If the title of the report isn't troubling enough, the trends it reveals are certainly worrisome. According to Academic Atrophy: The Condition of the Liberal Arts in America's Public Schools, the arts, foreign languages, and elementary social studies have taken a backseat to subjects tested on national exams, such as math and reading. The report, released in 2004, found that when forced to choose between delivering a broad, liberal arts curriculum and boosting students' achievement on tests, a majority of school leaders will pick the latter.
For social studies educators, the findings confirm what they had heard from their colleagues—and continue to hear two years after the report was released: teachers, particularly in elementary school, would love to teach social studies, but they must adhere to schedules that allot time for math and reading instruction and little else.
"A lot of administrators are getting increasingly strict about when certain things should be taught," says Jeff Passe, president of the National Council of Social Studies (NCSS). When teachers "are held accountable for every minute," many teachers—especially beginning teachers—are "afraid" to teach anything but the prescribed content.
And what really suffers is social studies learning, says Peggy Altoff, president-elect of the NCSS. Subjects such as physical education, art, and music are likely to remain part of the learning program because schedules allow it: teachers are given planning time when their students are off with those specialists. It's not as easy to hold time for social studies as sacred. Indeed, since No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates have been in effect, says Altoff, "only four states report the same amount of time being spent on teaching social studies."
Some administrators who pressure teachers to spend less time teaching social studies may have been "thrust into the curriculum coordinator role" without sufficient professional development, says Roger Wolff, assistant education professor at the University of South Dakota. These administrators, therefore, don't have "a broad enough understanding" of why it's important to incorporate social science in the curriculum.
"Our issue is not with our colleagues [in the classroom]," Passe adds. The issue is with administrators and policymakers—many of whom "aren't even aware that this marginalization of social studies has taken place."
The situation has been characterized as "an unintended consequence of NCLB," notes Altoff. If that's true, she continues, "then someone has to do something intentional about it—now!"
Sensible Solutions
One deliberate strategy is to lobby for social studies to be a testable item, some educators say. If it's testable, social studies will remain "a vital part of the curriculum," reasons Altoff. Until the subject is included on national-level tests, though, she encourages the states to assess social studies knowledge on their state-level exams.
But be careful what you wish for, cautions Jamie Sawatzky, a 7th grade social studies teacher at Rocky Run Middle School in Fairfax County, Va. Although "some focus on social studies," would be nice, Sawatzky would prefer that the subject stay out of the spotlight "because we might then lose our flexibility."
And flexibility is essential if teachers are to create learning experiences that students will remember years after a lesson ends. "In our curriculum documents, we are told we have to teach certain subject matter," says Sawatzky. That's not a problem, he says, "so long as they don't tell me to have students just memorize facts."
Sawatzky believes that students should truly experience the subjects they're studying. For him, therefore, "it's all about historical simulations." For a unit on World War I, for example, Sawatzky drapes sheets of butcher block paper over desks in his classroom to create trenches, which are surrounded by fake barbed wire and bombs; air raid sirens wail while students, crouched in their trenches, read All Quiet on the Western Front.
Sawatzky also works with his middle school team to weave social studies concepts into English, math, and science. When students learn about the Great Depression, for instance, they will read a novel about that time period. They'll graph the year-to-year economic conditions, such as unemployment rates. Then, they'll watch a movie about the dust bowl and debate whether such an environmental calamity hinders or helps the economy.
Such interdisciplinary approaches are very effective in keeping social studies alive in the curriculum, observes Wolff. Teachers need to "infuse all topic areas into their teaching," he says, adding that teachers can also use social studies to teach subjects like reading and math.
A Reading Textbook and Math Gold Mine
Indeed, teachers in Maryland's Prince George's County School District have found that reading and social studies instruction pair nicely together. According to Kara Libby, supervisor of social studies for the district, teachers know to emphasize reading skills when teaching the content. "This gives students practice in reading informational text"—a testable, skill, says Libby: about 70 percent of the questions on the Maryland School Assessment require students to comprehend informational texts, and many of those questions focus on social studies.
"So we say to social studies teachers, ‘When you teach the content, use pre- and post-reading strategies," Libby explains. "Look at the vocabulary and discuss it."
"We do a lot with anticipation guides," says Betsy Bratek, a 6th grade teacher at Greenbelt Middle School in Prince George's County. Before students read a specific passage, Bratek gives them a list of statements. Her students then have to determine if the facts she presents are correct. "I ask students to think about what information they will need to support their answers," she explains. "They know they have to find examples in the text."
"Breaking down the text is key," agrees Christina Doepel, social studies department chair at G. James Gholson Middle School in Prince George's County. "Asking a child to read six or seven pages is too overwhelming for them." She adds that it's also important to use activities that allow students "to get their hands involved."
To review social studies vocabulary, for example, Doepel's students create "foldables"—small books that result from folding paper in a particular way. Then, in addition to writing definitions, students can draw pictures that help them remember the social studies concepts associated with the words. "I've used this activity with students K–8 and they all love it," Doepel says. "Even older kids still like art."
If social studies content facilitates reading instruction, imagine the possibilities with math, say experts. "There is so much rich mathematical data in every social studies book—from discussions about the economy to budget expenditures to graphs and charts," says Passe.
Take geography, for example. As Gale Ekiss, cocoordinator of the Arizona Geographic Alliance explains, when students compare and contrast early Spanish and Iroquois housing, they consider how the environment was used to construct the houses, but older students can also explore how builders used perimeter and area to construct each type of house. Younger students can log the number of triangles and squares that abound in each structure.
This lesson, based on national and state standards, is typical of the 85 that are included in GeoMath, a resource "developed by teachers for teachers," in response to frustration with the limited time allotted for social studies. "Teachers want to teach geography," Ekiss asserts; they just need a means for doing so.
GeoMath, says Ekiss, has everything a teacher needs to address social studies and math, including an outline of how each lesson aligns with standards for the three subject areas. So, for example, if an administrator should observe a teacher delivering a lesson on earthquakes, the teacher could describe the math skills addressed: students analyze data on seismicity and determine whether their state is more or less susceptible to earthquakes.
Getting Political
If there is a positive result from social studies' decline, it's that educators now advocate for their subject. "People talk politics like never before in social studies circles," observes Passe, who is lobbying hard to ensure that each state has a supervisor of social studies. This is important because policymakers need to hear why social studies is important and why teachers need training. "The absence of social studies supervisors prevents the quality teaching that we can achieve," he says.
Such a position at the district level can also be an antidote to atrophy. "I feel a resurgence for social studies in the last couple of years," says Doepel, who welcomes a presence in the district office. "I think you need supervisors to make sure social studies is not forgotten," she says. "Our county sees the value that social studies has in helping children become well-developed and well-rounded. We're fortunate that somebody in our county is looking out for social studies."