ABSTRACT
A serious crackdown on poverty and racial segregation in communities and schools likely would produce huge gains in education. This chapter presents two points about state education policy related to social studies education. First, good ideas, like strengthening teacher quality, can make bad policy, like laws and rules in New York State (NYS) that restrict prospective teachers' entry into the field. Second, many people in social studies education, including harried higher education faculty and K-12 educators, do not have much access to policymaking, and policymakers themselves face capacity challenges. Collaborations that systematically include school partners, managed by larger, statewide (even citywide) bodies that prioritize data analysis and program improvement, would be a welcome departure from current circumstances. Within such a model, state mandates would involve data collection and interpretation rather than specific program requirements, and variations would be sources of empirical interest rather than anxiety.
