U.S. History Scores Are Falling, but It’s Not Just Because of the Pandemic
Questions ranged from the simple — knowing that factory conditions in the 1800s were dangerous, with long days and low pay — to the complex. For example, only 6 percent of students could explain in their own words how two ideas from the Constitution were reflected in the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
The dip in civics performance was smaller but notable: It was the first decline since the test began being administered in the late 1990s. About 22 percent of students were proficient, down from 24 percent in 2018.
President Biden’s education secretary, Miguel A. Cardona, seized on the results, admonishing politicians for trying to limit instruction in history, often on topics of race, a trend that has played out in dozens of states, typically Republican controlled.
“Now is not the time,” he said, adding that “banning history books and censoring educators from teaching these important subjects does our students a disservice and will move America in the wrong direction.”
The results, from a national sample of about 8,000 eighth graders in each subject, track with scores in math and reading, which also decreased during the pandemic. Across subjects, declines were often driven by the lowest-performing students, a trend that has federal officials so concerned that they are now considering rewriting test questions to zero in on what these students are missing.
Source: The New York Times
