Analyzing the New York Global History and Geography Exam

Authors

  • S. G. Grant University at Buffalo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v9n39.2001

Keywords:

Curriculum, New York, Geography, Social Studies, Policy

Abstract

Education Week's report "Quality Counts" judges New York State's curriculum and assessment policy efforts to be an "A." Surface-level reviews such as "Quality Counts" tell something about the workings of state policy, but they are more useful as snapshots than as well-developed portraits of curriculum and assessment change. In this article, I analyze the new New York State Global History and Geography standards and tests using a set of social studies-specific criteria which inquire deeply into the implications for real instructional change. From that vantage, I argue that New York's policy efforts, while seemingly well-intentioned and reflective of surface-level change, fail to promote powerful teaching and learning in social studies. Teachers intent on producing ambitious teaching and learning will find little to interfere with their efforts. But as a set of reforms intended to encourage substantive change, the new global history test falls short.

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Author Biography

S. G. Grant, University at Buffalo

S. G. Grant is an Associate Professor of Social Studies Education in the Department of Learning and Instruction at the University at Buffalo. His research interests lie at the intersection of state curriculum and assessment policies and teachers' classroom practices, with a particular emphasis in social studies. In addition to publishing papers in both social studies and general education journals, Dr. Grant has published Reforming Reading, Writing, and Mathematics: Teachers' Responses and the Prospects for Systemic Reform (1998; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates) and (with Bruce VanSledright) Constructing a Powerful Approach to Teaching and Learning in Elementary Social Studies (2001, Houghton Mifflin).

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Published

2001-10-03

How to Cite

Grant, S. G. (2001). Analyzing the New York Global History and Geography Exam. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 9, 39. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v9n39.2001

Issue

Section

Articles