NCSS is proud to invite all methods professors to a special free professional learning institute this summer! Our online summer institute, Inquiry and Teaching with Primary Sources to Prepare Students for College, Career, and Civic Life, will be held on Monday, June 7, 2021. Learn how to construct social studies curriculum inquiries for your pre-service teachers using digital sources from the Library of Congress. Pilot and share in-depth feedback on two online methods texts currently under development:  Using Inquiry to Prepare Students for College, Career…

Do you need a powerful tool to help you evaluate the curriculum? inquirED has compiled data and feedback from schools and districts across the country to create an elementary social studies curriculum review guide. Join CEO Shanti Elangovan and Head of Learning Experiences Elisabeth Ventling Simon as they discuss the need for a high-quality social studies curriculum and instructional materials.   This is part of the "Searching for Social Studies" series: March 18 - Why Instructional Materials Matter March 24 - District Spotlight Denver Public Schools April 21 - The Curriculum Review…

Research shows that high-quality instructional materials have a significant impact on improving outcomes for students. What are the implications of this research for social studies teachers and leaders? Join inquirED CEO, Shanti Elangovan, as she discusses the power of curriculum with Tanji Reed Marshall, Director of P-12 Practice at the Education Trust, and Stefanie Wager, President of the National Council for the Social Studies. This is part of the "Searching for Social Studies" series: March 18 - Why Instructional Materials Matter March 24 - District Spotlight Denver Public Schools…

Can a new social studies curriculum begin to transform teaching practice? Join us for a discussion with Jim Short, Carnegie Corporation's Program Director for Leadership and Teaching to Advance Learning. Jim will share the details of a new Carnegie report that places the curriculum at the center of professional learning. Then, we’ll head into the field to look at the model in action, with Sarah Milo Hoskow, inquirED’s Director of Partner Experience.  This is part of the "Searching for Social Studies" series: March 18 - Why Instructional Materials Matter March 24 - District Spotlight Denver…

Join us for a special conversation on Living Nations, Living Words, the signature project of US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. Leading the discussion will be specialists from the Library of Congress and members of the National Council of Teachers of English and the National Council for the Social Studies. Living Nations, Living Words shows, through poetry, that Native people and poets have vital and unequivocal roots in this country. The project features a digital ArcGIS StoryMap, which integrates an interactive national map of 47 contemporary Native poets—and connects to a new online audio…

NCSS Articles of Incorporation (1939) As Amended (1964) We, the undersigned, Howard C. Hill, John R. Davey, and Rolla M. Tryon, citizens of the United States, propose to form a corporation under an Act of the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, entitled, 'An Act Concerning Corporations,' approved April 18, 1872, and all Acts amendatory thereof; and for the purpose of such organization we hereby state as follows, to-wit: The name of such corporation is NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE SOCIAL STUDIES. The purpose of the corporation is to promote the study of the problems of teaching the…

Hosted by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), join NCSS and NCTE for a discussion with social psychologist Dr. Robert Livingston, Author of The Conversation: How Seeking and Speaking the Truth About Racism Can Radically Transform Individuals and Organizations. This event is free to all NCSS members. Please note, registrant emails will be shared with NCTE event staff to receive confirmations with Zoom access. Emails will be sent within 24 hours and a reminder one hour before the start of the event.    All Times Eastern

John Haefner was NCSS President over 40 years ago, in 1953-farther back in time than any other current NCSS member who has served as President. In this interview, he shares his reflections on social studies education then and now, and on the constant challenges facing NCSS. The interview was conducted for Social Education by Mary Hepburn in November 1994. A former student of Dr. Haefner, Dr. Hepburn is professor of social science education and head of the Citizen Education Division at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, Athens. Mary Hepburn: John Haefner, I…

Novelist James Michener may well be the best-known public figure to have been a member of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). He began his teaching and educational career in 1929 as an English teacher, but he soon switched to teaching social studies. Michener taught in two private schools (at The George School in southeastern Pennsylvania, he participated in the Eight-Year Study of the Progressive Education Association) and then studied in Europe. In 1937, Michener accepted an appointment at College High School, the laboratory school for the Colorado State College of…

As the results of state and national standards-setting projects1 become clear, there will be a rush to review them. If sessions during the 1994 National Council for Social Studies annual conference in Phoenix are any indication, however, those reviews will be mixed at best. I am certainly not sanguine about these efforts. The potential for nightmares is real. But the possibilities of authentic and substantive change cannot be ignored. The Nightmares Let me begin with three nightmares. In a chapter titled "Autonomy and Obligation," Lee Shulman (1983) describes the assorted horrors of…