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Kathianne
08-11-2013, 01:08 AM
Most of you here know my ties with the Center for Civic Education run deep. Back in 2001, I helped write a proposal for standards and objectives, Social Studies Reviews accepted, it was shot down by Education Departments and text book committees. Huge ongoing problem. This is part of one that has its roots in the arguments between university departments of education and history. Revisionist history is considered 'truth' in education departments, history professors tend to disagree. They've yet been able to come up with standards and objectives in states, much less 'common core.' History professors by and large, find the texts in K-12 unacceptable, education departments disagree.

For the last 15 years or so social studies, much less history or geography are for the most part left off of standardized testing. Sooooo, the hours required have been dropping. Most high schools no longer include the tests of state and federal constitutions.

http://www.nationalreview.com/phi-beta-cons/354879/naep-indefinitely-postpones-tests-us-history-and-civics-anne-d-neal



August 7, 2013 2:26 PM



NAEP 'Indefinitely Postpones' Tests of U.S. History and Civics
By Anne D. Neal


<!--smart_paging_filter-->Haley Strauss of the Heartland Institute picks up on an important, overlooked development (http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2013/07/25/national-civics-history-tests-disappear):



The National Assessment of Educational Progress exams in civics, U.S. history, and geography have been indefinitely postponed for fourth and twelfth graders. The Obama administration says this is due to a $6.8 million sequestration budget cut. The three exams will be replaced by a single, new test: Technology and Engineering Literacy.


“Without these tests, advocates for a richer civic education will not have any kind of test to use as leverage to get more civic education in the classrooms,” said John Hale, associate director at the Center for Civic Education.


Hale’s comment is right on for anyone who cares about civic and historical literacy. Strauss later points out that students often do very poorly on these tests — although those results are dispiriting, they can sometimes be used to goad administrators into reform.


The removal of the requirement is a one-two punch: It robs historical-literacy advocates of valuable evidence for our case at the same time that it signals to teachers and administrators that history and civics are just not taken seriously. Almost certainly, this will cause civic and historical education to decay even further than it has.
And that will hurt colleges, too. Already, college graduates demonstrate remarkable ignorance (http://www.goacta.org/publications/american_history_literacy_survey_2012) of U.S. history and government. Without up-to-date information on high school graduates’ civic illiteracy, it will be increasingly hard to convince the more than 80 percent of colleges and universities (http://www.goacta.org/news/the_american_council_of_trustees_and_alumni_releas es_ratings_of_colleges) that do not require U.S. history or government to change their ways.

glockmail
08-11-2013, 01:36 AM
...Revisionist history is considered 'truth' in education departments... Democrats need to hide their real history, or no one would register as one.

Kathianne
08-11-2013, 02:38 AM
Democrats need to hide their real history, or no one would register as one.

The problem isn't the parties.

tailfins
08-11-2013, 07:31 AM
Most of you here know my ties with the Center for Civic Education run deep. Back in 2001, I helped write a proposal for standards and objectives, Social Studies Reviews accepted, it was shot down by Education Departments and text book committees. Huge ongoing problem. This is part of one that has its roots in the arguments between university departments of education and history. Revisionist history is considered 'truth' in education departments, history professors tend to disagree. They've yet been able to come up with standards and objectives in states, much less 'common core.' History professors by and large, find the texts in K-12 unacceptable, education departments disagree.

For the last 15 years or so social studies, much less history or geography are for the most part left off of standardized testing. Sooooo, the hours required have been dropping. Most high schools no longer include the tests of state and federal constitutions.

http://www.nationalreview.com/phi-beta-cons/354879/naep-indefinitely-postpones-tests-us-history-and-civics-anne-d-neal

I signed my boys up for online US History. They say it's their hardest course. The second assignment was environmental activism. They had a choice of writing about efforts to protect the Everglades, the Eagle or the Manatee or submit your own for approval. My youngest said he pretended to care just to get the grade. My oldest said he didn't care about any of those things and asked my help for option 4 which is submit your own environmental topic. We submitted the cause of Hydraulic Fracturing and current efforts energy companies are making to prevent environmental damage.

WiccanLiberal
08-11-2013, 12:02 PM
I recall my senior year high school history class. The only way to get a good history background was to take the honors track and the AP senior class. That class was a beast. The curriculum was the same as the basic first year college history 101/102 classes. The Revolution to the Civil War and Reconstruction to the present. We read and wrote enormous amounts. We were required to write one essay per week backed with primary sources. We had to analyze and describe the impact of three Supreme Court decisions every week. All submitted papers had to be typed and in correct publishable format and were graded on grammar, spelling, presentation and content. We had to think critically and defend our opinions. Our instructor had extensive critiques of every president except Washington and she only gave him a pass cause he had to improvise. She taught us the difference between personality and politics. We worked damned hard for the grades in that class. More importantly, we learned history and an appreciation for the Constitution. Most of the graduating class in my high school wasn't even taking a social studies class. That was over 35 years ago so I imagine the level of comprehension has dropped even further.

Kathianne
08-11-2013, 12:38 PM
WL, that is still how AP US History is taught, it's only way that the students can pass the course and get the college credits. It IS a college level course. There is no doubt that to learn history takes massive amounts of reading and writing.

Not everyone needs to know Western Civ in depth, though all high school grads should have a passing knowledge of the 'highlights' of the ancient worlds and discoveries; The Middle Ages; The Renaissance/Reformation.

Same with American History, which if taught from the early years, should give them a working knowledge of history and civics by the time they graduate HS. It's not happening.

AP History covers from the beginning to the present, in one year. Colleges do the same, two semesters. Many universities no longer require American History which they used to, along with English and foreign languages.

High school students in regular classes traditionally have covered the same time periods, in less depth over two years. Today that's not happening in most high schools. Like the trends in the universities, the choices are 'focused on perspectives' of some sort. Might be 'history through the arts' or 'history of an Empire', really.

It's a complex problem: The lower the quality of the students entering universities, the more the universities lower their requirements. These are the students that are then coming into the schools to teach when they graduate.

Walk through the halls of an elementary school and if there's anything displayed regarding social studies, it's likely to be 'family trees' or 'environmental projects'-science and social studies are often 'mixed' in elementary schools, for many of the same reasons. Teachers that majored in 'education' don't have the base of knowledge so they make 'fun projects' rather than a focus of 'what the learner needs to know.' It's a conundrum.

Perianne
08-11-2013, 01:00 PM
Kathianne

I don't know you. Are you involved in education somehow?

I was born in Finland and came here when I was three. My mother insisted that we become Americans, and part of being an American is knowing American history. I am not an expert by any means, but I have more than a working knowledge.

Thanks for your posts on this subject.

Kathianne
08-11-2013, 01:03 PM
Kathianne

I don't know you. Are you involved in education somehow?

I was born in Finland and came here when I was three. My mother insisted that we become Americans, and part of being an American is knowing American history. I am not an expert by any means, but I have more than a working knowledge.

Thanks for your posts on this subject.

Glad you like them. ;) I teach social studies: History, sociology, political science/civics.

Perianne
08-11-2013, 01:07 PM
I teach social studies: History, sociology, political science/civics.

Bless you!