrates curriculum's central role in…