OPEN LETTER TO THE GOVERNING BOARD OF NCLC. (Sent Sept. 17, 2005)

The following represents an informal email message that was sent to an Executive Assistant to the Governing Board for the National Center for Leadership in Civics with whom the author regularly corresponded in 2005. The email asked that person to forward to ALL the administrative leaders of that national educational board the below concerns of Florida Social Studies teachers who were lobbying on behalf of then-Senate Bill S860. This U.S. Senate measure and its counterpart in the House of Representatives would have provided funding to the National Assessment Educational Program so that History and Civics would have limited state accountability in an upcoming assessment. Unfortunately, S860 and all other attempts to secure state-accountability for Civics and U.S. History failed. To this day, these vital subjects remain the only ones no state is held accountable for.  It is a major reason for the dismal performance students continue to have in civic and historical understanding in our nation. 

This writer is convinced today this is by deliberate intent and national design. 

_____________

[name withheld]

Please share with your ‘leadership’ . . .   . 

Once well over one year ago I sent emails to your organization and talked to some of your staff about a bill in the LAST Congress, S2721 (Sen. Alexander, TN), that would have revitalized the National Assessment for Educational Progress upcoming 2006 CIVICS (and U.S. History) assessment.  What would it have hopefully done?  It would have--for the first time in the history of the nation-- removed CIVICS and U.S. History assessments from the second-class status they face in the U.S. Dept. of Education and in the assessments commonly called "The Nation's Report Card." It would have held the STATES accountable for the first time in how well they prepare students in civic understanding.  That bill died, of course, without a hearing.  Although Congress could once again find plenty of money – over a hundred million $ -- for the training of teachers of U.S. History and Civics, it couldn't find a mealy $5 to $10 million for something that would place Civics on an equitable footing with other core subjects.

   At the time I called and spoke to some of your staff, I urged your organization to revisit its goal of encouraging assessment at the 'local and state' level by expanding the wording to include the word 'national.'  I'm a realist; I know how your Governors would react.  But that is just the point.  

   I mentioned then the fact that one of the 'directors' on the Education Commission of the States, Jeb Bush, actually signed into law a bill that ELIMINATED American Government, American History, and Economics as high school graduation requirements in Florida.  (He also sits as a "Honorary State Chairman" of "Constitution Day, Inc." -- but that's another story.)   Jeb Bush's legislative team has also OPPOSED a legislative proposal to make the consideration of a student's academic performance in Civics and History a 'consideration' for promotion to the next grade in Florida.  Thus, only Reading, Writing, Science and Math continue to need be considered for ‘promotion purposes.’  I guess you’ve got a director who really doesn’t care very much about Civic education.  Amazing, you say?  Let me continue.

   His Department of Education has opposed adding Civic and Historical understanding to the state's assessment - the FCAT.  

   Moreover, our bill on Student Progression (which would have added social studies performance for promotion from on grade to another) was passed unanimously by the Florida House of Representatives as well as every Senator who has ever had the opportunity to vote on it before the measure was ‘killed’ by legislative leaders loyal to the governor.  

   The Governor has ignored direct overtures to come to the aid of civic legislation.  The effect was it was deliberately 'killed' by legislative leaders in his own party because it 'might someday open up the door to assessment of Civic knowledge in our state.  Isn’t this a recommended goal of your group?  But let me continue.

   He has ignored studies in his own state that have for years shown Florida's University students to be more ignorant of basic civic knowledge than their peers across the nation.  (From a James Madison Institute report – let me know if you’d like a copy.)

   He has endorsed the wide-scale sampling of students in our state -- 70,000 of them a couple of years ago -- on very intrusive Drug, Tobacco and Alcohol Surveys which contained literally hundreds of questions so that Florida can know with scientific accuracy the last time a typical middle school student was offered a swig of beer, a 'joint' or something worse. 

   Yet Governor Bush certainly, absolutely, and unabashedly has NO IDEA ON EARTH how well our students understand the Constitution or Bill of Rights!  Why has Governor Bush allowed this to happen?

    Because he ‘can.’  And because no one is keeping ‘score’ on how well he instills civic and historical knowledge in Florida’s students.  He can do all this and yet still be named “Honorary Chairman of Constitution Day, Inc.”  This has been allowed to happen because groups such as yours seem not to care about providing equity to this vital subject at the national level on NAEP!  Because you and many other groups refuse to endorse the principle of equity for our curriculum on ‘The Nation’s Report Card’ NAEP assessments and the real need to hold states accountable, things have gotten worse. Until this changes, until states are made to care about civics and history, student understanding in these subjects will continue to get worse. Well, perhaps we could throw another $500 million into teacher training on top of the $500 million we’ve already spent?  That would help, wouldn’t it? Anyone who believes this should see me about a bridge I'd like to sell.

   Go to THOMAS and check the status of S860. [This was the new version of S2721 that had to be re-introduced in the next Congress. Such proposals languished in Congress without a vote for six years.] It wouldn’t cost much and wouldn’t do much.  Instead of comparing 50 states on how well they prepare students with civic knowledge and their attitudes on civic efficacy (as is done with everything else, including the Drug surveys!) it would compare only a few – no more than ten!   Again, even this small baby step toward giving these vital subjects equity is seemingly too much for some in Congress. The bill is stalled. We had a nationally renowned historian--David McCullough--testify to the Senate Education Committee and he grabbed some headlines, but he really doesn’t know much about the bill.  The Executive Director of the National Assessment Governing Board, Chuck Smith, came to the hearing with news about the crisis we face in Historical and Civic knowledge and the good news that we’ll have more frequent national profiles now.  But he didn’t own up to the fact Civics was delayed in 2001 because it wasn’t deemed very important and he didn’t apologize for his own shop planning to basically eliminate the Civics 12th Grade national assessment (the very thing this bill was trying to expand) so that funds could go toward expanding the Reading and Math 12th Grade assessments this year!  

    This year will mark an expansion of testing by his shop (NAGB) for Reading and Math beyond the statewide comparisons we already make for these subjects in grades four and eight. This is the first time any state comparisons have been made at this grade level. Our plan some years back was to convince Congress that it ought to have an expanded assessment of Civics and U.S. History at grade 12, comparing the states and holding them accountable for the first time in these vital subjects. Why? Because schools are registering students to vote in grade 12 and it would’ve cost only half the amount of the regular assessments that traditionally compared all the states at Grades 4 and 8.  Moreover, it’s the right thing to do. It would place Civics and History on somewhat of an equal plane with the other core curriculum areas. This is not No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which has left Civics and History in the educational dustbin. NCLB will test children in reading and math every year! Since History and Civics will never be placed on an equal plane with this type of schedule, it is all the more important to provide equity for it on the more infrequent and lower stakes NAEP tests. These NAEP subject-area assessments have usually occurred only 10 years or so and have often been delayed, as President Bush did for Civics in 2001.  What’s wrong with comparing the states to one another in this vital subject area once every four, eight or ten years? When we compare state performance on other subjects annually and we never do this for civics and history, how much emphasis do you think state leaders will continue to give to civics and history? Any middle school student knows the answer to that question!

