Student demographics and teacher characteristics as predictors of elementary-age students' history knowledge: Implications for teacher education and practice

Abstract

Using student- and teacher-level data from the United States National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), we attempted to disentangle the relationship among student demographics, teacher characteristics, and performance on the fourth grade assessment of U.S. history. Our findings suggest that teacher subject matter background, reported time spent on history/social studies and instructional decision-making were positively associated with learning outcomes. The implications of our study include greater emphasis on subject matter knowledge in history teacher education, increased prioritization of history in elementary classrooms, and the incorporation of interdisciplinary resources and in-class discussion as potential high-leverage practices for early grade history teachers.