Fewer than 20 percent of America’s 4th and 8th graders and only 11 percent of high school seniors have more than a basic knowledge of U.S. history, according to results released Thursday from the most recent national exam.
Only 36 percent of 12th graders who took the National Assessment of Educational Progress knew what the Progressive movement was, and nearly half of the 4th graders tested did not know that slavery was a primary cause of the Civil War.
The poor showing by the nation’s public and private school students sparked concern Thursday among education experts and historians, who called the results “dismal” and “woefully disappointing.” They reserved their harshest criticism for the 12th-grade results.
Diane Ravitch, an education adviser to the Bush administration, called the seniors’ scores “truly abysmal.”
“Clearly our high schools are failing to teach U.S. history well,” Ravitch said at a news conference in Washington. Because “the seniors are very close to voting age, one can only feel alarm that they know so little about their nation’s history.”
The history test was taken last school year by a national sample of 29,600 children in public and private schools throughout the nation, including Illinois. State-by-state results were not available.
The disappointing national showing was reported by the Education Department a day after an Illinois House education committee passed a resolution to eliminate, among other exams, the state’s social science test, which is taken by children in the 4th, 7th and 11th grades. Getting rid of the social science, science and writing exams would save $5.5 million.
“It is outrageous to believe that the General Assembly would not want to make sure all students understand how our government works, and the impact of history, geography and economics on our lives, particularly after Sept. 11,” said Illinois State Superintendent of Education Respicio Vazquez.
Despite the less than impressive results on the national exam, the 4th and 8th graders improved on the scores posted by their counterparts in 1994, the last time the test was taken. Scores from the 12th grade remained stagnant.
The results are broken into four levels: advanced, proficient, basic and below basic. Educators say test takers should score at least at the proficient level.
But only about 18 percent of 4th graders were at or above the proficient level last year, compared to 17 percent in 1994. Eighth-grade scores jumped to 17 percent at or above the proficient level, from 14 percent. Only 11 percent of high school seniors scored at or above proficient in 1994, and again in 2001. More troubling, 57 percent of 12th graders did not have even basic knowledge of American history.
Non-public school children, in general, were twice as likely to pass the test as their public school counterparts.
The test results did include one bright spot: The achievement gap between white and minority students is shrinking. Black 4th graders made larger gains than did their white counterparts, and Hispanic 12th graders are catching up to white 12th graders.
That is “what the president and I have been saying all along: Every child can learn, regardless of race, their ZIP code or when they came to America,” Education Secretary Rod Paige said after releasing the results.