While it is likely true that those who do not learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them, those who are not tested on the subject in school may be doomed not to have learned much history in the first place.
“Advanced Civics for U.S. History Teachers,” a smart new white paper from Massachusetts’s Pioneer Institute, counsels civics and history advocates to show “persistence and unity” in order to restore history to “its rightful place as a treasured academic discipline and a fundamental educational priority.” The paper was issued in the weeks before ESEA was reauthorized and signed, but its primary recommendation—that states mandate a statewide assessment in U.S. history—is astute and timely now that states largely control their own testing and accountability destinies.
Pioneer also recommends “strong funding streams for professional development” and highlights several outstanding programs with national reputations that “buck the trends and afford teachers and students the possibilities of teaching and learning history in a rich, engaging and rigorous manner”: The Center for the Study of the Constitution; the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution; the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University; and the outstanding “We the People” program. (One recommendation the report strangely overlooks, perhaps because of Pioneer’s general aversion to all things federal, is restoring the $10 million the Center for Civic Education used to receive annually from the U.S. Department of Education for “We the People.”)
The authors also recommend that school administrators “focus their hiring on teachers with strong content knowledge.” It’s a fine and even necessary recommendation, but teachers can’t give what they don’t have. One data point the report overlooks: In the most recent NAEP exam, a mere 18 percent of eighth graders performed at or above the “proficient” level in U.S. history, and only 23 percent did so in civics—levels that make U.S. performance in reading and math look robust by comparison. Just 2 percent of college graduates are history majors—less than half the figure from forty years ago. The line at the job fair for teachers with strong content knowledge will not be a long one. If I may add a recommendation to Pioneer’s list: Several states have begun to make passing the U.S. citizenship exam a high school graduation requirement. Perhaps it should also be a condition of teacher certification.
“Parents, students, government officials, and business leaders need to be made aware of the dire straits of history and the consequences of continuing along the path we are now on,” the authors note. Knowledge of our history’s foundational documents, seminal events, and pivotal leaders, they note, “are in a state of full-blown retreat.” We know this. The nonsense that spews daily from the mouths of presidential candidates, their enablers, and various media hacks merely remind us.
So yes, one very good place to start is statewide testing in history “with a strong focus on the founding documents.” Perhaps Massachusetts, with Pioneer’s energetic push, can lead the way. Then those who do not learn the lessons of history can merely be doomed to repeat the class.
SOURCE: Anders Lewis and William Donovan, “Advanced Civics for U.S. History Teachers: Professional Development Models Focusing on the Founding Documents,” Pioneer Institute (November 2015).
