Below is an update from the Ohio Council for the Social Studies.

"The Ohio Council for the Social Studies is celebrating an advocacy victory. Governor Kasich has signed the biennium budget and the Ohio Department of Education has confirmed that new Social Studies assessments will be administered to 4th and 6th grade students beginning in the 2014-2015 school year. These assessments will be electronic, grade-level specific and be aligned to Ohio’s New Learning Standards for the Social Studies.

We couldn't have done this without the help of Dr. Nancy Patterson and the Ohio Professors of Social Studies Education (OPSSE), who conducted a study in 2011 to measure the impact of the suspension/elimination of the grades 5 and 8 Ohio Achievement Tests (OAA’s) on social studies instruction in grades 3-5. The data from this study and an earlier OPSSE study in 2008 were invaluable to our advocacy efforts. We would also like to thank the OCSS leadership, including Dan Langen, Anne Baldwin, Bill Harris, Adam Motter, Corbin Moore, and Dr. Brad Maguth, for taking the time to meet and speak with state legislators, state board members, and ODE consultants on multiple occasions over the past 4 years. This is a great victory for Social Studies as a subject area, but more importantly it is a victory for our students and young citizens."