Social Studies

Reading Roundup: How Much Are Students Really Learning?

By Catherine Gewertz — November 09, 2010 1 min read
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Had enough talk about the election? Here are a few things to consider that have nothing to do with last week’s events, all brought to you by teachers:

Revisit the question of whether social studies gets squeezed out of the curriculum by math and English language arts, since No Child Left Behind pegs accountability to those subjects.

Consider new approaches to assessing students’ skills every day, in the classroom. Not the skills assessed by multiple-choice tests, but a broader set that is critical to their success.

Ask yourselves what can be done to avoid the utterly disillusioning experience of this Massachusetts teacher, who watched her students graduate from high school, year after year, knowing that they were far from well-educated. And this in a state with one of the most-esteemed sets of standards and assessments in the country.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Curriculum Matters blog.