   Having been the one who actually proposed this bill to Senator Lamar Alexander some years ago and now watching it die a second time in the 109th Congress, I’m urging you to pick up the phone and ask Sen. Mike Enzi to schedule it for a vote.  Can’t do that?  How about ‘alluding to the need for a more ‘meaningful’ NAEP and leave out the specific Bill No. so you can’t be accused of having engaged in ‘lobbying’?

    I’m hoping that in light of the above information your directors might actually be asked to endorse some sort of insertion of the word “national” in your assessment belief statement.  (Without it, I consider you guys to remain actually ‘hostile’ to real reform in civic education.  If no one keeps ‘score’, some on your ‘team’ can actually ‘cheat’ by placing all their resources in math, reading, writing and science and thus can actually work against civic education.)

   And please, familiarize yourself with “The Nation’s Report Card” and NAEP.

   I’ve begged personally Charles Quigley, Diane Ravitch, Lee Hamilton, Chester Finn, William Galston, Elaine Reed, Karl Kurtz, etc. etc. on this issue.  Not a single word in print from any of them about the need for equity in NAEP or about this bill. Not one editorial about the need for equity at the national level.  Not one question was posed to Sec. of Education Margaret Spellings during her nomination hearing about how her shop was going to address this national crisis.  (I submitted a bunch of such questions to all the Senators on the Education Committee, but then not one was asked of her.) Had YOU GUYS arranged for a couple of key questions for some Senator to pose to her, who knows?  Wouldn’t it have been nice to have the nation hear on C-SPAN her plans for Civic knowledge?  It seems clear she hasn’t ‘any’ such plans of real substance.  

   I know, I know, your department doesn’t engage in lobbying.  But you could at least ‘mention’ the bill and describe its impact for the benefit of your readers. You could, in essence, fulfill your mission to educate your own team about pending legislation without taking a stand on it, couldn’t you? Finally, how can your Board continue to say in writing that you endorse state and local testing of civics but you yet ignore the ‘national’ need? This is especially the case when folks related to your own ‘team” – Gov. Jeb Bush, for one – prove to be obstacles in the attempt to reform civic education in America!  

   I would love to see something in writing from your shop on S860.  Without some support, it will likely die once again. Perhaps David Broder or someone like him will write about it as a ‘what might have been’ article. We’ll shed more national tears about how 'the system’ is failing our kids. Right. Seen it all for 30 years. And we can all predict that in the face of the NCLB “Reading, Writing, Math, and Science Juggernaut” and the annual comparisons that will be made in these areas amongst all the states, that civic and historical knowledge will continue to decline.  More tears. More hundreds of millions of dollars perhaps for teacher training – more preaching to the choir, more dastardly results which will then again cause more millions to be spent to ‘rectify’ it in the future. And so it will go on and on and on.

    Having been in it for over 30 years, I actually think this is the national plan now.  I couldn’t have devised (nor could Lenin) a better plan to destroy the civic health of the nation than what our national leaders and Congress have devised right now. I’m amazed at the genius of it all as I look back on things now.  Remember Warren Burger--the Chief Justice who resigned to give the nation a needed “Civics lesson”--because of poor civics survey results back then? Nothing has changed except the names and dates of the surveys.   

     In a few years, we might actually implode like the former Soviet Union. Who shall we blame but ourselves, eh?  Has our generation kept its promise to do all we can to instill civic knowledge in this rising generation of young Americans?  I think not. I'd further say that it's our civic leaders who are most responsible.  Will that include the Board of Directors for the National Center for Leadership in Civics?

   An admirer and ally of ‘most’ of what you do,

Jack Bovee
Legislative Chair, Florida Council for the Social Studies

Constitution Day Consternations! (Originally published September 16, 2005)

This September 17 marks the first annual requirement -- sponsored by Senator Robert Byrd (Dem. WV) --  that all schools implement a program to instruct students about the Constitution.   As one who has dedicated his adult life to that endeavor let me go on record as being strongly opposed to this law.    

    Why?   Because there is a better law which both the Senate and the media continue to ignore.  It’s time for Congress to finally pass some substantive legislation that would restore American History and Civics as part of the nation’s core curriculum.  It’s time to place these subjects at least on an equitable footing with others that are assessed by what is commonly referred to as “The Nations Report Card”.   How?   By holding states accountable for how well they prepare our students to be citizens – by comparing them to one another and to a national average -- just as we do in reading, writing, math and science.   What?  We don’t do that already, you say?  Of course we don’t.  And that’s  the reason for the drastic decline in civic knowledge for over the last 30 years!   

      Believe it or not, American History and Civics have been repeatedly discriminated against in the testing process and postponed on the national testing calendar.   For decades, we’ve compared all the states to one another in reading, writing, math and science.  Governors and Education Commissioners post bragging rights on their web sites when their states do better than the national average and they appropriate huge sums of money to remedy their academic deficiencies.  The U.S. Department of Education even compares how well they effectively deter students from using drugs, alcohol or tobacco.  In history and civics, however, we simply don’t care enough to even keep score.    Nor does anyone seem to care!   Look in earnest through the words of Diane Ravitch, Chester Finn, Charles Quigley and others for any articles in support of state accountability or for support for a revitalized NAEP, and you’ll be searching in vain.   When Charles Smith, Executive Director of the National Assessment Governing Board, recently testified to the Senate about the importance of U.S. History and how dismally our students perform in it, he bragged that under a ‘new’ testing calendar, U.S. History would be assessed more often.  Good.  It needs to be.  What he forgot to mention, however, was that it was the plan of his own shop only a couple of years ago to basically eliminate testing this subject on future NAEP tests at Grade 12.  Nor did he mention President Bush supported the evisceration of these subjects at the very grade when schools are registering students to vote.  You can bet no one asked him why this plan was even proposed for a course in which our students ‘perform worst’.  Nor did anyone have the foresight to ask Secretary Spellings about her plans to restore Civic and Historical Knowledge to the nation’s schools during her confirmation process.   Can it be that no one cares?

     Sadly, Senate Bill 860 -- which is designed to shed some light and accountability on the subject-- continues to languish in Congress.   It died in the last Congress and appears doomed to die in this one.  David McCullough’s appearance some weeks ago before the Senate on this bill apparently did very little to stir them into action.  This is the subject that provides the “glue” which holds the nation together.  Politicians love to point out that we are not united by a common religion, ethnicity, race or even perhaps now, language.   It’s this ‘love of our sacred documents’, our understanding of how ‘America has served as a beacon of liberty to countless others around the globe’, and the realization of the ‘sacrifice of countless others’ who have preceded us that unifies us as a people.  Sure, right.   Read the reports over the last 20 years and tell me if anyone really thinks that Senator Byrd’s generation – or mine, for that matter – have kept the promise to properly provide young Americans today with the requisite knowledge and skills for citizenship.  

