A Report from the 2006 Social Studies Summit

Siobhan Carter

Carter

This fall marks the beginning of my tenure as Education Coordinator for the OAH. As part of my new position, I was given the opportunity to participate in a Social Studies Summit hosted by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and Junior Achievement Worldwide. This event brought together delegates from numerous organizations representing the disciplines of social studies in the United States. Each group was asked to add reflections from their area of expertise to the profession and pre-K-12 students by contributing their time and talents to the discussion.

The summit was an outgrowth of a response to the 2004 report, Academic Atrophy, which found curricular erosion, particularly in the social studies, at the elementary level and decreases in classroom time for all subjects but math and reading. Moreover, these findings indicate that this has a disproportionate impact on schools serving students of color.

After discussing the implications of these findings and possible routes to correcting them, the group settled on a mission for a proposed coalition: “To advocate for greater recognition of the core social studies disciplines of civics, economics, geography, history—within the reauthorization of the No Child Left behind Act.” A steering committee to determine the agenda for the next meeting was formed consisting of a representative from NCSS and four more representatives, one from each of the four core disciplines. In addition, participants were asked to solicit approval from their respective organizations and to be part of a working group aimed at initiating this mission.

Attending this summit was an eye-opener for me in many ways. As a graduate student who is training to become a professional historian, it was both awe-inspiring and refreshing to be exposed to the work and insights of such a diverse group of practitioners of social studies disciplines. Although the group consisted largely of directors, CEOs, and presidents, precollegiate classroom teachers, columnists, education advocates, and other graduate students were also present to voice their views on the issues. I was pleased to witness what a rewarding choice many of them had made to dedicate their time—and for a few of them, entire careers—to helping teachers. Those who attended the summit do a great service to American school children by offering their knowledge and connections to the cause of creating an informed and active citizenry, but they also inspire budding academicians to think outside of the box regarding where our Ph.D.s can take us.

As it concerns OAH members, those working in higher education will be forced to reckon with those working in the trenches known as America’s public schools. If primary and secondary education students do not receive a proper history instruction—and see how history is important in their daily lives—this task becomes even more difficult when they reach college. So that our positions and passions do not become obsolete in the minds of the students we face at the start of each semester, and so that we continue to do the work that we know is important, those involved in all levels of the practice of history must continue to forge alliances aimed at examining and remedying these issues. To those individuals and organizations working to make it happen, Kudos.

Siobhan Carter is OAH Education Coordinator. A graduate student in history at Indiana University, Carter is an OAH-IU Diversity Fellow.