Education: A Most Precious Gift – HR6525

AUTHOR: Crystal Fontaine

Mark Twain once said that “[m]any public-school children seem to know only two dates—1492 and 4th of July; and as a rule they don’t know what happened on either occasion”. The education of our youth should be top priority. Education paves the way for future leaders, great philosophers as well as a better world and better opportunities. It opens up pathways that many may have not known existed.

House bill number 6525 proposes to amend the National Assessment of Education Progress Authorization Act to require State academic assessments of student achievement in U.S. History and Civics.

Certain findings by Congress paint a troubling picture. The 2006 National Assessment of Educational Progress demonstrated high percentages of students scoring below basic. In the subject of history, thirty percent of students in Grade 4 scored below basic. The percentages only go higher from there as thirty-five percent in Grade 8 scored below basic, while a whopping fifty-three percent in Grade 12 has the same scores. It is interesting to note that eighty-six percent (yes, you read right) of students in Grade 12 could not explain a reason for the U.S involvement in the Korean War.

Students seemed to fair a little better concerning Civics. Only twenty-seven percent of students in Grade 4 scored below basic. Students in grades 8 and 12 show a significant difference in percentage scores between history and civics. Only thirty percent in Grade 8 and thirty-four percent in Grade 12 scored below basic. Unfortunately, seventy-two percent of students in Grade 8 could not explain the historical purpose to the Declaration of Independence. That is simply amazing. According to the bill, there should be trail State academic assessment of student achievement in U.S civics and history from grades 8 through 12 in at least ten geographically diverse states. The states would be selected and identified to participate in the assessments with the consultation of the Commissioner for Education Statistics. In addition, H.R. 6525 allows for money appropriations of $7,000,000 for each fiscal year of 2008 and 2009 in order to carry out the United States History and Civics Assessments.

Although these percentages are just numbers, they still portray a disturbing fact. For one reason or another, our students are not doing so well concerning our nation’s history. I do not think I want to know what the percentage is of students not knowing how our nation was founded.