    Congress has been able to appropriate about a half billion (that’s with a “B”) dollars to train teachers to do a better job teaching American History, yet it can’t agree to pass a bill that would authorize a measly $10 million to end the second-class status this subject has in the U.S. Department of Education and in the 50 states.  They can’t seem to pass a bill that would actually hold states accountable for what used to be the basic reason for a public education.   As a result, we know with more scientific accuracy when the last time a typical middle school student in Michigan took a swig of beer than we do about that student’s knowledge of our Constitution.  Why is this?  You’ll have to ask Senator Byrd and his peers.

    This isn’t rocket science – nor is it a novel idea.  Surveys have been reporting these findings since Chief Justice Warren Burger’s “national civics lesson” in the 1970s.  Thank goodness Burger, like the Founders, isn’t around today to see just how bad things have become.  McCullough worries about this very real threat to America’s security and future.  Like him, I’m very worried whether today’s young adults possess even the rudimentary knowledge to keep the Republic going when the mantle of authority is passed on to them.   A Roper Survey in 2002 found Americans aged 18 to 24 coming in last or second to last when compared to their peers from among eight other nations in such things as: the ability to identify the location of our country on a world map, knowing the approximate size of the U.S. population, being able to identify what two nations each have over 1 billion people, or even knowing which of our enemies took credit for the slaughter of over 3,000 innocent Americans only months before.  Mexican students beat their American counterparts on all of those questions.  Perhaps we can just extend our right of franchise south of the border.

     Without some form of accountability, states will continue to relegate civic knowledge to the educational backburner.  Take Florida for example.  Governor Jeb Bush and several of Florida’s leading legislators serve as ‘state directors’ to the Education Commission of the States.  As such, they also serve on its subsidiary group -- the National Center for Learning and Citizenship.  Both are charged with improving Civic Education programs.  While serving in this capacity, Jeb Bush signed into law a few years ago an act that eliminated American History, American Government, and Economics as graduation requirements in Florida.  Incensed, Tampa Congressman Jim Davis immediately introduced HR 3592 in the last Congress to threaten his own state with the loss of federal funds.  It took a battle, but these courses were eventually restored as graduation requirements.

    Why would Jeb Bush do such a thing?  For the same reason the President delayed the Civics N.A.E.P. assessment some years ago.  If no one keeps score – who cares?  Funny, but I never hear anyone at the national level point out to the President or his younger brother that things such as non-accountability, the second-class status given to civic knowledge, advocating the elimination of such assessments at grade 12 or eradicating such courses as graduation requirements might actually give folks the impression that civic knowledge isn’t very important!   

    Let’s hope that Congress will not blow another chance to hold still yet another generation of young Americans and their state leaders accountable for what is the most important mission of public education!  Perhaps if they got behind the Alexander bill, we could begin to treat these subjects equitably.  Some state leaders might even take their responsibilities as ‘national directors’ and guardians of civic knowledge more seriously.  And perhaps, if we’re lucky, we’ll begin to work on improving the glue that might actually hold this nation together in the future.  

The writer has been a social studies educator, a former elementary school principal, and serves as Legislative Chair for the Florida Council for the Social Studies.   He may be reached at JSBovee@aol.com.   

Flag Day Frustrations. (Originally published June 17, 2005)

I woke up early on June 14th.  After hanging up “old Glory” at my front entrance and draping a few historical replicas over the garage door, I returned to a second cup of coffee and began my search on the internet.  After checking the editorial pages of over a dozen papers across the nation, I found just two that had anything resembling mention of “Flag Day”.   More space was seemingly devoted to latest work of our nation’s most famous historian, David McCullough, than to traditional “Flag Day” sentiments.  That seemed okay.  His book, 1776, might just provide an even better history lesson.   One thing all the stories seemed to have in common was the belief – thanks to the widespread ignorance of today/s America’s youth - that the Republic’s civic health is in grave danger.   McCullough was described as ‘demoralized’ by Jim Ritter of the Chicago Sun Times, who heard him speak recently.  In his Flag Day article, “What Young Don’t Know About History is Staggering”, Ritter - who cited no statistics concerning the extent of such ignorance among our young - concluded with the hope that Tom Hank’s two upcoming HBO miniseries about McCullough’s books may eventually “spark some interest in young people”.   Malcolm Kline, the executive director for Accuracy in Academia who also heard McCullough speak recently, noted the same tone in the best selling author. “Why is it possible that an otherwise intelligent person does not know that the original 13 colonies were on the East Coast or who George Marshall was,” McCullough “ruefully” asked the crowd?   I’ll try to answer him..

    First, what should he expect?  Surveys have been reporting this result since Chief Justice Warren Burger resigned from the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1970s to give us, what he then termed, a very needed “ national civics lesson”.    Thank goodness Burger, like the Founders, isn’t around today to see just how bad things have become.  McCullough worries about “George Marshall”.  I’m more worried whether today’s young adults possess even the most rudimentary knowledge to function as citizens.   A Roper Survey in 2002 found Americans aged 18 - 24 coming in last or second to last when compared to their peers from among eight other nations in such things as: the ability to identify the location of our nation on a world map, knowing the approximate size of the U.S. population, being able to identify what two nations have over 1 billion people each, knowing who the Taliban are, and in understanding other basic bits of information.  I can easily imagine that their European peers could tell them who George Marshall was.

     This is no surprise.  The National Assessment for Education Progress (N.A.E.P.) is responsible for national testing and maintains a web site called “The Nation’s Report Card”.  What McCullough never mentions in his talks is that U.S. History, Civics and Geography are viewed as “second class subjects” by N.A.E.P., Congress and the U.S. Department of Education.  While state-by-state comparisons are available for reading, math, writing and science, no such accountability is available in courses thought helpful for effective citizenship.  Any K-12 educator will tell you that if you don’t hold states or schools accountable, not much will get done.   Take Florida for example.  Governor Jeb Bush and several of the leading legislators serve as ‘state directors’ to the Education Commission of the States (ECS).  As such, they also serve on a subsidiary group known as the National Center for Learning and Citizenship (N.C..L.C.). The second group is charged with improving Civic Education programs in all 50 states.  While serving on this group, Jeb Bush signed into law an act that eliminated American History, American Government, and Economics as graduation requirements for all students in our state.  Incensed, Tampa Congressman Jim Davis immediately introduced HR 3592 in the last Congress to threaten his own state with the loss of federal education funds for eliminating these vital courses .  Social studies educators had to actually amend Senate Education Chair Lee Constantine’s bill to ‘resolve’ this issue the following year in order to restore these graduation requirements.  Why would Jeb Bush do such a thing?  For the same reason the President delayed the Civics N.A.E.P. assessment only a few years before.  Again, if no one keeps score – who cares?  President Bush, whom David McCullough has met with regularly to discuss how to improve the teaching of history, has also recommended eliminating assessing this very subject by N.A.E.P. at grade 12.   Funny, but I never hear Dr. McCullough or anyone else at the national level point out to the President or his younger brother that things such as non-accountability, the second-class status given to civic knowledge, advocating the elimination of such assessments at grade 12 or eradicating such courses as high school requirements might actually give folks the impression that civic knowledge isn’t very important.   

