Elementary social studies needs an overhaul, research finds

Basic infrastructure to support K-5 social studies instruction — academic standards, accountability requirements, teacher evaluation, professional learning opportunities, guidance around materials and assessment programs — is inadequate in many states, according to new Rand Corporation research. And even where state-level infrastructure to guide teachers’ instruction […]

Let’s restore the civic mission of California schools

In California and across the nation, research is revealing a very troubling ‘civic learning opportunity gap.’ Students attending schools that serve populations with higher socio-economic status have many more civic learning opportunities than students attending schools serving lower SES populations, minority populations and those serving high concentrations of recent arrivals to our nation. Schools facing pressure to make ‘annual yearly progress’ are all too often significantly reducing instructional time for civic learning/social studies, or in some cases eliminating the subject altogether to concentrate on math and reading.