The Virginia Consortium of Social Studies Specialists
and College Educators
Statement of Concern and Interest regarding the
No Child Left Behind Legislation and Implementation
2006

“…C) SUBJECTS— The State shall have such academic standards for all public elementary school and secondary school children, including children served under this part, in subjects determined by the State, but including at least mathematics, reading or language arts, and (beginning in the 2005-2006 school year) science, which shall include the same knowledge, skills, and levels of achievement expected of all children.”

—From the No Child Left Behind Legislation, passed and enacted as federal law in 2001

A set of rigorous academic disciplines makes up the field of Social Studies. These disciplines, when studied alone or in concert with other Social Studies subjects, operate as integrative and challenging academic pursuits with important civic and social implications. “Social Studies” as a subject includes the fields of History, Economics, Geography, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, and Political Science. Yet none of these specific fields that make up Social Studies, nor “Social Studies” itself as a broad field of study, are explicitly included in the No Child Left Behind legislation. Because of these omissions, Social Studies are left off of the educational agenda for the United States. In a context where other disciplines are explicitly included, and in political and social settings wherein financial resources need to be spent according to legally mandated priorities, Social Studies as a discipline is, in many communities, finding itself “left behind” when it comes to budget money and instructional time spent in our nation’s schools. In the face of this situation, leaders in the various fields of Social Studies owe it to themselves, to our society, and to our nation’s children to respond publicly with specific concerns about NCLB’s implications for Social Studies, and with ways to address those concerns. This document is an effort by the Virginia Consortium of Social Studies Specialists and College Educators to articulate both the concerns and some ways to address them.

The Disquieting Situation for Social Studies

Consider the following educational context which exists in the United States due to the “ripple effect” of NCLB:

  • The amount of instructional time devoted to teaching Social Studies, especially in elementary, middle, and low performing schools has declined markedly since 2001. (Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, in Education Week, March 16, 2005).
  • Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind legislation, only four of the 50 states report that the same amount of time is being devoted to Social Studies compared to the period before the legislation was enacted. (NCSS President-elect, Peggy Altoff, in Education Update, ASCD, Volume 48, No.5)
  • In 2005-2006, 33% of US school districts reported that instructional time in Social Studies had been reduced somewhat or to great extent to make more time for reading and math (The Center on Education Policy [CEP] annual report on the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, based on the results of their survey. See The Social Studies Professional, May/June 2006).

In Virginia:

Thankfully, there are states such as Virginia that have explicitly included Social Studies in their mandated curriculum, and have insisted that knowledge of our country, our world, and our economy be a part of public education. We commend the Virginia State Board of Education for continuing to include Social Studies competencies and understandings in our educational program, and for insisting that these understandings be verified and measured. Waynesboro, Virginia, a district that participated in the nationwide study by the CEP, reports that because of state testing on the Standards of Learning and the accreditation process that requires successful performance in Social Studies, the discipline has not suffered from lack of instructional time or academic attention. Many districts across the state express similar findings—due to the existence of the state standards, testing, and accreditation process. (The Center on Education Policy, From the Capital to the Classroom: Year 4 of the No Child Left Behind Act, http://www.cep-dc.org/nclb/Year4/Press/ )
Despite the support the Virginia Board has shown for Social Studies, however, some educational policies and patterns continue to provide cause for concern in our state:

  • Secondary schools report that given a three and a half week-long window for Standards of Learning testing, Social Studies tests are scheduled at the very beginning of the window (first week in May) so that Math and English can have more instructional time and test at the end of the window near Memorial Day.
  • Districts hire extra instructional personnel for Math and English K-12, but not for Social Studies. In a large northern Virginia district, every school has recently added an instructional coach specifically to help teachers work with students in English and Math, not Social Studies. In other smaller districts, instructional coaches for English and Math have also been added. Extra resources and personnel in such core subjects as Math and English are always welcome since these disciplines require skills that apply in many academic areas. However, the extra measures directed specifically at these disciplines raise the important pedagogical question: Shouldn’t we be focusing on teaching that integrates thought, ideas and skills rather than creating instructional structures that further divide areas of learning—or maybe even decontextualize them?

The VCSSSCE Position on the Current Situation:

The absence of Social Studies from national education legislation such as NCLB, when other specific academic disciplines are included, is not only disturbing, but belies a complete understanding of how learning takes place. Denying Social Studies explicit inclusion in the legislation cannot remove it from implicit inclusion in the classroom. Math and English are not mutually exclusive of Social Studies. In fact, success in Social Studies, which is a critically thoughtful, integrative subject, leads to success in all academic areas. If students are reading and computing, they have to be reading and computing about something. Thus there is a need to make de jure accounts of learning come into line with the de facto conditions of it—and this does not simply mean looking for ways to include Social Studies in the Math and English lessons that are already on the agenda. Practices such as this will definitely help with knowledge integration, but we do our students and Social Studies an injustice when we discount the integrative quality of the subject, and act as if “Social Studies” is only relevant when we use it to look at a graph or read a story.

By not including Social Studies, NCLB is neglecting the skills that teach students to become responsible citizens, seek employment, and be successful in higher education.  As recent educational research has pointed out, post secondary education and jobs with growth potential require skills that include the ability to read and interpret materials, detect bias, write effectively, evaluate points of view and understand complex information, all of which take place in the social studies classroom (McCombs, Kirby, et al., Achieving State and National Literacy Goals: A Long Uphill Road, 2004).  In other words, and to quote T.K. Rabb from an article in Education Digest, under the current NCLB statutes, students will be able to read and solve mathematical problems, “but certainly not to think, let alone understand how they have been shaped by their past” (Rabb, No Child Left Behind Historical Literacy, Education Digest, October 2004 p. 21). In sum, VCSSSCE would ask the following questions: If we name a national education law “No Child Left Behind,” and only list Math, English, and eventually Science, as subjects in which we do not want students “left behind,” are we saying that it is acceptable for our young people to be left behind in civic education? Is it acceptable if we allow them to fall behind in historical, contextual understanding of themselves, their neighbors, or their world?

Suggestions for the Future:
The VCSSSCE considers it imperative that Social Studies be recognized as the vital academic subject that it is. Therefore, we offer three suggestions aimed at correcting the current unacceptable situation.

First, we would suggest that to demonstrate reading competencies, NCLB be modified to require students to understand text passages on Social Studies topics. The passages could be accompanied by standard questions asking students to apply content knowledge--in addition to their understandings of the mechanics of reading and vocabulary retention. Since we are trying to prepare all of our young people for participation in a democratic republic, our society should require that our children be able to read an article about a socially relevant topic, think about it, and own the information it presents.

Second, we propose that NCLB legislation be amended to require students to demonstrate competence in content knowledge. This can be accomplished through standardized tests on all of the topics that constitute an informed citizen: geography, economics, history, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and political science.

Third, we recommend that NCLB require students to demonstrate the ability to organize thoughts on a social or historical issue and write about these thoughts coherently. A democratic republic needs thoughtful citizens who can communicate clearly and participate in civic life.

Finally, we must make it clear that if our federal government continues to remain deaf to the need for Social Studies education, our states must work to include the Social Studies in our curricula and our accreditation processes. In a context where competence in some core academic subjects must be verified, we cannot leave out any of the core subjects—since a school’s resources are always limited. If competence in a subject is not accountable to governing authorities, the risk and reality of marginalization only increase. So, yet again, the VCSSSCE is proud of the state of Virginia for the role it plays in demanding that Social Studies education remain a part of the requirements for adult citizenship, and we urge other states to follow Virginia’s example.