    I happen to agree with David McCullough that civic knowledge among young adults is so bad that ‘national security is at stake.”  But you wouldn’t have thought this from watching this spring’s confirmation hearing of Margaret Spellings as Secretary of Education.  Not one question was posed to her about how she and the federal department of education might reverse the decline of civic literacy.    

    Into the fray comes Senator Lamar Alexander.  His current bill – S850 – has a public hearing on June 30th.  The bill would grant some equity to History and Civics on N.A.E.P.  by authorizing enough funds to compare up to 10 states to a national standard on the upcoming 2006 N.A.E.P. History and Civics assessments.  Senator Alexander cited in a speech in the last Congress that, according to N.A.E.P., U.S. History is our students “worst subject.”   His bill would cost a few millions as compared to the almost half Billion we’ve spent on training U.S. History teachers in the last four years.  Unfortunately, his bill wasn’t even given a hearing in the last Congress.  Concerned citizens can only hope it passes committee in time for Independence Day on July 2nd.    

     For over two years national groups and noted historians like Dr. McCullough have bemoaned the decline in civic understanding.  Perhaps if they get behind the Alexander bill, some state leaders might even be held accountable for how well they prepare young adults to be citizens.  Some might even take their ‘responsibilities’ as directors of N.C.L.C. – and guardians of civic knowledge -- more seriously.  

Jack Bovee

What Does It Take to Get Deported? (Originally published June 11, 2005)

That our immigration crisis continues to snowball out of control is obvious – the porous, virtually non-existent border, an overwhelmed INS bureaucracy that has simply broken down, hospital closings which affect the health and safety of American citizens, burgeoning prisons, overcrowded schools and declining academic achievement, an avalanche of tax dollars still proving to be insufficient to reverse the horror – these are only some of the indicators.   And while our elected officials debate the merits of the Terri Schiavo case for days and bring the business of the state and nation to a halt  - a dubious use of Congressional time at best - they seemingly can’t find enough time to even discuss, let alone enact into law, any legislation to help reverse this ever-growing disaster.

Informed citizens have noted that for quite some time INS guidelines virtually prohibit the detention of illegals who are discovered in the heartland.  The agency is simply overwhelmed and admits it lacks the resources to pick them up and deport them to their nation of origin.  It’s now far worse.  A spate of headlines within the last week reveal the alarming extent of this national disaster.  On June 6th the Virginia State Police backed off a plan that would have allowed some officers to make immigration arrests, a prospect that had been fiercely opposed by immigrant rights advocates.   The mere mention that a few officers would work in tandem with national immigration officials to enforce the nation’s laws in the hope it would enhance national security set off protests and hand-wringing among open border advocates.  

On June 4th the San Diego Union Tribune revealed the amazing fact that 20 Brazilians who had just been whisked across the Rio Grande immediately searched out U.S. Border Patrol agents.  They were briefly detained before one of the agent’s actually drove them to the bus terminal where they were able to purchase tickets to continue their illegal journey into the heart of America.   “We used to chase them; now they’re chasing us,” Border Patrol Agent Gus Balderas said as he frisked the Brazilians and collected their passports late last month.  They were given notices to appear in court   The formal term for the court summons is a “notice to appear.”  Border Patrol agents have another name for it.  They call it a “notice to disappear.”

Of the 8,908 notices to appear that one immigration court in Texas issued last year to non-Mexicans, 8,767 failed to show up for their hearings, according to statistics compiled by the Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review.  That is a no-show rate of 98 percent!   Arrests of non-Mexicans along the U.S.-Mexico border totaled 14,935 in 1995, 28,598 in 2000 and 65,814 last year.  In the first eight months of this federal fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, more than 85,000 have been apprehended.  Nearly all are no-shows at their court hearings, but comprehensive federal figures are not available.   Nor does Congress seem to care!

It comes as no surprise that those who eagerly break our nation’s immigration laws are not often concerned about breaking other state or national laws.   Statistics reveal illegals account for over 80% of those being held in jail for felonies in Los Angeles.  Recent murders of several policemen and the immediate flight of illegal fugitives back to Mexico reveal that the criminals know that Mexico will refuse to extradite them back to the United States to stand trial for a capital crime. This has led many to believe that one of the police officers who was wounded, was then deliberately executed so that the murderer might never have to stand trial in America.  

That these alleged murderers had been repeatedly deported and returned here hardly raises an eyebrow.  What is surprising is the apparent lack of interest in even deporting convicted criminals anymore.   A June 8th article in the Associated Press revealed that even when illegals are convicted of heinous crimes they still may not be deported.  It appears a Mexican national, Hector Fausto, has been convicted in North Carolina to having had an affair with an 11-year-old girl, of getting her pregnant and then taking her to his family’s home in Mexico where she was kept as a virtual slave for several years.   When he returned to the states, she and her two children were able to escape and return to North Carolina with the help of a second man who fathered her second child.   Upon her return, Hector was arrested and charged with statutory rape.  He was also charged with escaping from jail after his arrest.   At a recent trial, he stated in his defense that he was unaware that having sex with an 11 year old was wrong.  Hector was recently convicted of the charges and will spend from 12 to 15 years in prison.  The article concluded, “He will be credited for the two years and two months he spent in jail while awaiting trial, but could be deported once he finishes his sentence because he is not a U.S. citizen.”   Could be deported?   What does it actually take to be deported anymore?   Obviously not rape, slavery, kidnapping, child abandonment or jail break.   How long will it take for our elected officials to come to the realization that the system is broken?

The writer has been a social studies educator for 33 years, a former elementary school principal, and a resident of  Florida for over 30 years.  He may be reached at JSBovee@aol.com.  

