After revealing just how little our nation’s children know about civics last month, NAEP (the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a/k/a “the Nation’s Report Card”) hit us with another bit of bad news — American students are doing even worse in history. As in 2006, only 17% of eight-graders hit the “proficient” level or better on NAEP’s history tests. (Read Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s statement on the NAEP civics findings.)
Education historian Diane Ravitch highlighted a particularly frightening finding: only 2 percent of 12th-graders correctly answering a question concerning Brown v. Board of Education. Students were shown an excerpt of the landmark desegregation decision that included the passage “We conclude that in the field of public education, separate but equal has no place, separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” and were asked what social problem the 1954 ruling was supposed to correct. “The answer was right in front of them,” Ravitch was quoted as saying. “This is alarming.” (NYTimes / Boston Globe).
A little bit of digging by the iCivics staff suggests that, as Prof. Ravitch hints, the problem implicates literacy as much as it does history. The question was an open-ended one, which meant that students not only had to know the answer, but be able to articulate it correctly. Here’s what NAEP suggests is a “complete” answer:
The response may explain that the decision aimed to end legalized school segregation that was common in the South, or may simply refer to segregated schools. The answer uses specific references from the quotation or other historical knowledge in the answer. The answer may refer to “separate but equal” systems of schools.
By contrast, here are the markers of a “partial” answer:
The response explains that the decision aimed to end segregation or to bring about integration but may not relate it directly to schools OR gives specific references but lacks “segregation.” Specific references in the answer are absent, weak, or incorrect.
(In case you’re wondering, 26% of students had a “partial” answer, on top of the 2% who had a “complete” answer. If you want to see the data for yourself, here’s the link to the Question Bank – search for History, 2010, 12th grade, Block H6 Question #13).
What this question and lack of satisfactory answer highlights for us at iCivics is the importance of ensuring that all of this attention devoted to literacy of late be done in meaningful context. That’s why we’re launching our Argumentation Modules, designed to teach students how to use primary sources to make their points clearly, convincingly, and succinctly. It’s a critical skill not just for scoring well on standardized tests of writing, but for participating in a democracy.
And with a substantial grant from the Next Generation Learning Challenges, we’ll start development on these modules right away.
