KCSS Fall Update

Kansas Council for the Social Studies

Save the Date!

The annual Kansas Social Studies conference is scheduled for February 23, 2015. The conference will be held in McPherson, Kansas and is co-sponsored by the KCSS, the Kansas Department of Education, and the Kansas Council for History Education. Titled Assessing Greatness - Using 21st Century Skills to Inspire Historical Thinking, the conference will focus on the teaching and learning of historical thinking skills and high-quality quality formative and summative assessments that can measure those skills.


Don Gifford, KSDE social studies consultant, will share the latest on the state social studies assessment field test. We’ll have all sorts of classroom teachers and specialist sharing the best ways to measure historical thinking. You don’t want to miss this – make plans now to attend!


It’s always a great time. You make new friends. You meet old friends. You eat great food. You walk away with door prizes. And you always learn a ton.You don't want to miss it! So save the date, get your sub arranged, and make plans now to attend.

Registration opens in a few weeks. Bookmark this page and check back soon!

Submit a conference session proposal

The conference planning committee is committed to having as many classroom teachers as possible to share their best stuff. So if you have a lesson, strategy, tool, web site, resource, or activity that supports best practices in instruction or assessment, we want you. Click here to submit a session proposal.

Added bonus? Accepted proposals get free registration!

Standards Training

On October 1, Adam Topliff, Kori Green, and Lori Rice spent the day with 72 teachers highlighting changes to the state standards and assessment. They also shared a wide variety of resources, materials, and instructional suggestions. Get some of their goodies here.
On April 8, 2015 KCSS is offering a second day of face to face training with a focus on high quality instructional and assessment strategies. Cost is $60. We're working to find the perfect location - check the KCSS web site in early 2015 for specific details.
KCSS digital world

KCSS digital world

We've updated our social media tools! Follow the KCSS Twitter feed, head over to the KCSS Facebook page, and be sure to follow our Doing Social Studies blog.

And don't forget the KCSS web site - we've posted News, Resources, and are starting to upload a variety of Instructional Videos

We're working hard to find the best way to share resources and tools to make your life a little easier. Let us know what you think. We'd love to hear from you!

Updated Mission Statement

During our recent KCSS board meeting, we updated our mission statement. We are committed to supporting the discipline in the state and are believe this statement can guide our work:


The Kansas Council for the Social Studies will encourage high quality instruction, support professional growth, and advocate for the Social Studies in the state of Kansas.


To accomplish our mission, we participate in a variety of activities such as:

  • offering mini-grants to Social Studies teachers
  • selecting and honoring a teacher of the year
  • co-hosting an annual state conference
  • presenting face to face professional learning opportunities
  • supporting a digital community
  • providing instructional resources and materials
  • cooperating with national, state, and local educational associations
Instructional Resource - World War One

Instructional Resource - World War One

The International Encyclopedia of the First World War is a virtual reference work on the First World War. The multi-perspective, open-access knowledge base is the result of an international collaborative project involving more than 1,000 authors, editors, and partners from over fifty countries. You can find more than 1,000 articles, maps, themes, and cool interactive timeline.
About Us

About Us

glennw@essdack.org kcss.info