Word Count –  877

Jack Bovee   Lehigh Acres, FL

Angst Over Affirmative Action! (originally sent to Editor, Buffalo News, May 21, 2005)

LetterToEditor@buffnews.com  May 21, 2005

Dear Sir:

I couldn't help but think that your newspaper seems to have made another 'affirmative action' weak hire in the person of Rod Watson.  His recent claim that the primary reason black graduation rates are less than those for majority student is due to 'money problems' ("Lack of Money is the Root of the Grad Gap - May 19) is ridiculous.   Do you require your OP ED writers to have any common sense before they publish such rubbish?   First, he argues that PELL GRANTS are being reduced.   Okay, as any college student will tell you, you then take out a LOAN.  Many governmental positions today (teacher, police officer, social worker, etc.) offer up to 50% forgiveness on such loans!   My own son and my "Vietnamese boatperson" daughter-in-law have over $100,000 EACH in loans they have to repay for their college degrees.  (His being on the Dean's List repeatedly didn't help that much - not like the ability to shoot 'hoops,' that is.)  Why does Mr. Watson think black students shouldn't borrow?   Next was his deliberate attempt to bash Bush, the Governor, and most governmental organizations in general for being unsympathetic to the plight of black students.  I sort of think it is the exact opposite.  When just being Black can get you 20 points on some college admissions and a perfect S.A.T. score is worth a measly 6 points, well, you can see where I'm going.  I mean, why study?    I won't mention the myriad ways that most colleges make every attempt to ensure the success of their Black students.  Space won't permit me to list all the absurdities to which they go.  What I did notice is that Rod made no mention of the impact of the complete breakdown of the Black family in urban America, the levels of abuse and neglect resulting from many of these 'parents', or the well-documented aversion of Black students toward academics in general, regardless of family circumstance or income, for being 'part' of the black graduation rate problem.  Nor does he mention how so many Asian immigrants who, like my daughter-in-law, are able to do so well in America's schools when they don't even have the benefit of English in their immediate background or family!   I can understand Mr. Watson's propensity to take the 'easy' way out on what might otherwise be a very important investigative study for your paper, but what I can't understand is your propensity to print such drivel.  

Sincerely,

Jack Bovee

319 Fifth Avenue

Lehigh Acres, FL  33972

239-369-1397

 

“The main reason, more than anything else, is money,” said Robert Slater, Journal managing editor.   

      Don’t tell that to my Caucasian son who recently graduated and now owes over $100,000 for his Pharmacy doctorate – despite being on the Dean’s List repeatedly and winning numerous small academic scholarships – none of which exceeded $2,000.  Don’t tell that to his Asian Pharmacy Doctorate (former “boatperson”) wife who also owes about the same amount.   First, most of the black students at his school got pretty much all expenses paid, but many dropped out anyway.  Worse case scenario, why can’t the black students just BORROW the damn money like everyone else?  If they majored in the hard sciences instead of ‘social work’, ‘general studies’, ‘Education’, and other weak-minded professions, they’d earn the money back rather quickly.  

“Schools try to overcome that with programs to help minority students navigate campus life."  

Sure, like Departments of Diversity and Multicultural Relations, Black Dorms, Black Fraternities, Black Yearbooks, Black Proms, Black Cultural and Talent Shows, departments for AFRO AM History, AFRO AM Literature, AFRO AM  basket-weaving, etc.   How about the rigged admission policies like that at the U of Michigan (PERFECT S.A.T. score = 6 points on admission criteria, being BLACK = 20 POINTS!)  How about quotas which guarantee seats beyond their percent of the population in REMEDIAL COLLEGE COURSES?  How about ‘incentives’ like the old $500 given to every black student at the U of Pennsylvania years ago for every B or A earned by a black student – regardless of the family income of the recipient.   How about the skewed grading policies at some colleges – no “D”s or “F’s: may be given to Black freshmen or sophomores, so as to help foster in them the belief that they can succeed?  Do Jews, whites or Asians have any of this supportive crap out there to help them succeed?  

“The Bush administration is pushing changes that would make it tougher to get Pell grants, which help poor kids.”

Rod makes his case here pretty plain.  He demands the “FREEBIE” Pell Grant, as opposed to having to maybe BORROW some money like the rest of the students in  the real world.   In fact, many states allow for the “FORGIVENESS” of such loans for each year the graduate has worked as a teacher, parole officer, policeman, etc. etc.   Thus, even the LOAN wouldn’t have to be repaid if they majored in ‘governmental’ work of some type – where they would be assured of affirmative action hiring policies and be basically guaranteed jobs for ‘life’.

“As long as that’s the mind-set in our seats of power, we can forget about closing the graduation gaps...” 

Stop crying and admit you’re probably coddling too many people who are too lazy to do the things that ‘normal’ students do day in and day out. 

“, , , so much minority talent gets wasted.”

Sure, this ‘talent’ often seems to confine itself to anything that is a ‘game’ or ‘fun’ – like sports, the ‘art’ of Rap musician (Dr. Cornell West is a great example, churning out CD’s but no academic or scholarly work when he was at Harvard and now at Princeton), the ability to spew out filthy, vulgar jokes, etc. etc.   Numerous studies confirm what teachers have known for a long time –- black students in high school and college THEMSELVES admit that they don’t work as hard, study as long or take school as seriously as their white counterparts.  James McWorter, in ‘Losing the Race’ (he’s a black conservative professor at Stanford) writes that HE NEVER HAD A SINGLE BLACK STUDENT WORK TO HIS POTENTIAL in ANY of his classes.  (Blacks dismiss him because he married a white woman.)   

Well, since the entire football team and basketball team are all getting a ‘free ride”, I guess we can’t guarantee a free ride to ALL blacks.  We can only rig all the rules in their favor and hope that will be enough.   Sorry, Rod!  Grow up and accept some responsibility here!

"Patriot's Day" (Originally submitted to Education Week--April 25, 2005)

EDITOR:  Education Week

Re:  Guest Editorial or Article

Sadly, most of the nation’s newspapers (Education Week included) seemingly ignored an important event that recently involved several of the nation’s noted historians, key Congressional leaders and educators.  The National Council for History Education brought these groups together in the nation’s capitol last week to commemorate both “Patriot’s Day” and to call for a national campaign to “Make History Stronger in Our Schools”.   That this is needed, no one denies.  Kathleen Manzo’s recent article (“Social Studies Losing Out to Reading, Math,” March 15, 2005) accurately described the deplorable state that the subject has come to in the nation’s schools.   She cited a litany of problems in the teaching of History, Civics and Social Studies in states such as California, Maryland, Florida, and Illinois.   

   But it’s worse than this.  Knowledge of economics and geography is equally deplorable.  Several international surveys now indicate that American young adults possess less knowledge requisite for U.S. citizenship than even their peers from around the world!   A Roper Survey for National Geographic conducted in nine countries in 2002, for example, showed American students coming in last in knowing the correct size of our population, identifying which nation gave sanctuary to the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, and even the ability to identify our nation on a world map!  Not surprisingly, noted historian David McCullough recently stated that nothing less than “national security” is at stake due to this rising tide of historical and civic ignorance.   

