Center To Publish Detailed Plan for Teaching History

By Debra Viadero

The National Center for History in the Schools is set to publish a plan for teaching history that lays out in massive detail, for virtually the first time, one group's view of what students across the nation should know about the subject and why they should study it.

The 311-page document, entitled "Lessons from History: Essential Understandings and Historical Perspectives Students Should Acquire,'' was developed over four years by a team of prominent scholars and educators. Its publication by the federally funded center for history, based at the University of California at Los Angeles, comes as policymakers and educators are debating setting national standards for what students should know and be able to do in most subjects.

The document, which is to be released in the coming weeks, is expected to influence the development of...