NCC Addresses Secondary History Issues. Many states are currently engaged in a reevaluation of high school curriculum and there are strong demands for strengthening math, science, and writing skills. The importance of historical study also needs to be voiced. Several NCC state committees have adopted the support of history in secondary education as a major priority. To provide some background for those groups who are “making a case for history,” the NCC developed with funding from the Exxon Education Foundation, a Resource Guide: Strengthening the Teaching of History in Secondary Schools. The guide includes a collection of statements on the importance of studying history, a collection of articles and resources on the teaching of history and education policies, a summary of collaborative secondary and higher education projects for strengthening history, an annotated bibliography and a chart on the policy trends in secondary history education. The chart provides information on state social studies requirements for high school graduation, state policies on certification of secondary history teachers, and textbook adoption schedules. Although this information is changing rapidly, it is the hope of the NCC that the chart will be useful for gaining additional insights into current trends and for assessing how individual states fit within these general patterns.
Few Historians Nominated to Commemorative Commissions. The eighteen member Commission to plan for the 1987 Bicentennial of the Constitution includes two historians—Thomas H. O’Connor, Professor of History at Boston College, and Philip M. Crane, a former history professor and now a member of the House of Representatives. Both were among the four members of the Commission appointed by the Speaker of the House in consultation with the Minority Leader of the House.
Of the twenty-two members of the Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Commission, there are also two historians—William H. McNeill, Professor of History at the University of Chicago and President of the American Historical Association, and Charles W. Polzer, an Ethnohistorian at the Arizona State Museum.
New Historical Review Program Established at CIA. In October 1984 Congress passed the CIA Information Act, which exempts CIA operational files from FOIA requests. Congressional concern that historians have access to CIA records resulted in a compromise in the legislation that calls for the CIA to explore the possibility of establishing a Historical Review Program to undertake new efforts to declassify and transfer to the National Archives historically significant CIA records. William Casey, Director of the CIA, recently developed plans for the program in consultation with the Archivist of the United States, the Librarian of Congress, and three historians John Gaddis, Richard Leopold, and Gaddis Smith. Senator Durenberger spearheaded the Congressional support, which has provided funding for ten additional positions to staff the project. The Office of Information Services, with the advice and support of the CIA historical office, will have responsibility for the Historical Review Program. The first documents being reviewed are those of the Strategic Services Unit of 1945-46 and the Central Intelligence Group of 1946-47.
Federal Historians Seek Clarification of Federal Oral History Policy. For the past year the Oral History Subcommittee of the Society for History in the Federal Government has been methodically examining many aspects of federal oral history policy. In March the Committee completed a comprehensive report that covers such topics as definitions, editing practices, assurances of confidentiality, and preservation standards. To achieve the goal of fostering the most complete oral history record obtainable, the Committee developed guidelines for federal agencies that include model deeds of gift. This summer the Society for History in the Federal Government submitted the report to the Archivist of the United States with the hope that an official understanding can be reached regarding the definition of an oral history record and assurances for the protection of the confidentiality of interviewees. National Archives staff have worked closely with the Society for History in the Federal Government on this project and the proposed guidelines are currently under review.
Statue of Liberty Study Released by National Park Service. In preparation for the one-hundredth anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in 1986, the North Atlantic Regional Office of the National Park Service prepared under contract Celebrating the Immigrant: An Administrative History of the Statue of Liberty National Monument 1952-1982. This volume by Barbara Blumberg can enrich our understanding of the National Park Service’s role in preserving and interpreting many of this country’s most valuable historic properties.
