This article explores the extent to which official social studies curriculum documents acknowledge difficult questions raised by the persistence of poverty in the United States. As it turns out, just as some parts of social studies curricula tell distorted stories about U.S. history, other parts tell misleading stories about the nation's present…

Voter participation in elections is the cornerstone of U.S. democracy, yet there is a history of voter suppression and intimidation tactics that specifically target Black Americans which did not cease in the twenty-first century, it merely transformed. Teachers can help students get ahead of voter suppression efforts by making sure students…

Shifting to an inquiry-based practice can be challenging. How should teachers get started? How many times should teachers plan for inquiry? What do teachers do when students struggle with inquiry? How long does it take for students to buy in to the inquiry process? These kinds of questions, and the concerns that underlie them, can create an…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation's Report Card, is the most comprehensive measure of student learning, and is widely considered the gold standard for empirically measuring trends in student achievement outcomes in the United States. The NAEP data for 2018, which were released on April 23, 2020, offer…

If high school history courses are meant to introduce students to the paradoxes and debates of American history, then they should study the 1619 Project, the authors argue in this article. College history students regularly debate the extent to which slavery was formative to the development of American systems of law, business, medicine, religion…

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. The fight was a protracted one, lasting over 70 years, and it did not result in equity for diverse women. Voting and citizenship came to women of color differently depending on region, class, race, and ethnicity. For example,…

The primary goal of this article is to encourage active confrontation of the settler colonialism that permeates social studies education in a way that encourages a centering of Indigenous experiences, instead of merely de-centering settler experiences. Two questions frame this work: (1) How should social studies educators confront atrocities and…

When John Lewis sought to change segregation laws in 1960 Nashville, Tennessee, he did so through nonviolent sit-ins. Throughout U.S. history, activists like John Lewis have turned to social change tactics outside of the institutions of democracy from which they have been largely excluded. However, social studies curricula rarely frame these…

The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, a year after being passed by Congress. It extended the right to vote to many women, but not all. Excluded from this landmark constitutional victory were women like Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, who was born in Guangzhou (then Canton), China, in 1896, but who immigrated to New York as a child. From 1882 to…

When teachers discuss the 2020 presidential election with students, now and in future years, they will, appropriately, place front and center the ramifications of the baseless challenges by Donald Trump and his supporters to Joe Biden's victory. Even as state and federal courts across the nation tossed out lawsuits challenging vote counts, the…

Since its inception, Title IX, which celebrated its 48th anniversary in June 2020, has promoted gender equity in schools, colleges, and universities across the nation. Title IX not only has helped girls and women throughout the country level the playing field in educational programs such as sports--a frequently cited contribution, especially at…

The very first presidential proclamation was issued by President George Washington in the fall of 1789, during his first year in office. It followed a request from a joint committee of Congress asking that Washington recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer. On October 3, Washington did just that--he…

Metanarratives--stories that are told and retold over time, so that they become the story--have proven instrumental in cultivating conceptions of the Founders as invariably honest, brave, and ethical. A prime example is the tale of George Washington confessing that he chopped down the cherry tree. While this narrative crafted an image of…

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist who for three decades has won office as an Independent, has put "socialism" back in American political discourse. Sanders's campaign in the 2016 Democratic Party primaries reminds educators that there is a socialist tradition in American politics and society. This article discusses…

In the early twentieth century in the American South, Black women teachers were especially dedicated to the creation of community and local institutions. They not only supported and taught Black history, but also created key texts that enabled a more accurate accounting of Black history. Educational leaders such as Nannie Helen Burroughs, Mary…