BY ROBERT HOLLAND AND DON SOIFER
Published: July 1, 2011
Modified: June 30, 2011 at 3:57 pm
The waning of U.S. history and civics as subjects taught in public schools has received little attention in education reform debates of recent years. But national report cards are littered with failing grades in basic civic knowledge, which should be cause for deep concern.
According to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data published in June, only about one-quarter of American students scored at or above proficient in their grasp of U.S. history. Only 12 percent of high school seniors reached proficiency, or a level of solid achievement.
While eighth-grade scores have risen slightly since 2006, those at the 12th grade have remained flat and indeed have budged little since the 1994 NAEP testing.
Most striking is the proportion of students unable to reach the bare-bones level of “basic” or minimal competence in history or in civics (which NAEP tested separately and reported in May).
The average scores for minority kids are shockingly low. In civics, 47 percent of black eighth-graders and an astounding 62 percent of black 12th-graders scored below basic. For Hispanics, the corresponding numbers were 44 percent and 50 percent.
State-by-state results were not released, but factors contributing to this failure are found across the country. Ultimately solutions must correct the gradual de-emphasizing of U.S. history in public schools, slipping state history content standards, and state teacher certification requirements that often approve social studies teachers with little or no formal history training.
Meanwhile, reforms for the billion-dollar teacher professional development industry must better equip teachers to instill these facts and concepts in students. Civic organizations such as the Bill of Rights Institute offer content-rich professional development, for example constitutional seminars for social studies teachers around the nation.
Just as problematic as a lack of formal history training is the proliferation of a radical strain of “social-justice multiculturalism” prevalent in many university schools of education. Its practitioners call on future teachers to question “oppressive” American societal influences rather than teaching students a basic knowledge of their nation’s history and foundations in representative democracy.
This fall, many educators will participate in the National Association for Multicultural Education’s annual conference in Chicago. Social studies teachers will satisfy professional development requirements with seminars on “Oppression and Privilege” and “Educators Organizing for Social Justice.”
Education tax dollars will fund these radical multiculturalist agendas at the expense of substantive professional development. This is evidence of misplaced priorities, and crucial resources, needed to address a growing crisis.
The United States is relatively far removed from any constitutional crisis. But amid what seems to be spreading turbulence in a complicated world, it would be a bad idea to rely indefinitely on voters with such scant preparation in the principles of constitutionalism and their application in everyday life.
As policymakers deliberate on which school reforms are most important in preparing the nation for the coming decades, it will be critical that these vital foundational subjects remain central to the discussion.
Holland and Soifer are education analysts with the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.
