Open AccessAnalyzing the New York Global History and Geography Exam
Author(s) -
S. G. Grant
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
education policy analysis archives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.727
H-Index - 46
ISSN - 1068-2341
DOI - 10.14507/epaa.v9n39.2001
Subject(s) - curriculum , state (computer science) , set (abstract data type) , test (biology) , social studies , sociology , portrait , quality (philosophy) , pedagogy , social change , public administration , mathematics education , political science , public relations , psychology , law , geography , epistemology , computer science , paleontology , philosophy , archaeology , algorithm , biology , programming language
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.