May 16, 2007

Modest Gains Seen in U.S. Students’ History Scores

Federal officials reported today that students in fourth, eighth and 12 grade showed modest increases in test scores in history, although more than half of the nation’s high school seniors still showed poor command of even basic facts like the impact of the cotton gin on the slave economy or the causes of the Korean War.

Federal officials said they considered the results encouraging because student performance at every level tested improved since the last time the test was administered, in 2001. “Overall achievement has improved significantly at all grade levels in U.S. history,” the 24-member bipartisan board that oversees the test, known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, said in a statement today.

The best results were in fourth grade, where 70 percent of students attained the basic level of achievement or better. The history scores, and some similar results on a national civics exam also released today, are likely to be closely studied, partly because Congress is considering the renewal of President Bush’s signature education law, No Child Left Behind, which took effect in 2002.

Because that law requires states to administer annual tests in math and reading, and punishes schools where scores fail to rise, a string of studies have shown that thousands of schools have reduced time spent on other subjects, including history.

Lawmakers and educators are likely to puzzle over why, under such circumstances, achievement in history has increased even modestly, and some suggested that the fourth grade results were tied to better reading skills.

“It is especially good news that gains have been made by the lowest-performing students,” said Darvin M. Winick, the University of Texas research fellow who is the board’s chairman.

Still, the national assessment in history, which divides student achievement levels into basic, proficient or advanced, had the highest percentage of 12th grade students scoring below basic of any subject tested in 2005 and 2006, including math, reading and science.

The history test was given early in 2006 to a national sample of 29,200 fourth-, eighth- and 12th grade students. Among the results were these:

¶Some 47 percent of the 12th graders performed at the basic level or above, while 13 percent attained or exceeded the proficient level. Only 1 percent of students at any grade level scored at the advanced level. The last time the test was given in 2001 43 percent were at or above basic.

¶Sixty five percent of eighth-graders achieved the basic level or better, a slight rise from the 62 percent six years ago; 17 percent were proficient or above.

¶Seventy percent of fourth-grade students attained or exceeded the basic level, compared to 66 percent in 2001, while 18 percent were proficient.

The 30 percent of fourth-graders who scored below the basic level lacked the ability to identify even the most familiar historic figures, or to explain the reasons for celebrating national holidays. “It’s heartwarming that the test organizers have found positive things to say, but this report is not anything to break out the champagne over,” said Theodore K. Rabb, a history professor at Princeton who heads the board of the National Council for History Education, a private group that advocates devoting more classroom time to history.

Mr. Rabb pointed to a question on the fourth-grade version of the test, which quoted three sentences from the 1858 speech in which Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

The test asked students, “What did Abraham Lincoln mean in this speech?” and listed four possible answers.

a) The South should be allowed to separate from the United States.

b) The government should support slavery in the South.

c) Sometime in the future slavery would disappear from the United States.

d) Americans would not be willing to fight a war over slavery.

Fifty four percent of the fourth graders given the test failed to pick the correct answer, letter c).

“These are very worrisome results,” Mr. Rabb said.