National Council for the Social Studies
National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) -- NCSS is the largest association in North America devoted solely to social studies education. The NCSS serves as an umbrella organization for K-12 teachers of civics, history, geography, economics, political science, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and law-related education. The NCSS has more than 26,000 individual and institutional members in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, and 69 other countries. Membership is organized into a network of 82 affiliated councils and four associated groups representing professionals such as classroom teachers, curriculum designers, curriculum specialists, college and university professors, school officials, supervisors and consultants, publishers, and other social studies professionals. The purpose of social studies is to teach students the content knowledge, intellectual skills, and civic values for fulfilling the duties of citizenship in a participatory democracy.
Mission
The mission of NCSS is to provide leadership, service, and support for all social studies educators in creating effective citizens. The revitalization of civic learning is one of NCSS's highest priorities.
Achievements
In 2004, NCSS supported various pieces of Federal and State legislation affecting civic learning, including working with Senator Alexander's staff in support of two pieces of legislation he introduced during the 108th Congress. In the 109th Congress, the Senator plans to reintroduce
his bill S.2721, the "American History Achievement Act," that did not pass in the 108th. The Bill will amend the NAEP Authorization Act to require a pilot program initially for academic assessment of student achievement in United States history in the 12th grade in a minimum of
10 states with disaggregated data. Assessment of civic learning would be added at a later date. NCSS is mounting a grass roots campaign in support of this legislation.
The NCSS Board of Directors passed a resolution during their May 2004 board meeting "that NCSS supports disaggregating of data by state for any social studies assessments administered at the secondary level." NCSS President Jesus Garcia sent a letter to the National Assessment
Governing Board making a compelling case for more frequent NAEP assessments in social studies, and the disaggregating of the assessments to allow the individual states to judge how well their students are progressing academically in relation to the national average and to know
where their states rank in relation to each of the other states.
Throughout the year NCSS publications and website featured many useful and timely articles to aid classroom teachers in preparing today's students to become tomorrow's citizens. These features ranged in subject from how to utilize the National Archive's "Teaching with
Document's" program to how to teaching about elections, political campaigns, and turning out the youth vote. Social Education, the NCSS flagship publication, carries a regular column concerning civic literacy in social studies.
CiviConnections: Constructing the Past, Creating the Future -- This is a national teacher service learning training grant program in partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service. NCSS entered into the partnership in October 2003. The first group of 33 teacher-teams successfully completed their summer workshop training and their projects. NCSS is accepting applications for 2005 CiviConnections service learning grants until February 25.
Civic Mission of School Campaign Grants - In the first year of funding, civic learning coalitions in six states received grants for $150,000 over two years, and 12 coalitions received grants for $20,000 over two years. Eleven of the 18 coalitions include NCSS affiliates. Many of the state coalitions receiving CMS grants were coalitions begun as a result of the convening of the First Congressional Conference on Civic Education.
NCSS Summer Leadership Institute - The goal of the NCSS Summer Leadership Institute is to build capacity at the affiliate council level for serving and leading the social studies profession and advocating for stronger K-12 social studies curriculum. This past summer case studies were presented by the Washington state and Michigan councils on how to build relations with state legislators and how to lead a successful state advocacy campaign. Approximately 75 attended the 2004 Institute.
Alliance for Representative Democracy - NCSS has participated in this national coalition to promote civic learning since 2003. The Alliance is led by the Center for Civic Education, the Center on Congress at Indiana University, and National Conference of State Legislatures. The Alliance currently has sate teams in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to promote civic learning through connecting policy sources and best practices. NCSS council affiliates are involved in 28 of these coalitions.
Contact Information
Susan Griffin and Jesus Garcia
Executive Director and President
The National Council for the Social Studies
8555 16th Street, Suite 500
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
301.588.1800, Ext. 103
Fax: 301.588.2049
Email: sgriffin@ncss.org
Website: http://www.socialstudies.org