9/11 and the War on Terror in Curricula and in State Standards Documents. CIRCLE Fact Sheet

This Fact Sheet reports findings from an ongoing study of the representation of 9/11 and terrorism in curricula, textbooks, and state standards documents. The study was conducted in three stages. The first two stages focused on how supplemental curricula and best-selling social studies textbooks published between 2002-2010 present the events of 9/11 and their aftermath to secondary school students. In 2011, a third stage of the study was added. This stage extended the previous ones by including an analysis of whether and how terrorism, 9/11, and related content are included in the 49 standards documents that have been revised since 2001. Here the authors provide a brief overview of the earlier findings. They then focus on the initial findings from the third stage of the study: an analysis of the standards documents. A promising finding from this initial analysis is that it seems many states are including standards that ask students to go beyond the rote memorization of simple content related to 9/11. These states provide opportunities for inquiry into the causes and effects of 9/11 on U.S. domestic and foreign policy and opportunities for students to examine issues related to security and civil liberties. The authors hope that their analysis helps to guide teachers and curriculum specialists in these states to think about how they engage students in the study of the 9/11 attacks and the US response, and to think more explicitly about how they can also teach intellectual and democratic skills through thoughtful lessons surrounding these important issues and events. A supplemental document on state standards for 9/11 is appended. (Contains 1 table and 2 notes.)