Why is the Teaching and Learning of Social Studies Important?

Articles & Media Explaining the Value of Social Studies

• Why Study History, By Peter N. Stearns
• Wall Street Journal – The Education Our Economy Needs by Norm Augustine
• Scholars Put Civics in Same Category as Literacy by Jaclyn Zubrzycki
• Do our Children Know how to be Citizens? by Robert Pondiscio
• Democracy is Not a Spectator Sport: The Role of Social Studies in Safeguarding the Republic by Kenneth C. Davis
• History Educator: Let’s Teach as if Democracy Depends on It — Because it Does by Valerie Strauss

Articles & Media Explaining the Importance of Social Studies to Literacy and Reading

• BROAD KNOWLEDGE DRIVES LITERACY:  Building a diverse academic knowledge base contributes to the ongoing development of reading and writing skills  The Herff Jones Achievement Series (February 2012)
• Instructional Shifts in Social Studies by Corbin Moore, OCSS President (2013)
• Time for a social studies revival? District Administration (2013)
• The Importance of Social Studies in the Common Core in an InfoGraphic (2013)
• Students can’t Google everything-Why knowledge matters-D.Willingham
  
• History and Social Studies – At the Core of the Common Core by Mark Stout
• School Systems Caught in a Lose-Lose Situation by Scott McComb
• Learning to Read and Write by Focusing on Evidence , Perspective and Interpretation by Chancey Monte-Sano
• Teaching Disciplinary Literacy by Timothy and Cynthia Shanahan
• Getting Students to Think like Historians by Jeffrey Nokes (2012)
• Video – Teaching Content is Teaching Reading
• Video – Disciplinary Literacy:  Why it matters and what we should do about it.
• COMMON CORE PRESENTS OPPORTUNITIES FOR SOCIAL STUDIES: But history, civics, geography, economics educators must work actively to seize them by Herff Jones  Achievement Series (August 2013).
• Social Studies with Reading and Writing at the Core – Quote from Chapter 5 from Focus, Elevating the Essentials by Mike Schmoker (2011)
• Social Studies – Owner’s Manual of Democracy Quote – Ed Rickers, CEO of Studies Weekly
• Using Disciplinary Literacy to Develop Coherence in History Teacher Education by Bob Bain (2012)

Evidence and Reports  

• The State of K-12 Social Studies Instruction in Ohio Social Studies Research and Practice (2008)
• The Critical Need for a Renewed Focus on Social Studies FDR
• MD Social Studies Task Force Report (2010)
• Social Studies Under Siege-Examining Elementary Social Studies Marginalization
  
• Maryland Civic Health Index Report
• NHD Report – The Value of the National History Day Experience
• The State of State U.S. History Standards Fordham Foundation (2011)
• Advancing Civic Learning And engagement in Democracy:  A Road Map and Call to Action  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION (2012)
• The Marginalization of Elementary Social Studies in Teacher Education  Social Studies Research and Practice (2010)
• Shortchanging the Future:  The Crisis of History and Civics in American Schools – A Pioneer Institute White Paper
• World Savvy Global Competency Research Report
• U.S. Education Reform and National Security  (Chairs: Joel I. Klein, News Corporation, and Condoleezza Rice, Stanford University)  PBS Newshour Story
• 2006 National Geographic-Roper:  Survey of Geographic Literacy
• The State of State World History Standards Fordham Foundation (2006)