ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author focuses on Michelle Herczog's thoughtful response to social studies policy question. Herczog provides an encouraging list of policy victories in his field, all of which can be read as policies in the conventional sense, and the accomplishment of C3 belongs on this list. Social studies policy is developed and enacted not only in legislators', state agencies', and higher education institutions' meeting rooms, but also in the policy-laden spaces teachers and students inhabit every school day. The policy priorities—and the kinds of steps to enacting those priorities that Herczog proposes—must reconcile with what happens in those spaces. It is worth asking how much of the field's energy should be devoted to bigger, conventional policy activity; smaller, unconventional policy activity; or some combination thereof. The C3 Framework, NCLB, and Race to the Top are examples of policies, and they deserve the field's careful attention, for they definitely have consequences for students and teachers in social studies settings.
