 | ||
|
|
||
|
|
AdvocacyEducation Report: January 11, 2008
Secondary School Reform: January 2008 SecondarySchoolReformJanuary.doc This Week in Washington, December 17, 2007 ThisWeekinWashingtonDecember.doc Education Report, December 14, 2007 EducationReportDecember14200.doc Legislative Watch List, December 13, 2007 LegislativeWatchListDecember.doc This Week in Washington, December 10, 2007 ThisWeekinWashington121007.doc Education Report, December 7, 2007 EducationReportDecember72007.doc This Week in Washington, December 3, 2007 ThisWeekinWashington120307.doc Education Report, November 30, 2007 EducationReportNovember30200.doc Legislative Watch List, November 21, 2007 legislativewatchlistNovember.doc NAEP Assessments in Social Studies Threatened Contact your Congressional Representatives to request that funding for NAEP assessments assures that those related to NCLB-designated core social studies content areas are administered according to the original schedule.
NAGB has eliminated:
Changes in planned testing and administration of the NAEP require significant lead time to accommodate the lengthy process of crafting test questions, selecting representative samples of schools and students, and other preparations, including a decision on whether to proceed with the geography test by February 2008.
Members of Congress have recognized the need for expanded testing and are considering a proposal to administer tests in more states with larger sample sizes in US History and Civics to provide comparative data similar to other NAEP assessed subjects.
Research has well established the impact of assessment on instructional time, including the documented marginalization of social studies teaching and learning in our Nation's classrooms and schools.
Weigh In with Congress on Appropriations for Education As Congress approaches what is sure to be a contentious debate on spending for education programs, we are providing the attached letter template for you to consider using to convey your concern for a number of programs important to NCSS members.
The template outlines the council's broad concerns, although you should feel free to add detail related to your experiences with these programs and how they work at the school level. Lawmakers appreciate hearing how federal funds make a difference in schools.
As you finalize the content of your letter, complete the following:
To complete the address block and finalize your letter, you can find information on your Senators and Representatives—who they are and how to contact them as follows:
For Members of the House of Representatives:
Visit www.house.gov and use the features at the top of the page to either find address information for your Representative or to enter your zip code to determine who your Representative is. Also, if your school is in a district other than where you live, feel free to send a letter to both Representatives. This page will direct you to the web site of the individual Member, and that site will have both address information so that you can complete that on the letter's address block, as well as a fax number for correspondence. (Since mail delivered to Capitol Hill is still subject to irradiation, faxing is the best way to correspond with your Members.) Complete the letter and fax away!
For Senators:
Visit www.senate.gov and use the feature in the upper right hand corner to find your state's senators. The results will give you office address information to complete the address block on the template letter, and web site information for you to determine the appropriate fax number for sending the letter to the office.
It is important for lawmakers to hear—repeatedly—how important these investments are!
Please send an electronic copy of your letters to NCSS staff at apost@ncss.org or fax to 301-588-2049 to Ana Post so we can gauge the impact of our advocacy. CongressionalLetterTemplate.rtf Discussion Draft of the Majority of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act August 29, 2007 Last night the House Education and Labor Committee released a discussion draft of the majority of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In the coming days WPLLC staff will be reviewing and digesting the draft legislative text We anticipate sending memo's outlining specific areas of interest from the draft legislation later today. The Committee encourages comments to the draft by September 5, 2007. To view a summary and text of the draft visit: http://edlabor.house.gov/
NCSS Calls for Change as the Nation's Report Card Predicts Trouble Ahead for the Next Generation of Citizens and a Healthy Democracy FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For More Information
NCSS Calls for Change as the Nation's Report Card Predicts Trouble Ahead for the Next Generation of Citizens and a Healthy Democracy
Silver Spring, Maryland, May 16, 2007 - The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and its more than 25,000 members are concerned, but not surprised, by the findings that America's 4th, 8th and 12th graders know only very slightly more than they did about history and civics today than in the 1990s. Two reports, The Nation's Report Card: U.S. History 2006 and The Nation's Report Card: Civics 2006, released today and published by the National Center for Education Statistics, reveal important and troubling data about the achievement of U.S. students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in history and civics.
Upon hearing the scores, NCSS President Peggy Altoff said, "As schools work to prepare students for their roles as citizens and, ultimately, to preserve the health of democracy in this country, all of us should be concerned about these results. Social studies is the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence. And while the NAEP currently has no test for social studies achievement, the importance of history and civics to the discipline is immeasurable."
The United States depends on a well-informed and civic-minded population to sustain its democratic traditions. If 53% of 12th graders are leaving high school with "below basic" knowledge of US history, and just 27% are deemed proficient in civics, clearly, our democracy is in peril.
Educators teaching the core disciplines that make up social studies-civics/government, economics, geography and history-can remedy this crisis if these disciplines are restored to their rightful place as an essential component of the K-12 curriculum. "An understanding of how history shapes the present informs responsible civic involvement, and these unacceptable results indicate that the No Child Left Behind Act's focus on achievement in math and reading is having the unintended consequence of producing students who are not adequately prepared for the responsibilities of being informed and active citizens," said Altoff.
In this day and age of data driving education policy decisions, NCSS members argue that NAEP assessments in these areas must continue and expand. Further, in order to better inform policy discussion, they must be administered regularly and the results be accompanied by state comparative data and sub-scores, as is currently the practice in reading, math and science.
"These results cry for more data. We need to know the extent to which the results are based on well-developed curriculum for the core social studies disciplines-questions that cannot be answered on the basis of a sample of over 25,000 students who took just a portion of these assessments," said Altoff. "It is time for a level playing field across disciplines. Educators must value each discipline taught in the school building. It is clear they are all connected and important to personal success and national strength."
These reports are published by the National Center for Education Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education, and include The Nation's Report Card: U.S. History 2006 and The Nation's Report Card: Civics 2006. The findings detail national results for fourth-, eighth-, and 12th-graders, based on a random sampling of 29,000 students. More information can be found at http://nationsreportcard.gov/.
Founded in 1921, the National Council for Social Studies has grown into the largest association in the country for social studies professionals, with 25,000 members in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and 69 foreign countries. Membership includes K - 16 classroom teachers, curriculum supervisors and specialists, curriculum writers and designers, and teacher educators. The NCSS serves as an umbrella organization for K - 16 teachers of civics, history, geography, economics, political science, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and law related education. Social Studies is the integrated study of social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence. Visit the NCSS website at http://www.socialstudies.org.
#
This Week in Education-October 9-13, 2006 An overview of upcoming events in Washington, D.C. affecting American education 100906ThisWeek.pdf Florida Law Stirs Debate over Teaching History In Florida, educators disagree over a new state law on how history is taught. Some fear an emphasis on teaching “just the facts” will discourage discussions of controversial events. This link takes you to an audio file on the NPR (National Public Radio) web site. The audio is from All Things Considered August 19, 2006.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5676428
Education Report-August 4, 2006 A weekly report of public policy issues in American Education from Washington Partners, LLC
Contents:
ER080406.pdf |
|
 National Council for the Social Studies8555 Sixteenth Street Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 |
||
