According to the most recent statistics from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in U.S. history, only 17 percent of fourth-graders, 14 percent of eighth-graders, and 11 percent of 12th-graders scored proficient on the assessment; further, more than half of 12th graders did not reach the basic level.
One thought on “A nation of historical dunces”
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The Teaching American History Grants are an awesome federally funded program to help improve teacher knowledge and curriculum strategies for teaching American history to students. The intent is to help educators learn more about the actual history that they are supposed to be teaching from college professors and non-profit educators. At the same time, money is spent to help provide teachers with training in what strategies will get students more interested in learning about our past.
However, that is the only part of the No Child Left Behind initiative that addresses history education. So, about 100+ school groups a year get the funding and have a chance to increase the teaching knowledge of about 20-30 teachers in their regions. What happens to the rest of the country? They turn their focus to reading and math where they are being tested.
Currently, states must have standards and test in reading. Mathematics standards and testing are required starting next school year. Science standards are required next year and testing is required starting in 2007. Social studies standards and testing are not included in the law.
Schools that don’t do well on these standardized tests are threatened with all kinds of punishments and even loss of federal money. This is from a government that isn’t fully funding the program in the first place. So, the federal government says you HAVE to give these tests and pass, but then does not provide the basic means to meet these requirements.
And you wonder why teaching in the social sciences and fine arts isn’t as strong as it should be. Teachers just plain DO NOT have time to do it all. If you are told that your students have to all pass the state test or you may be fired, where would you put your energy? You’d probably do what many teachers do, which is focus on figuring out how the hell to get your special education students up to grade level so that they have the slightest chance to pass. (Because, of course, we have to test all students with the same standards, we can’t actually think about what might be best for individual students.)
Okay, enough of my ranting. Needless to say, I’m not a big fan of the No Child Left Behind initiative and hope that some of the current lawsuits against the Department of Education about this ridiculous top-down initiative actually make the government sit up and listen!