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Classroom Context: Time Spent on Social Studies

As part of the 2010 civics assessment, teachers of fourth- and eighth-graders were asked how much time they spend on social studies. The full text of the question and the percentage of students whose teachers responded in each category are below.

About how much time in total do you spend with your class on social studies instruction in a typical week?

A. Less than 30 minutes
B. 30 to 60 minutes
C. 61 to 120 minutes
D. 121 to 180 minutes
E. More than 180 minutes

Grade 4
Grade 8

About 80 percent of fourth-grade students had teachers who reported spending 61 minutes or more on social studies instruction in a typical week.

Time spent on social studies: Grade 4 percentage of students

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. Some apparent differences between estimates may not be statistically significant. See complete data. Data are not shown for grade 12 students because questionnaires are only given to teachers at grades 4 and 8.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2010 Civics Assessment.

Browse questionnaires for the NAEP assessments.