"Mission Creep: The Federal Government and America's Schools" is a historical overview of the progressive encroachment if the United States' federal government into the area of education. This involvement began as a way to compete with the Soviet Union in the areas of science and technology but has since morphed into virtually all areas…

American history has been an essential component of every school's curriculum. Students of all ethnic backgrounds must know and understand that their culture and history are as significant as any other. The purpose of this article is to analyze the effects of the influence of ancestral history on student aspirations.

In 1956, 1,220 college-bound juniors and seniors in 104 American high schools took the first Advanced Placement (AP) exams conducted by the Educational Testing Service for the College Board. The AP program was unabashedly elitist and designed to fortify the education of the nation's future leaders in anticipation of Cold War national security…

Texas Ranch House, produced by Thirteen/WNET and Wall to Wall Television, is a dynamic look at life in Texas in the 1860s, before the development of modem conveniences. In addition to the video program series, Texas Ranch House boasts an extensive interactive website (www.pbs.org/wnetlranchhouse) that will be of interest to teachers and students.…

Using films to teach historical time periods, people, or events is not a new idea. In this article, the author contends that teachers who use film solely to teach historical facts or to test students' ability to stay awake miss an important opportunity to aid in the development of students' real historical understanding. Instead, teachers should…

In December 1984 when the Soviet Union still was an "evil empire" and the United States "encroached on the achievements of Socialism," Ira Jay Winn wrote, "students who scream "Kill the Russkies" or who believe that the Soviets fought against us in World War II... are not simply ignorant of historical facts or…

Long-standing anti-Arab racism in the U.S. has worsened in recent decades, fueled by U.S. military involvement in the Middle East and by the September 11 attack on the U.S. Arab American and Muslim children have been the targets of misunderstanding and discrimination. Following a historical introduction, discrimination against Arab American and…

Coming up with interesting information literacy lessons can be challenging for the high school librarian. If school librarians have taught their upper class students well, most are prepared to navigate their way successfully through libraries and Internet resources. In this article, the author explores a unique high school project that resulted in…

The Cold War affected the Sino-US educational exchange between 1949 and 1990. During those years, preparation for educational exchanges, personal contact and cross-government relations characterized the three periods of the exchanges. However, even though the relationship had developed very fast, it was by no means smooth sailing. These exchanges…

What distinguishes students' sense-making of the past from historians' thinking is that historians know how to determine the validity of competing truth claims, a rather complex intellectual skill that requires a sophisticated set of heuristics and strategies. One way to help students learn how to determine the validity of competing truth claims…

This article describes several websites that can be used to encourage students to vote. These include "The Democracy Project: Inside the Voting Booth" sponsored by PBS. This site addresses three elementary topics: how one vote has made a difference in U.S. history, how the right to vote has gradually been expanded to include minorities (African…

In this article, the author describes how he introduced a history project that blended a book discussion activity and the use of blogs to his eighth-grade class. Over four weeks, his class participated in a lively collective journal centered on an assigned piece of reading: "Guerrilla Season" by Pat Hughes. The historical novel, set…

This article deals with the Chumash people, their history, as well as colonization and coercion during the mission period in California. In this article, the authors examine a complex paper on the missionization of the Chumash Indians of the California Coast published in American Anthropologist by Daniel O. Larson, John R. Johnson, and Joel C.…

This study analyzed the instructional practices of more versus less effective U.S. History teachers identified by a multiple regression model. Using surveys, observations, and focus-group interviews, the study found that the most effective teachers had a more complete package of rigor, relevance, and relationship strategies than less effective…

In recent years researchers in educational technology have begun to look closely at the complexity of integrating technology in K-12 classrooms. The development of the notion of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) provides a useful theoretical framework to explore the requisite forms of teacher knowledge required to effectively…