[Ohiogift] History in Massachusetts

Tue Apr 14 13:24:34 EDT 2015

It's said what isn't tested isn't taught. Since the decision to postpone instituting passage of the U.S. history test as a high school graduation requirement, entire middle school social studies departments have been eliminated, and history courses are being taught by English, math, and science teachers...

Lincoln's Assassination and U.S. History

By The Springfield Republican Editorial Page 

on April 14, 2015 at 10:23 AM

By Tom Birmingham   [J.D., Rhodes Scholar]

"Now he belongs to the ages," Secretary of War Edwin Stanton said upon the death of President Abraham Lincoln. But on the sesquicentennial of Lincoln's assassination we're in jeopardy of producing a generation of young people who are largely ignorant of our nation's past.

Along with Mark Roosevelt, I co-authored Massachusetts' 1993 Education Reform Act (MERA) [PDF]. The Commonwealth has much to be proud of over the last 22 years of reform. Since 2005 we've led the nation at every grade level and every subject tested on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), called the "Nation's Report Card."

In 2007 and 2013, the Bay State participated as its own "country" on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the gold standard of international math and science testing. Here too, Massachusetts students proved among the very top in the world in mathematics, and in 2007 our eighth graders tied for number one in the world in science.

The MERA was not overly prescriptive about subjects to be taught, but it did require the teaching of the fundamentals of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Federalist Papers as the basis for understanding U.S. history and civics. Moreover, the law required students to pass a U.S. history test as a condition of high school graduation.

When the Patrick administration jettisoned this requirement in 2009, they cited the $2.4 million cost of administering the test. To contextualize this number, the Commonwealth spends $4.5 billion per year on K-12 education. It strains credulity to suggest that they couldn't find $2.4 million in a $4.5 billion budget, if they really wanted to administer the test.

It's said what isn't tested isn't taught. Since the decision to postpone instituting passage of the U.S. history test as a high school graduation requirement, entire middle school social studies departments have been eliminated and history courses are being taught by English, math, and science teachers.

On the civics portion of the 2010 NAEP test, only 7 percent of eighth graders could correctly identify the three branches of government and over two-thirds of America's students scored below "proficient." Unlike in English, math, and science, when it comes to U.S. history and civics, Massachusetts students are not the exception, but the rule.

For example, in more than 25 years of the national "We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution" contest, our students have never finished among the top 10 states. In civics, Bay State students are routinely outperformed by their counterparts from California, Oregon, Indiana, Virginia, and Alabama.

Previous generations shaped their futures by studying the past. The centrality of history and civics in American schooling is deeply woven into the fabric of this country. The Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, 1960s Civil Rights leaders, and the late American Federation of Teachers president Albert Shanker, all believed that an educated citizenry is a necessary prerequisite to maintaining the Republic itself.

Yet we Americans are losing touch with our heritage because that history is not being taught in schools. As one scholar has observed, when it comes to teaching history, we seem to be suffering from a form of national Alzheimer's. I'll offer just one example of this woeful ignorance of U.S. history.

When former Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni wanted to show his players an inspirational movie, he chose Steven Spielberg's recent film "Lincoln." According to Lakers star Kobe Bryant, fully half of his teammates were surprised and stunned when Lincoln was assassinated at the end.

Remarkably, these young men had high school diplomas and most attended college. If they don't know about Lincoln's assassination, you can't help but wonder what they do know about our history.

Upon hearing of Lincoln's death, the poet Walt Whitman wrote, "O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won...But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead." These days, this elegy for Lincoln could well be mourning the loss of history itself.

Clearly, the time has come to make history part of every Massachusetts public school student's education by reinstating the U.S. history MCAS test to graduate from high school.

Tom Birmingham is the Distinguished Senior Fellow in Education at Pioneer Institute and the co-author of the landmark Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993.

http://www.masslive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/04/us_history_should_be_part_of_m.html

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