Schools in the late sixties and early seventies had many options and were engaged in implementing a variety of programs rooted in the social science disciplines with effective pedagogy drawn from social studies educators. With the implementation of the "No Child Left Behind" Act, one can observe the drastic changes made in the way social…

In the future, videodiscs will be used in social studies classrooms as teaching tools, tutors, and storage devices or data banks. Although the videodisc is now available, educational materials using the medium are just beginning to become available. (RM)

Teachers today are being held accountable and being judged inadequate as a result of factors--curriculum requirements and school organization--over which they have little control. In spite of this, many teachers are making extraordinary contributions to education. Examples of educational innovations being used by secondary history teachers are…

Social studies educators who are seeking to combine the power and utility of microcomputers with the new generation of video technologies have a sophisticated instructional tool at their disposal in the form of interactive video systems. Three current social studies projects employing such systems are described. (RM)

Examines the Carnegie report in terms of three themes: (1) distrust of teachers; (2) commitment to teacher autonomy that is conditional on achieved results; and (3) a conception of teacher accountability focusing on student performance rather than professional practice. Concludes that the implicit view of the teacher is one of an assembly-line…

Maintains that the major dilemma of the Holmes Group Report is that improving teachers both is, and is not, by itself, the way to improve education. Raises several questions which the report ignores and offers a synopsis of scholarly literature regarding teacher education. (DH)

Criticizes "A Nation at Risk" as an agenda for conservative reaction, not reform. Comments on the underlying assumptions and implications of the Holmes and Carnegie reports. Concludes by suggesting alternatives for more substantive reform. (DH)

Reviews a study of coaching and noncoaching social studies teachers that replicates one conducted by Fouts in 1989. Contends that the different results are primarily the result of different samples used in the studies. Questions whether people who want to be social studies teachers first and foremost are entering the social studies teaching field.…

Summarizes the Holmes and Carnegie reports and examines their major recommendations. The analysis points out the contradictory nature of the reforms, their conservative implications, and the lack of scholarly arguments to support such assertions. (DH)

Offers an overview of significant changes proposed by the Holmes and Carnegie reports. Criticizes the reports for assuming that means are separate from ends and form from content. Contends the reports ignore available scholarship, leaving unchallenged thinking and practices in teaching and teacher education. (DH)

Analyzes the historical context, arguments, and evidence of the Holmes Group report. Maintains that the report reflects the conservative political climate of the 1980s and is unsupported, ambiguous, and contradictory in areas. Concludes that the report's silence on the substance of teacher education highlights its political purpose of policing the…

Describes six alternatives to the one-year chronological survey course on world history in secondary grades. The alternatives are topical or thematic courses, conceptual or generalization-centered courses, world regions or world cultures courses, problems approach courses, case study courses, and depth studies or patch-work courses. (RM)

Reviews the establishment, purposes, current status, problems, and prospects of middle schools. Identifies five goals generally accepted by middle school educators. Reports that middle schools' exemplary features include such components as interdisciplinary team organization, flexible schedules, and home base/individual counseling programs. (GEA)

Part of the value of history, particularly in school teaching, consists of its function in communicating shared values, myths, and data between generations. However, the discipline of history is also a producer of new knowledge. Teaching frameworks that make some coherent sense of both old and new historical emphases are needed. (RM)

Based on an interview with U.S. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, this article surveys several of the projects launched by the Commission on the Bicentennial of the Constitution. These projects include: the National Historical Pictorial Map Contest; the Bicentennial School Recognition Program; the Bicentennial Educational Grant Program; and the…