Those assembled in the nation’s capitol for “Patriot’s Day” last week put forth a powerful argument for the revitalization of American History.  Senator Lamar Alexander has repeatedly stated that based upon National Assessment for Education Progress (N.A.E.P.) results for all academic subjects, “American history is our students worst subject”.  

It’s interesting to note that during the confirmation hearing for Margaret Spellings, not a single question was directed to her as to what plans she has for how the Department of Education might reverse this trend.  One legislative proposal filed by Senators Alexander and Kennedy to coincide with “Patriot’s Day” -- Senate bill 860 -- may offer a solution.   Aimed at the elimination of ‘second-class status” on N.A.E.P. for History and Civics, it would authorize Spelling to spend $5 million to hold up to 10 states accountable for how well they prepare students in History and Civics.   Comparisons of states to one another and to a national average have been done for many years in the areas of Math, Reading, Writing and Science at grades four and eight, but these have never occurred in History or Civics.    The federal Department of Education actually spends more money annually to collect comparable state data on the extent of teenage drinking, smoking and drug use than that being proposed by S860!  This is the second time the bill has been filed by the senators.   In the 108th Congress the measure (S2721) never even came up for a vote.   Nor was there much of a cry amongst History or Civics educators that it do so.  Surprisingly, it was strongly advocated by social studies educators.   These folks, perhaps more familiar with the realities of K-12 public education, realize that until you begin tohold some states accountable, History and Civics will continue to lose valuable time and resources.  The old adage, “What gets tested is what gets taught,” holds true today more than ever before.  I might add, however, “This only happens if you’re keeping score.”  In the case of History and Civics, no one is.

    It’s easily argued that when states are not held accountable to a national standard, they need mot worry or do much to improve.   Take Florida, for example.   Governor Jeb Bush and leading legislators serve as commissioners to the Education Commission of the States.    One of the main missions of this group is to improve civic education programs.  As a result, a subsidiary of this group - the National Center for Learning and Citizenship (NCLC) - has been formed to carry out this mission and to serve as a repository for civics educators.   Perhaps not surprisingly, NCLC argues for increased assessment of civic knowledge by local school districts or by the state.   It is mute on the idea of granting Civics parity -- by comparing states’ performance in this subject -- with other subjects on N.A.E.P.   As a result, Florida politicians who serve on the Education Commission of the States need not worry about how Florida will compare to other states or to a national average.  Incredulously, in recent years Governor Bush and these same legislative leaders have signed into law proposals eliminating American History and American Government as required high school courses for all students.  Moreover, despite support from the Florida League of Women Voters and from social studies teachers, the legislature has for three years refused to pass a bill which would require districts to take student performance in history/civics/social studies into consideration when children are promoted from one grade to the next.  Nor should it be any surprise that none of these subjects are part of the state’s assessment program.

     What is surprising is the near total silence on the subject of revitalizing the upcoming 2006 N.A.E.P assessments in U.S. History and Civics by nationally renowned educators – even those with a strong affinity for the civic mission of our schools!   Chester Finn and Diane Ravitch, both well known for their heated editorials attacking “social studies” as the primary culprit for today’s decline of historical and civic knowledge, have never argued for a revitalized N.A.E.P similar to that proposed by former Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander.  They argue for, among other things, increased history training opportunities for teachers.   They miss the fact that by never holding states accountable, nothing will ever change!  What many seem to forget is that Congress has appropriated almost $400 million in the last few years for training teachers in the areas of history and civics.  While appreciative of this, I’m amazed that Congress has yet to authorize a paltry $5 million to find out how well the states seem to be living up to their civic responsibilities.  When 2006 passes, the opportunity to do this again won’t come around in the N.A.G.B. schedule until 2012 (Civics).  The next U.S. History assessment isn’t listed on their current schedule, and can be presumed to come until after 2012.  

     Equally surprising is the lack of Op-Ed articles from leading national educators decrying the proposal by the National Assessment Governing Board (N.A.G.B.) to possibly eliminate future 12th grade assessments in U.S. History, Civics and Geography.   These provide our only window on how well we’ve prepared voting age students in these vital subjects.  President Bush, who unfortunately once endorsed a delay in the 2001 Civics assessment so resources might be reallocated to Reading and Math, endorsed this new 12th grade plan some time ago.  He did so in order that N.A.G.B. could use their resources to consider initiating for the first time statewide comparisons in Reading and Math at grade 12.    

     If there is a trend, it is the movement to postpone, eliminate or eviscerate any attempt to hold states and students accountable in these vital subjects.  There is a dire need to restore History andCivics to their rightful place in public education.   In the rush to do so, however, let’s not lose sight of the important need to hold a few states accountable for what our students have learned!   Until this happens, things will only get worse!

Jack Bovee

Legislative Chair, Florida Council for the Social Studies  

The writer is a 32-year social studies educator, a former elementary school principal, and now the coordinator for K-12 Social Studies in Collier County, Fla.

Will Publishers Heed our Pleas? What’s REALLY at Stake in the Upcoming Textbook Adoption

(Originally published in May 2004).
As we enter the early stages of this year’s textbook adoption cycle this fall, never before have the “textbook stakes” for social studies been so great.   More will rest upon the deliberations of district and statewide textbook committees than just the determination of which books’ content will best suit our state and district needs.   This year’s adoption may help determine whether we will continue to provide an equitable social studies foundation for all children.   

Never before has reading and accountability driven the K-12 curriculum as much as it does today.   Over the last several years we’ve seen the evaporation of time and emphasis in the teaching of social studies.  As a result, some contend that the emphasis on student individual reading performance requires textbook publishers eliminate what amounts to a gaping hole in our social studies textbooks – their virtual silence on “non-subject specific” vocabulary.   How well they deal with this may end up determining whether some students in the near future are even enrolled in true social studies courses or given actual social studies textbooks.   

What is meant by “non-subject specific” vocabulary?  It fundamentally differs from the list of subject specific vocabulary words that are generally introduced to students at the beginning of each chapter.  These words are typed in boldface and are always listed in the glossary.  Textbook publishers have been doing a better job in recent years dealing with such vocabulary.  Where they fall short, however, is providing vocabulary support for those ordinary English words that do NOT pertain to the subject being studied - words like “opulent”, “virulent” or “sagacious”.    Publishers of social studies texts often remain totally silent on the treatment of these words.   It is a weakness we can no longer afford.

Just how important is vocabulary development?   Despite countless developmental reading studies and billions of dollars invested in reading research, it’s hard to find a definitive answer.  In  The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 4  researchers showed the “average child in the professional families [is provided] with [a weekly exposure to] 215,000 words of language experience, the average child in a working-class family provided with 125,000 words, and the average child in a welfare family with 62,000 words of language experience.  In a 5,200-hour year, the amount would be 11.2 million words for a child in a professional family, 6.5 million words for a child in a working-class family, and 3.2 million words for a child in a welfare family.” 1   The authors continue to carry out the equation to the inevitable 30 million word gap by age four.   

