The University of Southern California (USC) Democracy Project responds to the inadequacies of traditional civics education, particularly its failure to engage marginalized students in meaningful democratic participation. Grounded in the theories of John Dewey and Paulo Freire, the project uses an action civics model to connect students with…

Education reform has been at the forefront of educational research for decades, depicted by government initiatives and policy, research, and pedagogical changes and recommendations. When considering elements of educational change, policy, best practices, and individual merit and retention have also been heavily in the spotlight, such as "A…

The National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE 2023) promotes a number of principles that are central to the work of the STEMSS (STEM + Social Studies) project. Among these principles is the understanding that geography education is a bridge to better understanding and appreciation of all subject matter. Using geography education as a bridge…

Legislating civics education initiatives can be an arduous process that takes time and resources, and requires buy-in from various stakeholders. Some state officials--including superintendents of public education and chief justices--have used their authority to more quickly advance civics education initiatives and programs without legislation.…

Eleven teachers and 254 urban middle-school students comprised the sample of this study examining the social and moral development outcomes of the integration of social cognitive domain theory within regular classroom instruction. Participating teachers were trained to construct and implement history lessons that stimulated students' moral…

Civic learning for all students seems like a reasonable and important aim for all schools to achieve. If we believe that the future of our American democracy depends on a citizenry that is informed, engaged, and responsible, what better place to create future citizens than in schools? The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools…

This study contributes knowledge about how a digital badge system integrated into an online, subject-matter-specific, and competency-based professional development (PD) program affected teachers' experiences with and perceptions of the program activities. The report presents findings from a one-year exploratory study of an online PD program, and…

This article describes an attempt to bring disciplinary historical inquiry into the social studies classroom. This work emerges from a five-school 6-month intervention in San Francisco, "Reading like a Historian", which found main effects for student learning across four quantitative measures: historical thinking, factual knowledge,…

For five years running, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has tracked states' teacher policies, preparing a detailed and thorough compendium of teacher policy in the United States on topics related to teacher preparation, licensure, evaluation, career advancement, tenure, compensation, pensions and dismissal. The "2011 State…

The purpose of this study was to identify, examine, and compare the way globalization was perceived by 4 international school associations, 4 non-profit (corporate managed) charter high schools, and 4 independent (individually managed) charter high schools from Southern California. Selected school associations, non-profit, and independent charter…

This report focuses on a study of law-related education in high school social studies programs in five states--California, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Teachers and administrators from 78 high schools were interviewed. Part 1 of the report explains law-related education and deals with respondents' reports of the status of…

Discusses a new history and geography-centered curriculum for elementary and secondary school students that was developed in California and describes efforts to adopt instructional materials that include new technology and formats. Three specific technology developments in the history-social science curriculum are described. (LRW)

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT PROCESSES UNDER OPTIMUM TRAINING CONDITIONS WAS STUDIED. OPTIMUM WAS DEFINED TO INCLUDE (1) A CURRICULUM FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT, (2) TEACHING STRATEGIES FOCUSED DIRECTLY ON MASTERY OF NECESSARY COGNITIVE SKILLS, AND (3) A SUFFICIENT TIME SPAN TO PERMIT A DEVELOPMENTAL TRAINING SEQUENCE. CHILDREN FROM 20…

Discusses California's Middle Grade Task Force and its report, "Caught in the Middle: Educational Reform for Young Adolescents in California Public Schools." Describes the 1987 revision of the California history-social science framework which emphasizes character development through studying the moral and ethical struggles of literary…

California State University Bakersfield (CSUB) is a major and growing supplier of new teachers for Kern County, California. A program was developed to help new teachers, most of whom are not Hispanic, understand the 45% Hispanic school population in Kern County. It is important for teachers to know and understand what they can of the similarities…