NCLB and History Stats
Information Regarding NCLB’s Impact on the Teaching of History
1. In March, 2006, the Center on Education Policy (CEP) released the results of a nationwide survey, reporting that 71 percent of the nation’s 15,000 school districts have reduced instructional time in subjects such as history to allow more instructional time for reading and math.
- For more
information, read the CEP's Executive Summary
of the 2006
survey or a related March 26, 2006 article by Sam Dillon
in
The New
York Times about the findings of the
survey regarding the narrowing of the curriculum.
- On July 25, 2007, the Center on Education Policy published an updated report of the study which revealed that, in the school districts surveyed, instructional time for subjects not tested under the No Child Left Behind Act had fallen by nearly one-third since the law was passed. Click here to read the full report of this study called, "Choices, Changes, and Challenges: Curriculum and Instruction in the NCLB Era," or Click here to read the news release providing information on the report.
2. Click here for the full article, "Reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965: Recommendations from the Center on Education Policy," Published August 28, 2007.
3. Also from the Center on Education Policy, click here to read, "The Ten Big Effects of the No Child Left Behind Act on Public Schools."
4. In the fall of 2006, a coalition of organizations in Washington state--Washington State Council for Social Studies, Seattle University College of Education, the Association of Washington School Principals, the Council on Public Education, and others--worked together to conduct an online survey to 684 respondents. The survey was designed to find out to what extent the respondents thought that social studies is on the decline in Washington State and what might be done to improve the situation.
- Seventy-four
percent of the respondents were teachers, 8% were
administrators, with the rest being staff, librarians,
education consultants, future teachers, parents and
community members.
- In response
to the question, "To your knowledge, has there been a
change in the amount of social studies teaching over the
last ten years in your school district?" 51.9% responded
that they felt social studies had declined and 80% of
those respondents cited as the reason "state test," "the
WASL," "NCLB," and "focus on reading and math."
- Click here to read the Executive Summary of "The State of Social Studies Education in Washington’s K-12 Schools."
5. You may also wish to read research by Dr. Phillip VanFossen, Director of the James F. Ackerman Center for Democratic Citizenship at Purdue University, in "'Reading and Math Take So Much of the Time…' An Overview of Social Studies Instruction in Elementary Classrooms in Indiana." Theory and Research in Social Education 33, no. 3 (2005): 376-403. (Eric: EJ762548)
- Included in this is the recent finding that, in Indiana, teachers on average spend 12 minutes a week on social studies.
6. We also invite you to read "Advocating for Social Studies: Documenting the Decline and Doing Something About It" by Katherine A. O'Connor, Tina Heafner, and Eric Groce. The article is found in the September, 2007 issue of Social Education, published by the National Council for the Social Studies.