U.S. students don’t know much about American history, according to results of a national test released Tuesday.
Just 13 percent of high school seniors who took the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress — called the Nation’s Report Card — showed solid academic performance in American history. The two other grade levels tested didn’t perform much better, which just 22 percent of fourth-grade students and 18 percent of eighth-graders scoring proficient or better.
The test quizzed students on such topics as colonization, the American Revolution, the Civil War and the contemporary United States. For example, one question asks fourth-graders why it was important for the United States to build canals in the 1800s.
“The history scores released today show that student performance is still too low,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan in a prepared statement. “These results tell us that, as a country, we are failing to provide children with a high-quality, well-rounded education.”
Got-ya videos mean nothing. But stats like that one above certainly do mean something. The lack of classroom discipline plays a part here.
But there is a second problem. It's the idiotic educational fad called "teaching higher level thinking skills". Memorization is now not just frowned upon, it's forbidden.
So teachers are no longer allowed to emphasize facts. Instead students get questions like: How would a Civil War affect poor families?
Facts like who actually fought the war, who were the top commanders, etc., are no longer important.
Much the same thing occurs in math classes! In my district, math teachers must give FULL credit to wrong answers, as long as the "thinking" behind the answers meet certain guidelines.