In this article, the authors share a unique and unfolding story about a program in Virginia that allows districts to opt into a series of Inquiry Design Model (IDM) performance assessments in place of the state-developed multiple-choice test. In the Rockingham County School District, this initiative was piloted in ninth-grade World Geography…

The public debate regarding problematic ideas and personal autonomy has cascaded into classrooms over the last two years, as families and politicians demand more control over what youth are learning. One approach to limiting exposure to perceived harmful or controversial content has been to remove it completely. In this paper, the authors present…

Children may not yet understand political issues or be engaged in politics, but identification with social groups emerges early; indeed, nearly a third of first-graders report identification with a political party. As a result, it is likely that ingroup favoritism (or preference for members of one's own political group) and outgroup derogation (or…