President Barack Obama's announcement last week of a wide-ranging anti-violence plan in response to the Newtown, Connecticut, school shootings comes as many districts are adopting new and sometimes dramatic measures--including arming teachers and volunteers--intended to prevent similar tragedies in their own schools. School safety experts warn…

Today, a growing number of teachers are moving beyond the textbook in teaching about the war, and U.S. history more broadly. Teachers are digging directly into primary sources and harnessing technology, all in an attempt to help students better understand the past and bring it to life. Doing so may be especially important with the Civil War,…

It's not unusual for lawmakers to debate aspects of the American political system, but a recent discussion in Utah's House of Representatives wasn't merely theoretical. The bill under consideration, since signed into law, requires public schools to teach that the United States is a "compound constitutional republic." The curriculum also…

As debate continues around the development and adoption of common standards in English and mathematics, several states are independently wrestling with rewrites of standards in a content area largely absent from that national discussion--social studies--and encountering their own shares of controversy. Flash points in the social studies debates…

The Texas board of education which consists of 15-member elected body drew national attention as a bloc of staunch conservatives largely succeeded in putting its stamp on a revised set of social studies standards. The debate was marked by tussles over such matters as the separation of church and state, the representation of minority figures and…

This article reports that a number of history and social studies teachers have found that because of the parallels they're able to draw between the current economic crisis and the Great Depression, their students are seeing that history is relevant. They're engaging more deeply in history lessons than they have in previous years. The teachers say…

Spanish River High School is one of 40 U.S. History Schools and 21 affiliates around the country that get resources and academic support from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The schools require participating students to take a U.S. history course each year, in addition to any requisites in world history and other subjects. The…

Like teachers in many urban school districts with large numbers of disadvantaged children, the faculty at New Holland Core Knowledge Academy strives to build the foundational skills necessary for later academic success. At New Holland, however, content is king. While many schools have narrowed the curriculum since Congress passed the No Child Left…