Jean Chall, however, disputes the critical need for vocabulary development up to age four.  Her research cites it is after children enter school that the real problem becomes evident.  In Poor Children’s  Fourth Grade Slump, Chall states, “One possible reason for the fourth-grade slump may stem from lack of fluency and automaticity (that is, quick and accurate recognition of words and phrases).  Why should low-income children have greater difficulty with word meanings at about the fourth grade?  One reason is that the words at fourth grade and above are less familiar to them.  Although the children’s language seemed to have been sufficient for the first three grades, theywere not prepared to meet the challenge of the greater number of abstract, technical, and literary words characteristic of the reading materials of grades 4 and beyond.”    Her study found  “students used context well to compensate for their weakness in word meanings.  But when there were too many difficult words, their comprehension declined as well (emphasis added).”  She concludes, “The high correlation of word knowledge with reading comprehension has been found consistently in the research literature from the turn of the century to the present time. . . . ” 2  

My own intuition tells me there’s probable truth in both versions.  The important point is that vocabulary understanding may account for 90% or more of the comprehension a student derives from a reading selection.  Research shows that a student who doesn’t understand one or two words in a couple of sentences can, by applying contextual clues, infer the general meaning of a passage.3   Some argue, however, that reading comprehension falls off exponentially with increases in vocabulary errors.  Multiply the words not understood and comprehension will be reduced by more than the factor of words being misunderstood.   I wish Chall had directed her research to provide a more definitive understanding of this issue.  Regardless, common sense would seem to indicate the vocabulary gap profoundly widens after children enter school.  Our schools are no longer comprised of students who are predominantly from the middle class.  In many cases, the majority are not even from native English speaking families.  Moreover, there has been an equally profound proliferation of cable television and other entertainment that are more geared to ‘cultural language differences’ than the established ‘middle class’ language patterns of the three major networks of thirty years ago.  Thus, the many hours students spend watching television or listening to the radio no longer assures their exposure to a common, middle class culture and vocabulary.  This means that problems associated with language will exacerbate in today’s culture, not lessen.   In summary, vocabulary understanding is extremely important to reading comprehension, societal changes have made teachers’ efforts to instill vocabulary understanding more difficult, the picture worsens as children enter the upper elementary grades, and things will very likely continue to worsen.  What is surprising is that publishers have not sufficiently addressed this problem in their social studies textbooks.

I first began to discuss this issue with publishers several years ago.  While working with social studies teachers at a couple of schools with heavy ESOL populations, I found our teachers had to individually prepare a wide variety of vocabulary activities for students.  Teachers had to take time to do several things that we felt publishers should have done for us.   For example, one simple tactic was to distribute yellow highlighters to each student so that as they read their books common words could be identified for later practice and assessment.  We also had students complete a variety of graphic organizers specifically designed to assist with their understanding of vocabulary.  Sometimes students were asked to list the words that they were unfamiliar with and attempt a definition using contextual clues.  At other times, the words were identified by the teacher and the class had to categorize them as words they ‘clearly understood’, ‘thought they understood’ or ‘still needed help in understanding’.   Such activities helped our teachers gain a reference for stressing only those words that were most confusing to the class.  Teachers incorporated strategies such as Dinah Zike’s “Foldables strategies” and specifically targeted them to vocabulary development.  We purchased software programs such as Tom Snyder’s “Essential Bingo” and “Quiz Show” programs to help devise vocabulary games.  The Essential Bingo program, for example, is cost effective (under $30), contains a built in dictionary of over 40,000 words, and can generate up to 16 different vocabulary games with just a couple keystrokes on the computer.  Teachers also made upvocabulary flashcards or went to www.flashcardexchange.com  where over 1,000,000 sets of flashcards exist or where they could make up their own.   Many of the flashcards are stored by publisher’s textbooks and may be found under title and chapter headings!   We also trained teachers to write FCAT-type vocabulary questions and encouraged principals to look for evidence of such questions during classroom observations and performance evaluations.   Finally, we actually had to add non subject specific vocabulary questions to the EXAMVIEW PRO test item banks of several publishers because such words were virtually non-existent among the literally thousands of test items in the publishers’ banks!  These were things that publishers could easily have made available to us.   Instead, publishers assumed that teachers would simply deal with these words in a manner as their individual circumstances might dictate.   They had not even begun to address the problem.   Throughout this period, I had a difficult time understanding why our district had to hire teachers to develop activities and test questions that were automatically part of any literature textbook resource package.4

As publishers began to dialogue with our district for the upcoming adoption, we began to urge that they take on the issue of non-subject specific vocabulary more directly.   I made it a point to try to keep both literature books and history books from a variety of publishers on my shelves to instantly refer to.   “How could publishers get it so right in the one case and not in the other?” we asked. 

Several examples of such conversations over the years come immediately to mind.  Due to our lengthy discussions about the need for them to address – among other things – non-subject specific vocabulary, I had the pleasure of reviewing several publishers’ texts for the upcoming adoption.   I personally called the senior editor of one book in her Manhattan office to discuss some pages from their book.  After praising them for having the word “scoff” defined at the bottom margin of one page I asked her how long they had been doing this.  She was happy to tell me what was new about this feature.  “Thanks for noting that.  You can see from this page that it’s one of our literature excerpts.  This time we’ve placed them right in the book as opposed to having them in a separate supplement.  We’ve always believed in rich vocabulary support for our literature excerpts, and I’m glad that you support our doing this.”   She had taken the bait.

I then directed her attention to many examples of non-subject specific words in the main history text across from this page and at other places in the same chapter.  Why wasn’t any definition of these words given at the bottom of the page or through the use of offsetting commas or parenthesis?  Didn’t she want the history section to have the same support for rich vocabulary development that the literature excerpt contained?  After a very long pause on the other end of the phone she confessed, “Well, we’ve never really thought of that.”   I responded by stating in Florida they needed to be thinking this way. “Our schools contain sizeable percentages of non-native speakers, society has changed, and if you want us to buy your books in a sequential, multiple year pattern, you should be thinking of moving in this direction.”   In my follow-up report to the company I wrote, “What is evident is that no publisher has yet taken the position of moving in the direction of addressing non-subject specific vocabulary within the regular text.  That you somewhat are aware of this is evident from your providing this same vocabulary ‘help’ in your text on page 931 of Chapter 31.   In this  “Literature” excerpt, you actually ‘help’ students with such words as ‘scoff’, ‘phosphates’, & ‘congenial’.   However, you assume students reading the history text will understand “machinations”, “waned”, “emulate”, “feverish”, “innovator”, “spurred”, “provincialisms”, “entrepreneur”, etc. etc. etc. when these words are encountered within the text on the pages just prior to and after page 931.  Publishers of sequentially developed instructional materials do a HUGE disservice to our student readers by not addressing this need nor providing teachers with the tools to do so themselves.  As a result, our teachers spend countless hours designing lessons, constructing “Jeopardy power point” games or using software such as Tom Snyder’s  “Essential Bingo” to make learning activities that enhance their students’ understanding of your books.”   

