Following the very successful Little Book–Citizenship, The New Little Book: OGT Social Studies helps students prepare for the Ohio Graduation Test.  It also fulfills a goal of the Heights-Hillcrest-Lyndhurst Branch, American Association of University Women to support public education, and specifically, to assist the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

The Little Book–Citizenship was first published in 1993 by a small group of volunteers from Cleveland’s Church of the Covenant to help students review for the Ohio Proficiency Test.  In 2002, the Ohio Department of Education announced it would phase out the Proficiency Test and replace it with a more comprehensive Ohio Graduation Test.  This new test would include not only Citizenship, but also History, Government, People in Societies, Geography, Economics, and Skills and Methods.  Covenant volunteers were not prepared to produce a study guide for the new test.  They were looking for a group to take on this updating process, and Heights-Hillcrest-Lyndhurst Branch AAUW was looking for a project – a perfect match.

In August 2007, after three years of working with social studies teaching professionals and others from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, AAUW-HHL published The New Little Book: OGT Social Studies.  Grants from the Gund Foundation and the Cleveland Foundation provided funds to print and distribute free copies to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, the East Cleveland School District, and the Warrensville Heights City School District.  AAUW-HHL gave copies free of charge to each 10th grader and to 11th and 12th graders who had not yet passed the test.  In addition, each 9th grade social studies teacher received a classroom set.  Intervention workshops in several of the Cleveland high schools helped prepare twelfth grade students to retake the Social Studies portion of the OGT.  Professional development workshops briefed teachers about various ways to use the book and teach students to think critically about social studies.

In 2008 AAUW/Ohio endorsed the Project as a state priority and dubbed the effort to let schools know about it, "Ohio's Making History."  The national magazine, Outlook, detailed the work in an article in its Spring/Summer 2008 issue.  The New Little Book Project and Ohio's Making HIstory displayed at the national 2009 AAUW Convention "Taste of Success" exhibit.

OGT scores went up in each of the eighteen public school districts that used the book and membership increased in every branch that helped place books in schools.  More than 23,000 copies have been distributed.  Visit the website to learn more about the book or to order copies.