The disappointing results of the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Civics and U.S. History have further fueled the call for consistent, high-quality social studies instruction. The response by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) highlighted the imperative for early grades, claiming "the lack of a solid…

The objects that represent our material culture--street signs, mascots, symbols etched into stone or printed on stationery--are silent bearers of history: the past tattooed on the present. The meanings given to those objects may change from one social or culture group to another. One seemingly innocent and overlooked example in this vein is the…

The purpose of this paper is to take a closer look at the states that have designed strong history standards and note what has made them exceptional so other states might do the same. They include Alabama, California, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, and South Carolina. The report draws on interviews with individuals from each state who sat on…

How at moments of dramatic change and a shifting social context do political actors alter their public identities? Put differently, how do political figures respond when positions with which they have been closely identified are no longer morally and electorally defensible and must be altered? Responses to identity challenge within institutional…

As debate continues around the development and adoption of common standards in English and mathematics, several states are independently wrestling with rewrites of standards in a content area largely absent from that national discussion--social studies--and encountering their own shares of controversy. Flash points in the social studies debates…

This study seeks to understand the ways nine states represent African Americans within their standards for U.S. History. Previous research on the effects of high-stakes assessment on social studies educators suggests teachers align their instruction with information found in state standards. Therefore, an understanding of the way African Americans…

Encountering the U.S. Civil War on a smaller, human scale makes the conflict more approachable, vivid, and real. Rivers Bridge State Historic Site (South Carolina) offers a glimpse of the Civil War on such a scale. The small area allows visitors to comprehend the entire battlefield, its tactics, and to see how veteran troops near the end of the…

This bibliography lists materials suitable for teaching South Carolina history, government, and culture. A wide range of books for teaching government is available including books on local government, the legislature, the state constitution, and a biographical directory of the South Carolina Senate. Books on the ante-bellum and colonial eras of…

Cemeteries dot the U.S. urban and rural landscape. They hold genealogical information and more. This guide suggests using cemeteries as an informative resource for classroom study. The guide outlines research strategies, provides additional information for interpreting and understanding cemeteries in rural and urban South Carolina, and contains…

Describes a project in which the Rock Hill School District (Rock Hill, South Carolina) collaborated with a state museum and historic site, Historic Brattonsville (McConnells, South Carolina), to teach third-grade students about South Carolina history. Explains that the students spent a day in a schoolhouse to learn about the life of children in…

Uses a fictional account of the Stono Uprising of slaves in South Carolina in 1739 to illustrate to students the dynamic relationship between literature and history. Provides a historical synopsis of the Uprising, points to think about while reading the account, and the story itself. (DSK)

The racially tinged Confederate flag debate in South Carolina is viewed as a signifier of more popular struggles over the representation of "southern heritage" and under girds the social studies unit described in this paper. The unit was designed to teach the curriculum from a popular cultural, issues-oriented perspective using critical…

This resource guide for teaching the African-American experience in South Carolina's public schools is designed to serve as a supplement to the "South Carolina Social Studies Curriculum Standards." Focusing on the history and culture of Africa and African-Americans within the specific context of the state's curriculum standards and…

Intended to help readers develop an appreciation of the contributions of Franco-Americans to the cultural heritage of the United States, this book, the second of six volumes, presents 15 readings representing many perspectives--from the historical to the sociological--illustrating the thinking and feelings of those in the forefront of…

This book is part of a series of materials and aids for instruction in black history produced by the State Department of Education in compliance with the Education Improvement Act of 1984. It is designed for use by eighth grade teachers of South Carolina history as a supplement to aid in the instruction of cultural, political, and economic…