Survey: U.S. Students Fail History

American students have fallen behind other industrialized nations in math and science skills. But now, students also seem to lack comprehensive knowledge of history and the liberal arts.

According to Still At Risk: What Students Don’t Know, Even Now, a report released February 26 by Common Core, an organization that promotes core curricula including liberal arts and sciences in American schools, high school seniors are getting a 'D' in history: a survey group of 1,200 seventeen-year-olds answered just 67% of thirty-three basic history questions correctly (to say nothing of more esoteric topics and events).

For example, do you know when Christopher Columbus sailed for the New World? (Hint: It was before 1750). Would you be able to correctly name the document that guarantees our freedom of speech and religion? (It’s the Bill of Rights). If so, you have a better grasp of basic U.S. history than an alarmingly high number of American students.

A Trend of Failure?

The survey was based on a landmark 1986 study by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which even then showed students ignorant of elementary U.S. history. Common Core asked the seventeen-year-olds to answer similar queries, with disturbing results:

• 57% did not know when the Civil War was fought. Only 43% correctly answered “between 1850 and 1900.”
• Only 50% of students knew the purpose of the Federalist Papers (“to gain ratification of the U.S. Constitution”). Other students answered “to establish a strong, free press in the colonies,” “to win foreign approval for the Revolutionary War,” and “to confirm George Washington’s election as the first president.”
• 49% did not know the focus of Joseph McCarthy’s investigations in the 1950s. 51% correctly answered "Communism."

Common Core and other education advocates argue that too much instruction time in U.S. schools is being used for reading and math, with the purpose of preparing students for federally-mandated standardized tests. The tests are required by President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), which aimed to improve public school education by testing students’ mastery of basic reading and math—skills that are crucial for success in the increasingly global workforce.

Controversy over Standardized Testing

However, many educators argue that NCLB is having the opposite effect: rather than improving children’s overall education, it is narrowing the scope of instruction to emphasize reading, math and test-taking ability. NCLB requires schools to score well on standardized tests to receive federal funds; thus there is added pressure to perform well in the testing subjects. As a result, there is less time to properly teach non-tested subjects like history, civics, social studies, literature, or art, which shortchanges students. Ironically, this knowledge gap may leave students less prepared to compete in the world’s workplace.

Despite their differences on certain issues, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidates, and their Republican rival, John McCain, agree that No Child Left Behind is in need of reform. Just what types of corrections the next president will impose, and how seriously he or she takes education in the liberal arts and sciences, remains to be seen.

The Civil War, fought between 1850 and 1900.

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