https://www.loc.gov/resource/mjm.20_0155_0159/?sp=1&st=text
Library of Congress
James Madison to W. T. Barry, August 4, 1822
The liberal appropriations made by the Legislature of Kentucky for a general system of Education cannot be too much applauded. A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
by Jeremiah Poff, Education Reporter
Students in eighth grade are doing worse in U.S. history and civics than they were in 2018, exacerbating concerns about learning loss, according to data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress released last Wednesday.
The latest data from the Nation’s Report Card revealed that civics scores for eighth grade students declined for the first time ever, falling from 153 in 2018 to 150 on a 0-300 scale. The scores matched the assessment score from 1998, the first year that students were assessed in the subject.
For U.S. history, scores for eighth graders declined from 263 in 2018 to 258, continuing a fall that began in 2014 when scores peaked at 267 on the 0-300 scale.
The assessment scores for U.S. history were the worst ever recorded, falling a point lower than the 259 recorded on the subject’s first assessment in 1994.
The declines are sure to exacerbate concerns about the continued fallout of the 2020 pandemic school closures. In October, the Nation’s Report Card recorded the largest-ever drop in math scores and a similarly troubling decline in reading scores for students in fourth and eighth grade.
In a press release, the National Center for Education Statistics said the decline in civics and history education scores was of serious concern due to the implications for civic participation.
“Self-government depends on each generation of students leaving school with a complete understanding of the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship,” NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr said in a statement. “But far too many of our students are struggling to understand and explain the importance of civic participation, how American government functions, and the historical significance of events. These results are a national concern.”
The national scores are based on test scores from 8,000 public and private school students making up a “representative sample” of the United States.
Since the test is conducted every four years, Wednesday’s release provides a before and after snapshot of the educational impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which prompted school closures, virtual learning sessions, and masking mandates.
The declines in both subjects were seen in all demographics, but students considered to be the highest performing did not see any decline in their scores.
Male students fared slightly better than their female counterparts, with scores for the former declining by 4 points in history and 2 points in civics, while scores for female students dipped by 5 and 3 points, respectively.
The assessment data also revealed that 40% of students in history and 31% in civics failed to reach the lowest NAEP benchmark of “basic,” while a meager 13% of students in history and 22% in civics scored above the second benchmark of “proficient.”
“Few eighth-graders are reaching higher levels of achievement,” NCES acting Associate Commissioner Dan McGrath said in a statement. “Only 13 percent of eighth-graders were at or above the NAEP Proficient level for U.S. history.
That’s the lowest proportion of eighth-grade students reaching that level out of any subject assessed by the NAEP program. And only about a fifth of students were at or above the NAEP Proficient level in civics, which is the second-lowest proportion of students reaching that level in any subject.”
“A Prologue to a Tragedy”: History and Civics Scores Drop to Record Lows
So, history and civics scores across the nation plummeted to record lows among eighth graders. Just 13% of students performed at or above the “proficient” level in U.S. history.
It is the latest appalling report on our declining educational system — a matter that should be treated as a national crisis of literally historic proportions. As discussed in prior reports, we are graduating students from high school who cannot proficiently read or do math.
School districts have responded to solving the problem by simply lowering standards and eliminating gifted programs. Now we are producing citizens who know little about our history or our values.
The decline has been blamed on the pandemic, though these declines have long plagued our public schools. Nevertheless, the lockdowns had a profound impact on the psychological and intellectual development of our students.
While other countries refused to shut down their schools or go to virtual classrooms, the school districts and teacher unions pushed for closures.
In Europe, countries cited ample scientific evidence refuting the need to close schools. However, experts in this country were banned from social media and attacked in the press for raising these studies.
The National Education Association and teacher union leaders supported censorship during this period.
What is even more maddening is to hear those who opposed reopening schools, like Randi Weingarten, now insisting that they were really pushing for keeping schools open despite their public statements to the contrary.
As the costs of this disastrous decision mount, suddenly no one in education or the media was opposed to in-person classes.
Putting those decisions aside, the drop in scores also reflects a deemphasis on civics and history over the last decade as other subjects have been given greater priority.
As we have all watched with growing alarm, the lessons given to our own children in public schools, history often seems to be a vehicle for making political or social commentary.
As James Madison stated, schools are an important part of our society as we shape future citizens.
