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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Kids get 'abysmal' grade in history; HS seniors don't know basics |
Current rating: 0 |
by USA Today (but it bears repeating)
(No verified email address) |
10 May 2002
Modified: 06:47:49 PM |
People often wonder why the US of A ends up in such stupid situations, behind the curve at home, and a stumbling clown abroad. Maybe this is the answer.
"Those who choose not to study history are doomed to repeat it..."
(or something like that-- DAMN! and I'm a history major!)
But it does note that part of the problem may be that history is often taught by non-majors, meaning they should hire more history majors (and pay them more to attract new people to the field!) |
WASHINGTON -- Most U.S. high school seniors have a poor grasp of the nation's history, and their knowledge hasn't improved in seven years, says a Department of Education report out Thursday.
At a time when the United States is at war in Afghanistan and under terrorist threat, seniors' ''truly abysmal scores'' on the 2001 U.S. History Report Card are alarming, said Diane Ravitch, historian and education professor at New York University and a member of the test's governing board. It's especially grim considering how close these students are to voting age, she said.
''Our ability to defend -- intelligently and thoughtfully -- what we as a nation hold dear depends on our knowledge and understanding of what we hold dear,'' Ravitch said during the presentation of the report. ''That can only be achieved through learning the history we share, and clearly, far too many high school seniors have not learned even a modest part of it.''
Performance on the exam was scored as basic, proficient (at grade level) or advanced; ideally, all students should perform at grade level or better. Education Secretary Rod Paige defined ''basic'' as ''the bottom of the achievement ladder.''
On the test:
* 57% of seniors could not perform even at the basic level.
* 32% performed at the basic level.
* 10% performed grade-level work, and 1% were advanced or superior.
Scores among seniors were essentially the same as in 1994, when this version of the test was first given.
''This is unacceptable,'' Paige said. ''History is a critical part of our nation's school curriculum. It is through history that we understand our past and contemplate our future.''
Unqualified teachers are cited as one reason for the poor performance. Education Department statistics show 54% of junior and senior high school students in 1996 were taught history by teachers who neither majored nor minored in the subject, and a new study soon to be released shows similar results. The only subject worse than history is physical science, where 56% of students have teachers out of field.
The federally mandated test was administered to 29,000 fourth-, eighth- and 12th-graders at 1,100 public and private schools. Fourth- and eighth-grade students did better than seniors, but not by much:
* 18% of fourth-graders performed at grade level or above in 2001, 49% performed at basic and 33% below. In 1994, 17% were at grade level or above, 47% at basic and 36% below.
* 17% of eighth-graders were at or above grade level, 48% at basic and 36% below in 2001. In 1994, 14% were at grade level or above, 48% at basic, 39% below.
* In fourth grade, both white and black students had higher average scores in 2001 than in 1994. Black students' scores improved more than whites'.
* The average score for senior Hispanic students improved over 1994, narrowing the gap with whites. |
See also:
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020510/4101936s.htm
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Lesson #1 (In case your teacher somehow skipped over it.) |
by marx's wild-eyed great-great-grandson
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
10 May 2002
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ANTI-IMPERIALISM
Read this. Your quiz will be in real life, so pay attention.
http://www.boondocksnet.com/ai/index.html
"This site introduces the first organizations formed to oppose U.S. territorial and economic imperialism and makes available many of the otherwise hard-to-find documents they produced. Among them is a large collection of anti-imperialist literature. Much of it was written by authors whose works are still appreciated and studied today but whose roles in the anti-imperialist movement are not widely known. Other literary responses, like the numerous newspaper and magazine verses written in response to Rudyard Kipling's "The White Man's Burden," are restored here from near-total obscurity. These writings, and the many pro- and anti-imperialist political cartoons scattered throughout the site, represent part of the important cultural response to imperialism. Organizational platforms, speeches, and pamphlets might clearly state the political issues involved, but the cultural expressions give us our best indications of the extent to which the debate about imperialism influenced U.S. society as a whole."
(thanks Sam;>) |
