Social studies

Teaching civics has never been more important. Our republic depends on it

Today’s high school and college students will be the generation tasked with making serious decisions about the direction and fate of the country.

Superintendent’s Playbook: How to make more progress with interventions

"It forces collaboration between social studies, math, English and science teachers," explains Superintendent John Dignan of Wayne-Westland Community Schools, about embedding interventions into core instruction. "They're working together and our kids are getting the medicine they need—it's not just about remediation, it's about acceleration."

Second state opts out of popular AP African American Studies class

Arkansas teachers were told just 48 hours before the start of the 2023-24 school year that students would not get credit for the newly-created AP African American Studies, a course that is in high demand elsewhere. 

Head scratcher? Florida blocks AP Psychology over LGBTQ+ content

State education officials have told superintendents that college-level AP Psychology can only be taught if content covering sexual orientation and gender identity is excluded. 

New low: Florida’s revised Black history standards consider ‘the benefits of slavery’

Slavery was beneficial because the people enslaved acquired skills—that's something Florida's middle school students will learn under new African American history standards.

Latest PTA survey reveals how parents are feeling after the 2022-23 school year

In an era when the phrase "parents' rights" blurs many K12 lines, superintendents and their teams can gather insights from the National PTA's polling of the less vocal majority.

Why was this superintendent fired by her board during social studies clash?

With students and teachers protesting Tuesday over the narrowing of a social studies curriculum, the Temecula Valley Unified School District's board fired its superintendent, Jodi McClay.

8th-graders are failing to grasp how democracy works, report card shows

First-ever decline in civics scores raises alarms about students' ability become "full participants in American democracy,” say Nation's Report Card officials.

How the accelerating pace of school book bans is swallowing up new topics

Censorship targets are expanding from racism and LGBTQ topics to abuse, health and well-being and grief, PEN America warns, PEN America warns.

Why social studies instruction may not be coming to the rescue

Those hoping that more rigorous social studies instruction in K12 will heal some of the nation's political divisions may be discouraged by what researchers have found in U.S. elementary schools.

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