1. Revised History Standards Released
2. Congress Passes Another Short Term Spending Measure
3. NCC To Testify on National Archives and NHPRC FY'97 Budgets
1. Revised History Standards Released -- On April 3 UCLA's
National Center for History in the Schools released the revised
edition of the voluntary standards for teaching history from
kindergarten through the 12th grade. The first draft of the
history standards, which came out over a year ago, faced
criticism that focused primarily on the teaching examples and not
on the standards themselves. The new standards include
refinement of the board guidelines but do not include any sample
classroom assignments.
To consider various criticisms of the first draft, the Council
for Basic Education sponsored two prestigious panels which held
extensive meetings and issued a report on their findings. Over
the past several months the UCLA National Center for History in
the Schools has revised the standards based on recommendations of
the panels. Albert Quie, a former Republican governor and
congressman and chair of the U.S. History Review Panel appointed
by the Council for Basic Education, endorsed the revised
standards. He stated: "This version of the history standards
represents a tremendous improvement over the way history is
taught in American's schools." He further noted that "The
criticism that applied to the first version of the history
standards certainly does not apply to the new version, and that
should be clear to anyone who reads the document --liberal or
conservative."
Christopher Cross, the president of the Council for Basic
Education, gives the revised standards very high marks. "The
UCLA National Center for History in the Schools has listened well
to the criticism of the earlier documents," he noted "and has
created a new document that will serve schools well as a guide to
improving the teaching of U.S. and world history." Echoing this
position is Robert Schwartz, the director of the education
program for the Pew Charitable Trust, one of the funders of the
Council on Basic Education's review process. Schwartz calls the
revised standards sound, balanced and of practical value. Diane
Ravitch, a noted professional in the field of history education
and a critic of the first draft, has also commended the new
standards.
"National Standards for History: Basic Edition" contains all of
the standards from the original books with hundreds of minor
changes to expand and improve the existing material. As with the
voluntary standards projects in other subjects, the goal of the
standards is to serve as background material that teachers and
school districts can use to help develop curriculum and create
state standards.
An overarching goal in this revision was to retain from the
original history standards the principal mission of broadening
the content of history in schools and providing a new framework
for critical thinking skills. The material encourages students
to develop competence in -- chronological thinking;
comprehension, analysis and interpretation; research;
issues-analysis; and decision- making.
The history standards are available for $15.95 per book, plus $5
shipping and handling for the first book ordered ($1 shipping and
handling for additional books and California residents add 8.25
percent tax). Books can be ordered by check, credit card, or
purchase order by calling the UCLA Store at (310) 206-0788. Fax
orders to (310) 825-0382, e-mail orders should be sent to
bookorder@asucla.ucla.edu or mail to UCLA Book Zone, 308 Westwood
Plaza, Ackerman Union, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1645.
2. Congress Passes Another Short Term Spending Bill -- On March
29 the Congress passed and the President signed another stop gap
spending measure that will provide funding until April 24 for
those agencies whose FY'96 appropriations bills have not yet been
passed. Congress had hoped to reach agreement, prior to leaving
for the Easter Recess, on an Omnibus Spending Bill that would
provide funding until September 30, the end of the fiscal year,
for those agencies for which FY'96 appropriations bills have not
been passed. Unable to reach agreement, Congress will resume
work on the Omnibus Spending Bill when they return on April 15.
The House version of the Omnibus Spending Bill, but not the
Senate bill, includes an amendment introduced by Representative
Ernest Istook (R-OK) that calls for the addition of extensive
record keeping requirements for nonprofit organizations that
receive federal grants. A Conference Committee will decide
whether to include the Istook type language in the compromise
bill.
3. NCC To Testify on National Archives and NHPRC FY'97 Budgets
-- On April 30 the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Treasury,
Postal Service, and General Government will hold a hearing for
outside witnesses to present testimony on the FY'97 budgets of
any agencies or programs under the subcommittee's jurisdiction.
The NCC will be testifying at that hearing on the FY'97 budgets
for the National Archives and the National Historical
Publications and Records Commission.
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H-Net subscribers are invited to redistribute the NCC reports.
See the complete back file on World Wide Web:
http://h-net.msu.edu/~ncc/
The NCC is a coalition of 51 scholarly organizations, including
H-Net. NCC is the history profession's lobby in Washington, and
its positions reflect the consensus of its member organizations.
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