Please see attached an informative memo from Washington Partners that looks ahead to the work of the 111th Congress, focusing on education-related legislation that may be taken up and likely key education policy issues that may be of interest to NCSS.

See bullets below for the structure and highlights of the report:

I. General Overview
-Rundown of the makeup of the new Congress  read more »

Please see the attached background sketch from Washington Partners of President-elect Obama's selection for Secretary of Education--the current Superintendent of Chicago public schools Arne Duncan.

Please see attached the Education Report for December 12th from Washington Partners.

Be sure to make use of the bookmarks at the beginning of the attached report to help navigate your areas of interest. Highlights under each section include:  read more »

1. Budget and Appropriations

Please see attached below the Education Report for December 5th from Washington Partners. Be sure to make use of the bookmarks at the beginning of the attached report to help navigate your areas of interest. Highlights under each section include:

1. Budget and Appropriations

-uncertainty over President-Elect's selection of the new Secretary of Education  read more »

NCSS recently sent the attached letter to the chairmen of the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee encouraging them, as they work toward finalizing the FY 2009 budget, to adequately invest in programs of interest and importance to social studies educators.

Contact your Congressional Representatives to request that funding for NAEP assessments assures that those related to NCLB-designated core social studies content areas are administered according to the original schedule.

NAGB has eliminated:

• US History and Civics in Grades 4 in 2010 and 2014 from the NAEP assessment schedule;
• postponed Geography from 2010 to 2014; and
• eliminated Economics and World History scheduled for 2012

Changes in planned testing and administration of the NAEP require significant lead time to accommodate the lengthy process of crafting test questions, selecting representative samples of schools and students, and other preparations, including a decision on whether to proceed with the geography test by February 2008.

Members of Congress have recognized the need for expanded testing and are considering a proposal to administer tests in more states with larger sample sizes in US History and Civics to provide comparative data similar to other NAEP assessed subjects.

Research has well established the impact of assessment on instructional time, including the documented marginalization of social studies teaching and learning in our Nation's classrooms and schools.

Sample Letter to Congress

Tips When Corresponding with your Members of Congress