Dr. Lawrence M. Paska, Ph.D., CAE is the Executive Director of National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), the largest professional association in the country devoted solely to social studies education. NCSS represents K-12 classroom teachers, college and university faculty members, curriculum designers and specialists, district and state supervisors and administrators, and educators from around the world focused on social studies learning. As NCSS’ chief staff executive, he is responsible for implementing the strategic priorities, policies, and actions approved by the NCSS Board of Directors, and expanding a network of social studies professionals nationwide.
The State of Social Studies Education: Collaboratively Moving Forward
A Civic Learning Week Event
The State of Social Studies Education: Collaboratively Moving Forward
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View the Recording.
National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) and Thinking Nation will host a special webinar that reviews a recent white paper published in Education Week and commissioned by Thinking Nation. The survey data gave statistics behind the anecdotes many of us know: 1. While Social Studies is deemed as critical for democracy, it is not viewed as a priority in most school districts; 2. Professional Development does not currently effectively support social studies teachers; 3. Social Studies as a discipline is not effectively vertically aligned in most contexts.
In this program, NCSS and Thinking Nation will discuss these findings, along with other NCSS-supported research on K-12 student and educator experiences in social studies classrooms. Our goal is to share how we can collaboratively work to better prioritize and resource social studies in all education contexts. We also are happy to have Dr. Bill Daggett of the Successful Practices Network join us for part of the webinar to provide a broader perspective about how social studies education can contribute to a broader goal of education reform. This program will bring awareness of key solutions to strengthening social studies education to a diverse set of stakeholders in education. With 2024 being an election year and America’s 250th anniversary quickly approaching, we must work together to utilize our discipline in order to preserve our constitutional democracy.
We hope that our conversation will kick off Civic Learning Week with exciting prospects about what the wider education community can do collectively.
This program makes an excellent “lunch and learn” for Central and Eastern Time participants, and a great “mid-morning coffee break” for Pacific and Mountain Time participants!
Learning Goals:
- Bringing awareness to those in and/or around social studies education as to the state of social studies education more broadly.
- Demonstrating alignment and collaboration across a diverse range of spaces that touch social studies education more broadly.
- Providing tangible next steps that all participants can take to better prioritize and resource social studies education in the contexts they work in and serve.
All Times Eastern
Presenters
Zachary Cote is the Executive Director of Thinking Nation. Before Thinking Nation, Zachary taught history at both the middle and high school levels for five years at Bright Star Schools. As a teacher-mentor and department leader, his passion was to ensure that a rigorous history education that emphasized historical thinking was available to all students. He earned his BA in History from CSU Channel Islands, where his love for history and history education blossomed. He holds a MA in American History from Pace University.