Now our educational system is dropping in history and civics scores as well as math and English. We are failing our children across the board and undermining a rising generation of citizens.
Yet, we are likely to see just another shrug followed by some mumbling about the pandemic. There will also likely be demands for more money despite the unbroken record of failure in many of our public school districts.
These scores once again show how educators and unions are killing public education in this country.
They continue to treat families as virtual captives rather than respond to these demands for competence and accountability.
Many are voting with their feet and leaving public schools in jurisdictions allowing vouchers or other options.
The drop in civics scores may be even more alarming than the declines in math and English.
We can train people for jobs in this new economy. It is far more difficult to shape citizens who have never been taught about the underlying struggle and values that define this nation.
As I stated earlier, James Madison is often quoted for his statement that “a popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both.”
What is not widely known is that Madison made that statement in response to a letter from William Taylor Barry, a Kentuckian who wrote him about the effort to create primary and secondary educational programs in his state.
Information remains the paramount value in public education as well as the transparency needed to secure it.
In the same way, the farce that is our current educational system is producing a generation of historically illiterate citizens. That can only be a tragedy in the making.
But with civics and U.S. history, experts say there is another aspect to consider when evaluating why the scores fell so drastically: the fight in state legislatures over how these subjects should be taught, particularly regarding issues of race.
“We’re now in an era where middle school and high school social studies teachers are encountering a substantially increased amount of interference in their classrooms, from parents, from school boards, potentially from state legislate legislators,” said James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association.
“We must think about the impact of these divisive concept laws, and the pressure on teachers to not teach about division and conflict.
As long as teachers are told that they have to be very careful and very wary when they’re teaching about division and conflict, they will not be able to do a good job,” he added.
However, concrete data that link legislative fights over curricula to learning are limited, and those who discount the connection point out that U.S. history scores have been falling since 2014, and resources in the subjects have been lacking for even longer.
Advanced Placement U.S. Government and History teacher Patrick Kelly, who is also a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the Nation’s Report Card, points to a lack of quality social studies in high schools as a reason for the drop.
“I think part of the story here is that we’re not giving students sufficient access to consistent and high-quality social studies instruction throughout their K-12. experience. It’s choppy, it’s sporadic,” Kelly said.
From 2018 to 2022, Kelly says, data shows a decrease in the number of students taking a dedicated U.S. history course.
The lack of quality social studies stems from decades of fights that have prioritized other subjects and caused a lack of resources for civics and U.S. history, Donna Phillips, vice president and chief program officer for Center for Civic Education, said.
“For example, you have a federal policy that prioritizes measuring growth in literacy and math. Eventually, science got added to that, but social studies was never a federal priority,” Phillips said. “And so, as a result, state agencies and state departments of education, social studies was not included in any accountability or performance measures for the local school districts.”
As a result, social studies classes are bigger than other subjects, and fewer of the classes are offered throughout the K-12 education system than other topics, according to Phillips.
The score paints a worrying picture for the future for American students.
“I think it has some really dire potential consequences for us as a society, because history and civics is about a lot of things, but at its core, it’s about equipping students for actively engaged citizenship, to be a contributing member of a vibrant democratic society,” Kelly said. “It takes knowledge and skill to be a member of it. Those rights come with responsibilities.”
Last year, the Annenberg Public Policy Center found a quarter of Americans could not name one branch of government. Only 47 percent could name all three branches.
The lack of civic education can also lead to more divisiveness in the country.
“We want deep patriotism, but you have to understand how your country was founded.”
In doing so, you know how to make change within the system and know the good, the bad and the ugly about our country’s history,” Phillips said.
“And so, we’re not seeing that, because we’re seeing just kind of a wholesale, ‘This country is awful,’ or we’re seeing the other end of the spectrum, which is like a blind American exceptionalism. And there’s nothing in between.”
Dr. John Keeney once told me, “We had a perfectly good system for teaching our kids that worked for 2000 years. Why are we trying to change it?”
I couldn’t agree more. Eighth graders who were taught in one room schoolhouses in the 1800’s, using McGuffey’s Readers, knew more than college graduates do today.
Don’t believe me? Benjamin Franklin had an 8th grade education he received from Boston Latin School.
The current education system is broken. We need to scrap it and go back to what worked in the past.