The Culture and History of Standards-Based Educational Reform and Social Studies in America

Joshua L Kenna,William B Russell Iii

doi:10.46303/jcve.01.01.3

Joshua L Kenna, William B Russell Iii

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.46303/jcve.01.01.3

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Abstract

There is no surprise that the culture of America’s public education system is continually changing. More than a decade ago the federal initiative No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was signed into law; a law that many consider the pinnacle of the standards-based educational reform (SBER). The purpose of this study was to define the nature, culture, and meaning of the contemporary standards-based educational reform movement, and to trace the historical roots of the SBER via federal and state educational policies, as well as the work of various professional organizations.

Highlights

Each initiative was established as a response to a real-world scenario, such as a lack of competiveness in a global marketplace, a decline in SAT scores, or a decrease in the high school graduation rates (Wong, Guthrie, & Harris, 2004)
This study examined the mirrored actions and responses taken by social studies education organizations within the larger picture of the standards-based educational reform (SBER), placing the focal point largely upon actions taken by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)
When one wishes to trace the lineage of the modern SBER movement all roads seem to begin with the 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, which proclaimed that America’s economic woes were in large part due to the failing public educational system

Summary

Introduction

Each initiative was established as a response to a real-world scenario, such as a lack of competiveness in a global marketplace, a decline in SAT scores, or a decrease in the high school graduation rates (Wong, Guthrie, & Harris, 2004). According to Hamilton, Stecher, and Yaun (2009) most discussions about the SBER consist of some or all six of the following elements: 1) transference of responsibility, 2) academic expectations, 3) alignment, 4) support and technical assistance, 5) assessment, and 6) accountability. To explain it further, first the SBER involves some official or governing educational agency that creates content and curriculum standards, which promote academic excellence and indicates what students should know and be able to do. There is a budding realization that “standards-based educational reform” has largely given way to the “test-based reform” and it is the test-based reform that changes teaching practices (Hamilton, Stecher, & Yaun, 2009, p. 4)

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