A study of the desired and achieved National Standards for United States History in Connecticut public schools

The creation and criticism of the National Standards for United States History raised issues concerning the impact of these standards on schools. This mixed quantitative-qualitative study examined to what degree the United States history teachers in Connecticut public schools perceived they were achieving the Nations Standards for United States history and to what degree they desired them. This research involved three phases.;The second phase involved conducting a survey of United States history teachers in Connecticut public high schools. The survey instrument asked each subject to respond using a Likert-type scale to the degree of perceived achievement and desirability of 34 statements relating to the standards for historical thinking and 31 statements relating to the standards for historical understanding as set forth by the National Standards for United States History. For each question an overall mean score and standard deviation was computed for both achievement and desirability. The Spearman's Rank-Order correlation was used to determine the relationship between the level of desirability and level of achievement of each of the correlations. The questions within a standard were ranked by average score relative to both perceived achievement and desirability. Difference of means tests were conducted between questions to determine whether this ranking was significant at the.05 level. The survey return represented 39.9% of all 138 Connecticut public schools and all seven Education Reference Groups (ERGs).;The third phase involved conducting interviews of 21 respondents. The results of the study suggested that American history teachers in Connecticut both perceive achievement and desire the National Standards for United States History.;The results of the study also suggest significant relationships between achievement and desirability and significant differences among the ERGs regarding achievement and desirability. The research also yielded demographic and narrative information relative to the National Standards for United States History and the current status of American history education in Connecticut.;The first phase was a survey of Connecticut public high school American history curriculum guides. The curriculum guides were evaluated using content analysis for evidence of two areas, historical thinking skills and historical understandings.