History Curriculum Association

The History Curriculum Association was formed by a group of eminent historians and launched on 18 March 1990. Its aim was to preserve the integrity of history as a knowledge-based subject within what was to be the first the National Curriculum. It expressed "profound disquiet" at current trends in history teaching.The Daily Telegraph 19/03/1990 under headline "History may be thing of past experts fear"
Historians on the advisory council included three influential Conservative peers: Lord Beloff, the first principal of Buckingham University, Lord Blake, the historian of the Conservative Party, and Lord Thomas of Swynnerton, an advisor to the government at that time.'The Independent' 19/03/1990 under the headline, " History curriculum 'should emphasise need to learn facts' " 
The launch of the Association came ahead of a report from the National Curriculum History Working Group that formed the consultation document for the first National Curriculum that was published later in 1990. 'The Times" 19/03/1990 under the headline "History battle joined by peers" 
The Association published a launch document entitled: "GCSE HISTORY: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH" which listed the membership as: Professor Lord Beloff, Lord Bullock, Professor Ralph Davis, Professor Sir Geoffrey Elton, Professor Robert Skidelsky, Professor Norman Stone, Lord Thomas of Swinnerton, Professor John Vincent and the History Department of Lewes Priory School. This document can be viewed online at: 
www.cre.org.uk/docs/CRE-GCSE-History-An-Alternative-Approach.pdf
Professor Skidelsky said that the principal argument of the Association was with the guidelines laid down by the Task Group on Assessment and Testing."Teachers' Weekly Thursday 22 March 1990 No 104 under headline, 'Academic enter history row' These guidelines required National Curriculum subjects to have levels of progression and were incorporated into the National Curriculum but, as result of the Dearing Review (1994), were not applied to Key Stage 4 GCSE assessment.'Dictionary of British Education', Peter Gordon and Denis Lawton,https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-lqQAgAAQBAJ&q=real+education#v=onepage&q=TGAT&f=false The levels were eventually dropped altogether following a Department for Education report in December 2011 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/175439/NCR-Expert_Panel_Report.pdf
In his report on the launch of Association for The Daily Telegraph, its education editor, John Clare, wrote: "The group is understood to reflect the views of Mrs Thatcher [Prime Minister at the time], whose close interest in national curriculum history has led to accusations of "constitutional impropriety".Daily Telegraph 19/03/1990 as cited above
==References==
==External links==
* Curriculum Organization and Development in Historical ... - jstor
* Teaching & Learning | AHA - American Historical Association
* The Gove Legacy in the Curriculum: The Case of History
* Progression in history under the 2014 National Curriculum
* History lessons: inequality, diversity and the national curriculum
Category:Organizations established in 1990
Category:Historians
Category:Advisory councils for heads of state
Category:The Daily Telegraph
Category:Conservative peers
Category:Types of organization