This article is about a year-long teaching and research project conducted with 696 4th graders (mostly 10-year olds) and their 36 teachers in Wyoming/USA. The researchers employed an action research approach. They planned and taught a two-day, Wyoming-themed, interdisciplinary unit, "We Are Wyoming", which integrated Social Studies,…

This article is the third in a larger study of schooling during the Great Depression that seeks to elucidate specific examples of elementary social studies teaching and learning in the South during this time, particularly in Arkansas. Responding to Christine Woyshner's (2009) concern that histories of social studies should look beyond national…

There is a timely movement afoot to secure the rightful place of social studies as a core part of curriculum at a time when it is increasingly compromised across the nation. The authors present a model that accepts the call to consider the enterprise of social studies research and broaden it to address the needs of the day. They offer a brief…

Public schools stress the need for students to become informed and engaged citizens, however social studies instruction is becoming marginalized in many elementary schools today, the very area where they learn citizenship and about the world around them. This study seeks to: understand the reason for the loss of instructional time for social…

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…

This brochure is designed to acquaint persons involved in elementary and secondary instruction in New York State with State syllabi and the State testing program. The New York State testing program was mandated to measure student achievement and program effectiveness in the areas of mathematics, English language arts (reading and writing),…

Minicourses, one of the most popular educational developments to appear in a long time, are the subject of this working paper. It is designed to illustrate the impact of and to provide information about short courses or mini-courses, in the Pennsylvania secondary social studies curriculum. An attempt is made to answer questions that are frequently…

Highlights recent efforts to create a national social studies curriculum and briefly discusses the new California state curriculum guide. Reports on the efforts of ERIC/ChESS to include state and local curriculum guides in the database, identifies several available resources, and encourages readers to contribute guides for consideration. (GEA)

This document provides general instructional guidelines for district administrators and teachers in Texas as they attempt to meet the goal of preparing students for citizenship in a democracy. The framework includes the legal requirements for social studies and provides guidelines to school districts in planning social studies programs for grades…

Describes the 1988 adoption of the Quality Core Curriculum (QCC) by the Georgia Board of Education. Discusses the QCC's role in defining and developing the study of geography within the social studies curriculum. Identifies and analyzes four as essential elements in a social studies program: knowledge, skills, attitudes/values, and social…

The committee that produced this report was asked to review existing New York State social studies syllabi and to make recommendations to the Commissioner of Education designed to increase students' understanding of U.S. culture and its history; the cultures, identities, and histories of the diverse groups that comprise U.S. society today; and the…

This study found that syllabuses and instructional supplements issued by New York State lacked the amount and kind of information essential for optimal education of African American and other minority group students in inner city schools and have a "chilling effect" on teacher initiative and creativity. The following types of documents…

In 1982 the Colorado Board of Education directed the State Board of Education to organize task forces to address a variety of state educational needs. This report, presented by the Social Studies Task Force, explains the group's purposes and concerns, provides a social studies definition, and outlines the Colorado grades K-12 social studies…

The major objective of this project was the preparation of instructional packets for vocational orientation at the elementary level. A developmental workshop and related seminars on this theme involved five teachers, two counselors, and a principal, all for the elementary grade levels, in addition to various state agencies and educational…

Discusses the reform and development of state instructional frameworks and curriculum guides in California, New York, and Texas. Emerging trends include abandonment of the expanding environments format in favor of a humanities emphasis in California and a citizenship education orientation in Texas encompassing the social sciences, arts, and…