District Administration - March 2008 - (Page 46)

CURRICULUM Social Studies IS IT HISTORY? Districts, especially in poor areas, struggle to give adequate social studies lessons while meeting NCLB requirements. BY LISA ZAMOSKY WALK INTO ANY LOWPERFORM ing middle school classroom in your district and you may be shocked to ﬁnd children unable to identify the state or country in which they live. Many may not know the continents or the U.S. president. “By ﬁfth grade kids should at least know what the U.S. Constitution is and the Bill of Rights and know that we have a president, a Congress and a court system,” says Peggy Altoﬀ, social studies facilitator for Colorado Springs (Colo.) School District 11 and past president of the National Council for the Social Studies. However, because such basics are not being taught at the elementary level, kids in middle and high school are not performing well, according to Altoﬀ. “At any low-performing school, they spend most of their days on reading, writing and math.” It’s year six of the No Child Left Behind law, and social studies has suﬀered greatly. 46 March 2008 In spite of the public outcry over the law’s testing mandates and limited federal funding, some educators believe most of the public doesn’t know about core academic subjects being squeezed out of the K12 public school curriculum. Given that social studies education isn’t tied to high-stakes testing, instructional time for it has taken a signiﬁcant hit, particularly at the elementary grades, since the implementation of NCLB. This has educators deeply concerned about their ability to prepare children to become active citizens and about the long-term viability of the nation’s democracy. “We expect the public schools to educate citizens,” says Cathy Roller, director of research and policy with the International Reading Association. “Social studies are a major player in that arena and are integral to teaching a sense of civic duty and how all of the important things about a democratic society work.” According to a 2007 report from the Center on Education Policy, which surveyed nearly 350 school districts across the nation, 44 percent of districts reported cutting time from one or more subjects or activities at the elementary level, including social studies. While the National Alliance of Black School Educators, which supports some aspects of NCLB, has not taken an oﬃcial position on the subject, Executive Director Quentin Lawson says that programs such as social studies, art and physical education started getting squeezed out years before NCLB was implemented. “It’s clear that to any educator over the past 10 or 15 years there has been a major constriction of some very important subjects that are essential to our culture and general intellect,” Lawson says. And squeezing out such subjects “was exacDistrict Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - March 2008

District Administration - March 2008
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Technology Update
Curriculum Update
Achievement Today
Security Update
Inside the Law
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Crafting Strategic Plans
Diagnostic Testing
Social Studies: Is it History?
District Buying Power: Spending on Construction and Renovation
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
Speaking Out
Online Edge
New Products
Problem Solution
Leadership Books
Research Corner
Calendar of Events
Products Showcase
Understanding the Times

District Administration - March 2008