A Message to the GCSS Membership

As social studies educators, we often long for more attention to be given to our disciplines – more emphasis in the classroom, more support by administrators, and more attention by the public. Though the circumstances are not what we necessarily would have desired, social studies has certainly been "in the news" around our state for the past few weeks. Many of us were disappointed with the performance of our 6^th and 7^th graders on the CRCT this spring; there clearly were problems in our curriculum and our testing program that needed to be addressed.

The State Department of Education took immediate action by forming a committee of social studies teachers, supervisors, state DOE leaders, and college faculty that worked tirelessly during late May to revamp the curriculum for 6^th and 7^th grade. I'd like to thank these individuals for giving their time and expertise to this task. Such decisions are not easy to make and require both debate and compromise. The results of their work were presented to the Social Studies Advisory Council in early June, where further discussion took place and further changes were suggested.

In addition to the extensive changes made to the 6^th and 7^th grade GPS, the standards for grades 3-5 and grades 8-12 also underwent a scheduled Precision Review this spring. The proposed changes for these grade levels are relatively minor in most cases, often rephrasing or rewording standards and elements for the purpose of clarity and better alignment.

Now, here's the exciting part for us as GCSS members! ALL of the proposed revisions that I just mentioned (grades 3 through 12) are now posted on the DOE website for public comment. This is your chance as a social studies professional to voice your opinions about the proposed changes and to help shape the state social studies curriculum. The period for public comment will continue through early August. I strongly encourage you to participate in this process! Your comments and suggestions are vital to the process of finalizing the proposed revisions before the state Board of Education votes on them in August. Go to www.georgiastandards.org and click on Social Studies to view the revisions and submit comments.

The GCSS Fall Conference in Athens is fast approaching as well! Conference planning and preparation have been going strong since the beginning of the year and we are looking forward to one of our biggest and best conferences yet. Some reminders:

· The Conference Registration Form is available NOW at www.gcss.net!

· Information about conference hotels and reservations is also available NOW at www.gcss.net!

· There will be sessions at the conference related to the Georgia Performance Standards for elementary, middle, and high school teachers. Special sessions related to the revised 6^th and 7^th grade standards are also on the schedule.

· The theme for this year's conference is "Charting Success with GPS".

· We continue to "Shoot for a Grand" at our 2008 conference. We would like to have 1000 Georgia teachers, administrators, exhibitors, and other social studies professionals at our conference. Bring a colleague with you!

Thanks to all of you for everything you do for social studies education and for Georgia's students!

Phil Parker

GCSS President