The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) is considering creating a National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for world history education. On the surface, a national assessment in world history appears to be a sensible and essentially unproblematic decision. However, problems lurk below the surface challenging the creation of a…

This article explores the use of movies as valuable instructional tools. When students are engaged with the content through a medium they love, they learn better and retain more. Incorporating motion pictures as part of classroom instruction has been spurred by the endorsement of both of the major reading and language arts organizations in the…

Fourteen Japanese and 28 American social studies textbooks, grades 7-12, were exchanged and reviewed by project participants. The purpose of the research was to seek improvements in the treatment each country gives the other in their respective textbooks. Selective findings of the project are discussed. (RM)

Introduces a cooperative project undertaken by the USSR Ministry of Education and by various educational institutions in the United States to assess what youth in each country learn about the other country from geography and history textbooks. The objective was to minimize misinformation. (DB)

The Teaching American History (TAH) program began in 2001 as a bold new idea: that history content could be delivered directly to United States history teachers through ongoing partnerships with providers of history expertise. The program awards three-year federal education grants for up to $1 million to develop and carry out these professional…

The idea that validity should be considered a property of inferences, rather than of assessments, has developed slowly over the past century. In early writings about the validity of educational assessments, validity was defined as a property of an assessment. The most common definition was that an assessment was valid to the extent that it…

This "Third Edition" updates the decades of the 1980s and 1990s and moves into the events and issues of the 21st century. Designed as a teaching supplement for any U.S. history course of study, it can be used in its entirety or selectively to fill in gaps left by traditional textbooks and curricula. The authors seek to bring U.S. history…

Improving critical thinking--defined by one expert as "reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do"--has been a frequent topic in the writing of history educators at least since the early 1970s. Attitudes and interests do support higher-level thinking and, most importantly, knowledge used in carrying it out…

State and national social studies standards have laid out what young people need to know about history, government, and other social studies subjects, but they do not provide information on what young people actually know and believe about a subject. The perspectives or frameworks of knowledge and beliefs that young people bring to their social…

In May 2001, students in the author's Advanced Placement (AP) United States History class were embroiled in a controversy surrounding the AP exam, in particular, having access to the exam's Document Based Question (DBQ) and free response portion prior to the test's administration. Prior to the exam, the College Board had provided a fifty-year time…

This review of a 1981 interim report on the United States' and the Soviet Union's distortion of events in history and geography textbooks is intended to encourage educators in both countries to depict the other side more honestly, less aggressively, and more appreciative of each other's virtues and flaws. Organized into two major sections,…

This pamphlet, intended for senior high classroom use, defines war, peace, and peacekeeping systems; discusses the destructiveness of war; and proposes the case study method for studying world order. The major portion of the booklet explores ways of peacekeeping through analysis of four different models: collective security, collective force,…

More than 15 years have passed since publication of "Education for Democracy: A Statement of Principles", in which perspective and encouragement were offered to teachers and schools to instill in students an attachment to democratic values and institutions. In the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, this call is being renewed.…

Discusses how to incorporate conflict resolution into history focusing on the Conflict Resolution in History project. Provides a case study depicting how to use conflict resolution by presenting a lesson plan exploring the 1846 War between the United States and Mexico. (CMK)

Suggests there are flaws in the National Standards for United States History that could be detrimental to students. According to the author, in their pervasive present-mindedness and self-censorship, the standard's framers underestimate and ill-serve the students because the standards help develop a smug, superior, and self-righteous attitude…