From the Green Mile to the Yellow Brick Road: Using a Practical Model to Fill in the Social Studies Content Gaps

Abstract

Since the inception of mandated testing in reading and mathematics, social studies instruction has been marginalized in elementary and middle schools. After the genesis of several state-mandated testing programs and nearly a decade after the launch of the No Child Left Behind legislation, the effects of limited K–8 social studies instruction are being recognized at the high school level, specifically in high school test score data. This article reveals the obstacles generated by marginalizing social studies in the elementary and middle schools and offers a model for helping teachers understand their role in offsetting the problems associated with early social studies marginalization. The article also provides a way to help teachers collaboratively fill the social studies content gaps.

Keywords:

• social studies
• social studies assessment
• social studies marginalization
• vertical articulation

Notes

* First year of ABCs accountability model in North Carolina.

^∧NCLB

⁺With 2003–2004 curriculum and assessment revisions, a new scale score model was adopted for USH, making it difficult to compare it to other subject areas. Proficiency scores are used in subsequent years (2003–2007).