Using School Reform To Teach Modern U.S. History

Abstract

The history of the modem American high school is a complex subject, full of rich potential for a high school history class. It is a subject with an inherent appeal for high school students, and one that allows a teacher to demonstrate the interconnectedness of politics with social institutions and to trace the impact of large social movements within a familiar context. By following the changes in their own school curriculum and mission from the tum of the century to the present, students experience in microcosm many of the shifting socio-political ideologies of the twentieth century. The impact of progressivism, the war years, the Cold War, the civil rights movement, the Reagan era-these periods become more vivid and comprehensible when seen through the lens of school reform and local educational policy. The study of school reform also allows for the use of a wide range of accessible, interdisciplinary, first-hand source material. National educational mandates and reports, Supreme Court rulings regarding school policy, old school yearbooks, and other local archival material are all useful tools for seeing how the school reflects and enacts the changing norms of the society at large.