A series of articles celebrating the Bicentennial of the Constitution is presented in two volumes. The first article in Volume 1 is an interview by Bernard Murchland with Barbara Jordan discussing the effectiveness of the original Constitution. The second article, "If I Were President," is an interview by Bernard Murchland with Studs…

This first edition of a new semiannual publication for secondary school teachers of social studies features the article, "The Federal Deficit: Challenges and Opportunities for Policy Makers" (Walter Heller and Bruce Dalgaard) and provides ideas for subject area teaching activities in economics, U.S. government, and world history that…

This special issue is intended to help teachers educate students about today's important U.S. Supreme Court and other judicial decisions, the legal issues they involve, and their impact on students' lives. The issue focuses upon the 1995 term of the Supreme Court and the tendency for the justices to vote unanimously. An overview of the cases and…

Three articles on civic education are included in this theme issue. "Civic Education: While Democracy Flourishes Abroad, U.S. Schools Try to Reinvigorate Teaching of Citizenship," provides an overview of the status of civic education in the United States. "Civic Education: Schools Aim to Link Knowledge, Active Lessons in Citizenship" features…

Civics is a subject usually taught only in grades 4, 8, and 12. This article supports the teaching of civics in every grade, every day. The article offers a list of topics for an elementary school civics and government curriculum and suggests an informal elementary school civics curriculum consisting of activities during the school day that…

The goal of civic education should be to develop competent, responsible citizens whose words and actions uphold and enrich the constitutional democracy of the United States. Being a good citizen requires proper knowledge, skills, and dispositions. This forum offers five articles: (1) "Educating Responsible Citizens" (Ivor Pritchard;…

This theme issue of "The Docket" is devoted to national standards and their effects on education reform. National standards may provide the first real opportunity for schools to address the issues of student assessment and achievement. As the touchstone for educational equity, they may be the first real opportunity for teachers to…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 Civics Assessment measured student knowledge, intellectual and participatory skills, and civic dispositions at the fourth grade level. This publication describes fourth graders' performance based on 30 questions from the fourth-grade assessment. Twenty-three of the thirty questions were…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 Civics Assessment measured students' knowledge, their intellectual and participatory skills, and their civic dispositions at the 12th-grade level. This publication describes 12th graders performance on 38 questions from the 12th-grade assessment. Thirty-one of the thirty-eight questions…

This theme issue looks at three issues of religious tolerance. The first article examines a case recently decided by the United States Supreme Court on student-led prayers at school events. The second article explores the persecution suffered by members of the Mormon religion during the 19th century. The final article looks at Martin Luther and…

"Update on the Courts," a resource for civic education, helps teach secondary school students about today's important Supreme Court and other judicial decisions, the legal issues involved, and the impact of the decisions on the students' lives. This issue features a lesson on copyright laws, a case overview and lesson on sexual…

Excerpts from a monograph entitled "Civic Learning in Teacher Education" are given. They include a brief reprise of a 1982 DeGarmo lecture in which R. Freeman Butts argued that teacher education institutions and public schools should place much more emphasis on citizenship education, along with responses by nine other authors. (PP)

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 Civics Assessment measured student knowledge, intellectual and participatory skills, and civic dispositions at the eighth grade level. This publication describes eighth graders performance based on 37 questions from the eighth-grade assessment. Thirty of the thirty-seven questions were…

This theme issue of "The International Journal of Social Education" contains 11 articles all concerned with efforts to promote civic education in post-communist countries, particularly former Soviet-Bloc nations, including Latvia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Russia. Described are international partnerships for civic…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 Civics Assessment found that 12th-graders who participated in volunteer service had higher scores than those who did not. Furthermore, 12th-graders who worked 6 to 15 hours a week had higher scores than those who either worked longer hours or did not work at all. (Contains two tables and…