This week’s release of 8th grade US history and civics tests delivered another round of bad news for students and schools. The top line results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed the first declines ever recorded in civics scores, and even larger drops in US history scores.
Though not totally surprising on the heels of the pandemic, the disappointing results raised concerns across the board about the amount and quality of civics and history instruction students are getting. Certainly, there are legitimate concerns here, and inevitably there will be unserious ones, but one that likely won’t get its due is the uneven distribution of changing scores over time. Two graphs that depict test results over time starkly illustrate why we should be concerned with that pattern, especially since it is not limited to history or civics.
The first figure below shows changes in 8th grade US history NAEP scores over two decades for students scoring from the 10th through 90th percentiles. Across the board, the high water mark is in 2014 with declines in 2018 and 2022. Not all of apparent changes are statistically significant, but the action is clearer at the low end. Students at the 10th and 25th percentiles saw more growth before 2014 and greater losses afterward. These differences look relatively small because the scale of the graph, at 90 points, makes the differences between the highest and lowest scores stand out more than the differences within those groups. .............To Read More....
Editor's Note: Since I think Richard Dreyfuss is a Hollywood leftwing ideologue nut and an idiot, I almost broke out in hives. I was shocked that I totally agreed with Dreyfuss. So, what can we take away from this? If an ideologue like Dreyfuss gets it, there's not excuse for the rest of the Hollywood trash not to get it.
Actor Richard Dreyfuss Discusses Importance of Teaching Civics in American Schools - By and May 5, 2023 - Understanding the Constitution is necessary for good citizenship, Dreyfuss says. Passive citizenship in America is the direct consequence of public schools not teaching about people’s constitutional rights and the rules for governing the country enshrined in the Constitution, said actor Richard Dreyfuss..............
People who have not been taught civics do not understand the powers civil authorities have been given or the hierarchy of powers, said Dreyfuss, who has advocated for the need for civic education in the American school system since 2008 with his organization, The Dreyfuss Civics Initiative. Dreyfuss explained that it is too late to learn civics after a person gets elected to Congress. “You have to learn it and learn it so that it’s in your DNA. And that’s why you study the Constitution,” he said............
In his book, Dreyfuss asserts that civics has not been taught in American public schools for over 50 years. Civics has not been completely abandoned by schools, as many schools teach a subject named civics, but they do not teach about how the republic governs itself, and the requirements vary from state to state. As a result, students lack proficiency in civics..................
There are some voices calling to abolish the Constitution. Ryan Cooper, a national correspondent at The Week, called the American Constitution “a piece of junk” and suggested throwing it out. Louis Michael Seidman, a law professor at Georgetown University, argued that the Constitution is outdated and advised to give it up. Dozens of students at the University of Florida signed a petition to abolish the Constitution.
But Dreyfuss told The Epoch Times he would ask those who want to replace the Constitution for a better alternative to it. No one has laid out the structure of the federal government—and the way for the states and the federal government to work together—better than the Constitution, Dreyfuss argued..............
Editor's Note: Here's what's infesting our educational institutions. RK
Commie Chic Invades American Grade Schools By David Mikics - Angela Davis was a dedicated fangirl of Soviet dictator Leonid Brezhnev and cult leader Jim Jones. So why is she presented to children as a hero? Every day, my son, who is in seventh grade, sees a quotation from Angela Davis painted on his school’s wall: “Radical simply means grasping things at the root.” (The line actually comes from Karl Marx.) Four years ago, during Black History Month, a poster of Davis beamed down from the wall of his public elementary school in Brooklyn.
I eagerly praise my son’s charter school to other parents. It’s full of dedicated teachers who urge their students to debate politics and history with an open mind. So I wrote to the administration, proposing that they should balance the school’s homage to Davis with a quotation from Andrei Sakharov or Natan Sharansky, who fought to free the millions of Soviet bloc citizens that Davis wanted to keep locked up. After all, I reasoned, some of the school’s families are themselves refugees from communist tyrannies. My suggestion was met with silence.......
673 university professors sign letter opposing courses on America's founding, Constitution UNC professors say requiring courses on American history violates 'academic freedom' - Hundreds of professors at the University of North Carolina signed a public letter Tuesday opposing legislation that would require university students to take courses on America's government and founding documents. The 673 UNC Chapel Hill professors revealed the public letter Tuesday, arguing the new courses and another bill in the North Carolina House of Representatives would constitute an infringement on the university's "academic freedom." The first piece of legislation, House Bill 96, would require students to take a 3 credit-hour course covering America's founding and history. Required reading for the course would include the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, at least five essays from the Federalist Papers, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail and the Gettysburg Address.............
Tarheels Dig in on the Constitution- Oh, the preening of some academic scholars. Advanced degrees, tenure, and insulation from market-based competition create within them a sense of superiority which to challenge is like questioning the rotation of the earth around the sun. Occasionally, though, the scholastic earth can be thrown off its axis. This is occurring today in North Carolina, where House Bill 96 would mandate all college students in the state to take a three credit-hour class in which students would read the following texts:
“The Constitution of the United States of America. The Declaration of Independence. The Emancipation Proclamation. At least five essays from the Federalist Papers, as determined by the instructor. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. The Gettysburg Address. The North Carolina State Constitution.”
In other words, reading and interacting with texts central to American history, government, and political philosophy would be required by students who will, as college and university graduates, go on to help lead in their fields — in America.
Yet this simple obligation to teach the Declaration, et al, apparently would be too much for many of the Tarheel State’s educators to fulfill. “History courses are necessary, but I think politicians need to stay out of our universities,” according to history professor Jürgen Buchenau of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “They don’t want history to be taught. They want a certain type of history to be taught.”..............
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