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

APPLICATION NO      :    R215E40031 APPLICANT           :    Michigan Department of Education                          P.O. Box 30008                          Lansing, Michigan  48909 CONTACT PERSON	    :    Barbara Atkins TELEPHONE      	    :    (517) 373-7248 AWARD TO DATE       :    $309,332 PROJECT PERIOD      :    10/01/94-09/30/97 

The Michigan Department of Education in collaboration with Oakland Schools, the Michigan Partnership for New Education, and the Michigan Task Force for Social Studies Education are developing content standards for history and civics within an integrated social studies curriculum framework. The purpose of the project is to provide leadership for systemic educational reform by focusing efforts on challenging standards for student achievement.

Michigan Public Act 335 of 1993 has mandated a core academic curriculum which includes history, geography, civics and economics in line with Goals 2000. Federal funding has allowed the development of content standards in geography. This project will expand on that effort by producing content standards in history and civics with subsequent work to take place in economics. In developing these standards, a framework will be constructed which assists schools and teachers to make connections between the content standards of all of these disciplines and use these standards to align curriculum, instruction and assessment. The content standards and framework will be widely disseminated throughout the state.

The project will also help to align pre-service education of teachers and the professional development of in-service teachers with the history and civics content standards. It will develop guidelines and recommendations for the education of pre-service teachers, and their certification and introduction. Finally, the project will develop four professional development sites to help construct models for locally determined, sustained and cost-effective professional development programs. A professional development resource package will be assembled and pilot tested based on knowledge and experiences gained from these sites.

This project will benefit Michigan by providing leadership for the systemic reform efforts already underway in this state. It will provide guidance and resources to local school districts in constructing curriculum, assessing student achievement based on that curriculum and providing professional development for their teachers.

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[Michigan Curriculum Framework...]

[Michigan Mathematics and Science...]