Chapter 11B: Fidelity of Implementation: A Reply to Parker

Walter, you are 10 years into your project to develop an Advanced Placement (AP) high school government course, and to conduct field testing on the course for the past 7 years. It is laudable that you have been able to secure funding for the creative course for this long, albeit from a private source. I grew up with the New Social Studies (1968–about 1981) as associate director of the Social Science Education Consortium. I was responsible for implementation training of many of the New Social Studies curriculum projects, including the Anthropology Curriculum Study Project (ACSP), ECON 12, the High School Geography Project (HSGP), and Sociological Resources for the Social Studies (SRSS). Most of these projects had about an 8-to 10-year development time frame and most were field tested pretty thoroughly. The New Social Studies projects were funded either by the National Science Foundation or the U.S. Office of Education, unlike your project.