A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

APPLICATION NO      :    R215E40048 APPLICANT           :    Arizona Department of Education                          1525 W. Jefferson Street                          Phoenix, Arizona  85007 CONTACT PERSON 	    :    Muriel Rosman TELEPHONE      	    :    (602) 542-7840 AWARD TO DATE       :    $274,726 PROJECT PERIOD      :    10/01/94-09/30/97 

The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) - in collaboration with three state institutions of higher education, the Arizona Council for the Social Studies, and teachers of history, civics and government, and geography - proposes an inclusive project designed to reform and restructure Social Studies Education while meeting the purposes of the authorizing statute.

The framework being proposed unites the state's establishment of nonfragmented curriculum, instruction and performance-based assessments with the development of state guidelines for pre-service training, formulation of certification requirements, and creation of inservice training activities that promote realignment of existing social studies curricula against the new framework. This coupling of an emerging content-standards framework with consensus-driven guidelines for pre-service training, state Board-approved certification requirements, and the requisite inservice opportunities for educators is more fully expressed in the proposal's five components:

1. Development of a coherent, content-standards framework based upon nationally emerging standards and current views of how students, in grades K-12, learn history, civics and government, and geography as they endeavor to achieve civic competence.
2. Establishment of guidelines for pre-service training and certification or recertification in the field of Social Studies Education.
3. Design and implementation of a professional development program based on up- to-date curriculum, instruction and assessment to enhance the use of the framework by districts.
4. Creation and piloting of performance-based assessments derived from a compilation of essential learning that are embedded in the new social studies framework and are integrated with reading and writing.
5. Evaluation of project effectiveness and examination of the impact of proposed activities on the state's reform of social studies curriculum, instruction and assessment.

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