The Political and Economic Context of Teaching History in Today’s Community Colleges

My proposed presentation will examine the ways in which state legislatures, responding to resource shortages, demands for “accountability,” pressures for outcomes-based funding, simplistic reliance on technological solutions, and a growing tilt toward what many label “student success” (potentially at the expense of access) are re-shaping the History curriculum in many states and thus affecting the ways in which history is taught in community colleges.  Most of my concrete examples will be drawn from the situation in California, the state with the largest community college system in the nation, and one in which the state legislature has become involved in community college instruction to an unprecedented extent.