In this book, extended case studies of two veteran teachers and their students are combined with the extant research literature to explore current issues of teaching, learning, and testing U.S. history. It is among the first to examine these issues together and in interaction. While the two teachers share several similarities, the teaching practices they construct could not be more different. To explore these differences, the author asks what their teaching practices look like, how their instruction influences their students' understandings of history, and what role statewide exams play in...

In this analysis, extended case studies of two veteran teachers and their students are combined with the extant research literature to explore issues of teaching, learning and testing US history. It examines these issues together and in interaction. While the two teachers share several similarities, the teaching practices they construct could not be more different. To explore these differences, the author asks what their teaching practices look like, how their instruction influences their students' understandings of history, and what role statewide exams play in their classroom decisions.

Measuring History complements the cases presented in Wise Social Studies Practices (Yeager & Davis, 2005). Yeager and Davis highlight the rich and ambitious teaching that can occur in the broad context of state-level testing. In this book, the chapter authors and I bring the particular state history tests more to the fore and examine how teachers are responding to them. At the heart of Measuring History are cases of classroom teachers in seven states (Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia) where new social studies standards and new, and generally high-stakes,...

Measuring History complements the cases presented in Wise Social Studies Practices (Yeager & Davis, 2005). Yeager and Davis highlight the rich and ambitious teaching that can occur in the broad context of state-level testing. In this book, the chapter authors and I bring the particular state history tests more to the fore and examine how teachers are responding to them. At the heart of Measuring History are cases of classroom teachers in seven states (Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia) where new social studies standards and new, and generally high-stakes,...