By Del Stover
08/02/05– No school board member can be happy if a child completes first grade without learning that 2+2=4. But should the reaction be any different if a high school senior graduates without knowing America’s allies and enemies in World War II?
The answer to that question -- and similar ones -- is being asked by educators and policymakers worried about public schools’ commitment to teaching history. Pointing to national test scores, some argue that history has become students’ worst academic subject.
“I think we are sadly failing our children -- and have been for some time,” David McCullough, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies of presidents Harry S. Truman and John Adams, told a Senate education subcommittee a few weeks ago.
There’s reason for McCullough’s concern. Test data indicates that one-third of fourth and eighth graders and more than half of high school seniors lack a “basic” mastery of American history, says Charles Smith, executive director of the governing board for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
In testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Education and Early Childhood Development, Smith said that 2001 NAEP data reveals a “somewhat mixed but troubling portrait.” Gains are seen in fourth and eighth-grade history scores since 1994, but among 12th graders, test scores remain unchanged. The majority of seniors, for example, did not know that “the Soviet Union was an ally of the United States in World War II.”
The issue of history instruction in schools has garnered new attention since Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced the American History Achievement Act, which would budget $14 million in federal funds to allow 10 states to voluntarily test eighth and 12th graders in history.
“That data will allow us to know which states are doing a better job of teaching American history and allow other states to model their programs on those that are working well,” Alexander told the subcommittee. “It will also put a spotlight on American history that should encourage states and school districts to improve their efforts at teaching the subject.”
Even among supporters of the bill, however, there is a touch of irony in the legislation: Testing -- as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) -- is blamed in some circles for encouraging public schools to focus time and resources on reading and math instruction -- and away from the study of history, social studies, and the arts.
“The worst thing that could happen to social studies, civics, economics, and history has been NCLB,” says Al Frascella, director of communications and government relations for the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). “It wasn’t intended that way, but [as] NCLB is written, it puts the emphasis on reading and math, and the message to the school districts was that that’s all that’s important.”
That’s particularly true in the elementary and middle school grades, where there are no distinct courses in social studies, says NCSS President Jeff Passe, a professor of reading and elementary education at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. It’s easy for teachers and principals to give history short shrift.
A survey by his university discovered that the majority of the state’s elementary school teachers felt pressure from their principal or had “actually been told” not to teach social studies.
Educators across the nation are feeling similar pressure, and it’s beginning to show.
In New York State, 55 percent of eighth graders and 26 percent of fifth graders failed last year’s statewide exam in social studies, with failure rates significantly higher from two years earlier.
In Michigan, 69 percent of high school students failed to meet the state’s social studies standards, although many blame the scores on problems with the testing program.
Some are pointing fingers at the credentialing of history teachers. Sam Wineburg, chair of curriculum and teacher education at Stanford University, notes that many states set their standards too low.
Nearly one-third of aspiring history teachers who apply to Stanford’s master’s in teaching program have never taken a single college course in history. Only 18 percent of high school teachers across the nation have majored or minored in the subject.
“Would we want future calculus teachers not to study calculus?” he asks. “You can’t have high standards for students when you don’t demand teachers have to meet high standards.”
Calling today’s credentialing process “loosey-goosey,” Wineburg has challenged various state credentialing programs, NCSS, and the National Council for Accreditation for Teacher Education to boost standards and require new history teachers to have a stronger background in history.
At NCSS, Passe says part of the problem is that state credentialing programs put too much emphasis on pedagogy, leaving future teachers with little time to build up their content knowledge. NCSS is planning to address the issue with state officials.
Meanwhile, others are tackling the issue of teacher quality from another direction -- by encouraging more professional development. Some say schools have focused too heavily on reading and writing instruction and neglected to support history teachers, particularly those who entered teaching through alternative certification programs and were hired to teach courses with little academic training in the subject.
The U.S. Department of Education, for example, is spending $119 million this year to improve teachers’ knowledge through its Teaching American History Grant Program. At the same time, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Fordham Foundation, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and other groups have put millions of dollars into projects to improve the quality of history teaching.
Such efforts, however, touch only a small percentage of the nation’s history teachers. Passe suggests that local school officials can take practical steps -- besides looking at test scores -- to ensure that history is being taught well in their schools.
The first step, he says, is to talk to teachers -- particularly at the elementary and middle schools -- and find out if they feel pressure to cut back on history lessons in order to boost reading and math scores.
Board members also might examine the quality of classroom tests, Passe says. A red flag exists if students are asked multiple-choice questions that focus on easily forgotten facts -- instead of essay questions requiring an understanding of original documents and the context of historical events.
Finally, Passe suggests a closer look at whether history teachers with limited academic training in history are receiving the training they need.
“I’m hearing from teachers that staff development isn’t taking place in social studies,” he says, because school districts are concentrating their professional development funds on math and reading.