Current trends in social studies: A comparison of national and state standard

Social studies has been impacted by school reform efforts that center on the development of standards in several academic areas. Knowing the foci of national and state standards helps identify current trends in social studies.;The purpose of this study was to describe the extent to which a sampling of states followed the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) Standards in establishing state-level standards in social studies. More specifically, this study compared state level social studies standards of four states, California, Kansas, New York, and Virginia, with the NCSS Standards. Three areas were examined: content, integration, and higher level thinking. Grades 5-8 were chosen because integration with other subjects is stressed at these grades. Further, these years bridge elementary and high school curricula, and play a critical role in preparing students for deeper-level thinking and action-taking in high school.;Content Analysis was the research method used to carry out this study. Content analysis is a non-participatory observational method of research often used to analyze artifacts or documents. While the researcher can merely count words or phrases, often the purpose is to identify similarities or differences of meanings and ideas contained in the documents being studied.;There were four major conclusions reached as a result of this study. (1) The state standards for social studies for middle school were a good match to the NCSS goals for history. (2) The state standards for social studies in the middle school grades did not closely match the NCSS goals for geography. (3) The state-level goals for history and geography most often referenced integration with language arts, followed by science. There was little integration of social studies with mathematics. (4) The state-level goals for history and geography emphasized Bloom's Taxonomy of thinking skills. The lower middle school grades tended to emphasize comprehension, while the higher grades tended to emphasize analysis. The highest levels of thinking skills, synthesis and evaluation, were not highly stressed in the state goals.