Above: Big City Social Studies Group members and local high school students attending the 2023 Retreat in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Big City Social Studies Group is a collective of large city school districts and university partners that meet regularly to address common challenges in the teaching of social studies in K-12 schools. This group examines large urban district social studies departments’ and university partners’ current and future directions as they seek to create a model of networked expertise and district-university partnerships that can influence the broader field of social studies education.
Current participating districts and universities include:
Atlanta (Clemson University)
Bay Area (San Francisco Unified School District, Oakland Unified School District, San Francisco State University, University of California, Berkeley)
Boston (Boston Public Schools, University of Massachusetts Boston, Harvard University, Boston College, Rhode Island College)
Chicago (Chicago Public Schools, Loyola University Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
Denver (Denver Public Schools)
Detroit (Detroit Public Schools)
Los Angeles (Los Angeles Unified School District, University of California, Los Angeles)
Miami (Florida International University)
Milwaukee (Milwaukee Public Schools)
Twin Cities (Minneapolis Public Schools, St. Paul Public Schools, University of Minnesota Twin Cities)
New York City (New York City Public Schools, Hunter College/City University of New York, Teachers College/Columbia University)
Philadelphia (The School District of Philadelphia, Temple University)
San Diego (San Diego Unified School District)
Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia Public Schools, Fairfax County Public Schools, George Mason University)
Are you a social studies leader or teacher educator in a large city and interested in joining the group? Contact the current co-chairs: Amparo Chavez-Gonzalez and Christopher Martell for more information.
Above and Below: Big City Social Studies Group members attending the 2024 Retreat in Chicago and the 2025 Retreat in Boston, respectively.
The Big City Social Studies Group 