The Achievement-Levels Setting (ALS) process for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) resulted in numerical cutscores on the NAEP score scale representing the performance standards for three achievement levels: Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. This paper focuses on an important, but less researched, aspect of the standard setting…

This document presents guidelines for what every K-12 Louisiana student should know and be able to do as a result of studying the four core strands of the social sciences: geography, civics, economics, and history. Following introductory and explanatory information, the document is organized by strand. Each section begins with a focus paragraph…

In 1999 a validation study of the 1998 Civics Assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was conducted, combining a similarity classification study and a booklet classification study. The rationale was that if the teachers who had participated in the 5-day achievement levels-setting process could not use the descriptions…

Teaching about the Amistad case provides correlations to the National Standards for History, and Civics and Government. An overview of the events of 1839 is given in this lesson plan. Seven student activities include reading and using primary source documents, writing journal articles, viewing the movie "Amistad," and giving…

An inventory of resources available to the classroom teacher is divided into the following sections: curriculum materials, curriculum guides and bibliographies, resource units, bibliography of teacher resources, games and simulations, periodicals, organizations, and a directory of political scientists. (Author/JB)

Major issue raised in this paper is whether schools are providing students with the type of programs and environment that foster the full development of interest in, and capacity for, democratic politics. (Author)

After briefly reviewing the conception of the term social studies", the author turns to a discussion of present and future curriculum in terms of the increasing use of social studies projects and the position, expectations, and relevance of history. (JB)

Teachers ought to be doers as well as teachers. A government teacher discusses how participating in the political process helped his teaching. Learning activities are suggested. (RM)

Explains how community legal resource persons (police officers, lawyers, law students, court employees, legislators, etc.) can contribute to high school students' understanding of the legal system. Suggestions include that the resource person's visit relate to material the class is studying and that the teacher and resource person communicate…

Assesses the role played by revisionists in development of the social studies curriculum and reviews a movement in which revisionists consistently attempted to promote citizenship education through the problems of democracy course offered in high schools throughout the United States from 1916 to 1970. (Author/DB)

Presents three reasons to be concerned about citizenship education: the argument from history, the need to counteract the mood of pessimism and alienation concerning government and schooling and to redirect educational priorities, and the signs which indicate that the present is the time for a revival of civic learning. (Author/KC)

Discusses attitudes of educators, administrators, and concerned citizens in the United States and West Germany towards civic education. Educational trends in the two countries are compared and suggestions are presented for developing a reflective and critical political intelligence among young people. (Author/DB)

Takes issue with an essay by Lewis Lapham that criticizes the literacy and historical knowledge of school children and suggests that democracy depends on an informed and literate citizenry. Gives historical context to the idea of an informed citizenry by looking at public involvement and response to the Lincoln-Douglas debates. (TB)

Discusses the project, "First Amendment Schools," by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and the First Amendment Center (Arlington, Virginia). Explains that these schools involve students in the community and in democracy as a means to citizenship education. (CMK)