Teaching students to make an effective claim is a critical step in establishing a culture of inquiry in the social studies education. After the "College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards" was published in 2013, Ryan Lewis was interested on the phrase "compelling question" and reorganize…

On Constitution Day 2013, the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) published the "College, Career and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards." The document was written by a team of academics with specialties in social studies education and its disciplines in consultation with state education agencies,…

Although many adults perceive young "digital natives" as savvy about our new media landscape, youth are regularly fooled by inaccurate stories and online scams. Furthermore, beyond the threat of outright false information, young people encounter confusing half-truths, misleading arguments, and disguised efforts to collect their personal…

This article discusses a new set of inquiries based on the C3 Framework that provides questions, tasks, and sources to launch classroom examinations of the Korean War and its many aftershocks. Compelling and supporting questions, formative and summative performance tasks, and disciplinary sources provide teachers and their students with the…

The Federal Reserve (the Fed) is the central bank of the United States. It has a congressional mandate to promote maximum sustainable employment and price stability. In normal times, the Fed seeks to achieve this mandate by setting the position or "stance" of monetary policy, primarily by managing the level of short-term interest rates.…

The introduction of standards-based instruction ushered in a movement to clearly articulate the academic outcomes for students across the curriculum. State departments of education and local school districts across the nation have invested tremendous resources to define what students "need to know and be able to do" in English Language…

Susan Griffin, executive director of NCSS, was chair of the Task Force of Professional Organizations that initiated and guided the development of "The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards", which will soon be released. In this interview with "Social Education", Susan explains how the…

Alarmed by the possibility of social studies being overlooked in this context of new national disciplinary standards, National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools convened a meeting of 15 national organizations representing civics, economics, geography, and history, to begin a conversation about…

Once the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers on October 28, 1914, the fate of the Empire hinged on the outcome of World War I. The Ottomans waged war on multiple fronts: in the Caucasus against Russia, and to defend the Gallipoli Peninsula and the Arab territories against the British and French empires. One hundred years later, we live in a…

Steve Sheinkin's "The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights" recounts the explosion at a U.S. Navy base in the summer of 1944 that claimed 320 lives. It is also a story of African American resistance against prejudice, segregation, and injustice in the armed forces during World War II. The book was a 2015…

The College, Career and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards published by the National Council for the Social Studies advocates the need for students not just to acquire and produce knowledge, but also to live a life of active engagement in the workings of our democracy. Dimension Four of the C3 Framework articulates this…

The "College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: State Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History" will soon be released. The C3 Framework was developed to serve two audiences: for states to upgrade their state social studies standards, and for…

In May 2010, scientists, national security experts, and state delegates from nations around the world will convene in New York for the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. They will review current guidelines for nuclear testing and possession of nuclear weapons in accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968,…

National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) first published national curriculum standards in 1994. Since then, the social studies standards have been widely and successfully used as a framework for teachers, schools, districts, states, and other nations as a tool for curriculum alignment and development. However, much has changed in the world…

When educators work together to create open, accountable, relationship-driven climates, schools achieve measurable improvement in everything from school safety to faculty engagement and student learning. But before schools can honor and protect the paradoxical tendencies for freedom and order, educators must first understand how to create shared…