I later continued on the phone to another editor, “Just imagine a textbook series where difficult words are actually deliberately reintroduced or repeated over several chapters so that students are given engaging practice in challenging vocabulary!  Imagine test generators that allow us to click on whether we want the non-subject specific vocabulary for our ESOL or ESE students.  We have to provide increased reading support for a low performing students and your textbooks and test generators could actually play a major part in this!  Imagine how rather than be accused of ‘dumbing down’ our books, you could provide evidence of making them even more challenging and engaging.”   She hesitated.  The book was nearing completion and would be soon be ready for submission.   She thought I was calling for a total redesign of the textbook.  The cost would be enormous and it would require another year to complete.   “No.  That’s not necessary,” I argued.  “Just highlight the word in yellow or put more black ink on the word to draw attention to it.  You can provide support in the test generator and with graphic organizers.  You won’t have to change a single page and it won’t cost hardly anything.  Next cycle, however, we hope to see the ability to click on certain words in an electronic reading and hear them pronounced AND see a definition of the word.   If not in the main text, do this in your Primary Source CD ROM or at your website.”    Afterward, she promised the company would make a major commitment to this effort and actually hired a great many social studies teachers in Collier County to get the work completed.

While talking to another senior editor in Texas about the same issue, it was evident that his company had also made no plans to deal with the non-subject specific vocabulary.  That he liked the idea and feared others might, however, was evident from his telling question, “How many other companies have you all been discussing this with?”   “Everyone in the field” was my immediate reply.  “If we can get one company to do this, the rest of you won’t be far behind.”

There are other reasons why publishers ought to do these things, but the main impetus for Collier’s asking them to do so comes from a conversation I had with a former colleague, now a middle school principal in a neighboring county.   She called me a couple of summers ago to ask if I could work with her teachers on developing FCAT like questions for grade level, quarterly exams.  Although her school was an A+ school in Lee County, she was definitely a ‘take charge’ instructional leader who had high expectations for both her students and her staff.   I immediately saw this as one of those golden opportunities to show how well social studies could be used for increased student achievement.   “What are you currently doing with your Level I and II FCAT students?” I asked.   “Well, Jack, you won’t like hearing this, but for all level one students and some of the two’s we don’t really have them in social studies classes.   We have them in reading classes.”   That one hit  hard.  The principal was a former language arts chair and she wanted her students in a triple reading block.  They would get their historical and geographic understanding from reading historical fiction.  We talked awhile about how that left huge gaps in a child’s education.  I cautioned that reading “My Brother Sam is Dead” does not suffice for an adequate understanding of the American Revolution.  Nor, if all one is exposed to about World War II is a reading on the Holocaust, have we adequately prepared our students for understanding this monumental historical event.”   She confessed this was the sad state of affairs today’s schools are faced with.  Reading was paramount and although she couldn’t articulate why those literature books were better for preparing our students to be good readers, I didn’t want to give her any more ammunition about our text’s inherent weaknesses that would encourage her to justify that position.   Moreover, as the state begins to require more “uninterrupted” reading block time be made available for Level I & some Level II students, we may begin to see further erosion of the sequential study of history and other social studies courses at the secondary level.

     This principal was always ahead of the learning curve in her profession.  The sad truth is, she was right.  She knew by instinct what our teachers discovered through extensive analysis and research.   Nor is she alone in thinking that social studies classes can be easily restructured into lit circle groups and intensive reading classes, where ‘historical fiction’ – not history – becomes the main course for students.  These are the monumental stakes in our current textbook adoption.  Until publishers do a better job preparing our students to understand ALL the rich vocabulary students will encounter in our textbooks, the evisceration of our curriculum will continue.   It’s no longer enough to say ‘reading can be taught through the social studies textbook’.   Let’s ensure these textbooks as good as their literature counterparts!  Thus, it’s clear to us that social studies textbook publishers have a much greater responsibility today than ever before.   It’s not so much whether we will have the best textbook available to our students but whether their instructional design will allow us to continue to have the majority of our students reading such textbooks period.  Have they heeded our call in Florida?   Let’s open up the books submitted for state adoption and see for ourselves!

Jack Bovee is a 30-year social studies educator, a former elementary school principal, and now the coordinator for K-12 social studies in Collier County, Fla.   

Sources and Notes

    

1 Hart, Betty and Risley ,Todd R.   “The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 4” is from Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children, Copyright 1995, Brookes; www.brookespublishing.com, 1-800-638-3775; $29.00

2 Chall, J.S., & Jacobs, V.A  “Research Roundup: Poor Children’s Fourth Grade Slump” is from American Educator, Spring 2003.   

3 Sternberg, R.J. (1987). Most vocabulary is learned from context.  In M.G. McKeown & M.E. Curtis (eds.), The nature of vocabulary acquisition 89-106. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.

4  In addition to these activities, we encouraged teachers to work on others that publishers sometimes suggest.  For example, we had department “word walls” in the main hallways as well as in the classroom.   September’s “Celebration of Freedom” law and Constitution Day provides us with a great month for featuring powerful vocabulary from such documents as the “Declaration of Independence” or from Presidential speeches.   Grade level teams were encouraged to divide up the calendar and assume responsibility for selecting a document and targeting specific vocabulary that could be exhibited on a large bulletin board in a heavily trafficked hallway or in the media center.    

Where's Warren Burger Now?

The author submitted a similar letter to Education Week which was published it April 14, 2004.

I’ve just finished reading the recommendations of the National Assessment Governing Board’s (NAGB) report "12th Grade Student Achievement in America: A New Vision for NAEP" and couldn’t be more alarmed ("Panel Recommends State-Level NAEP for 12th Graders," March 10, 2004). 

The word "citizen" appeared once or twice in the report and, at one point, the importance of students’ knowledge of history and civics was even put into writing.  The Reports’ plan, however, to place History, Geography, Civics, Economics, and other social studies disciplines on the ‘back burner’ has caused me to be more than a little upset. 

I have followed National Assessment of Educational Progress reports (popularly known as the “Nation’s Report Card”) for over 30 years, and NAGB, the U.S. Department of State, and Congress have never had any interest in doing state-by-state comparisons in U.S. history, civics, geography (and now, the new world-history and economics disciplines).  As a result, all states today operate totally in the dark with regard to how their students stack up against peers in neighboring states and across the nation. 

When I initially came across the report, I was left unguarded and a bit hopeful. After all, perhaps now there might be something positive from NAGB.  Since 9/11, the nation has seen a revitalization of concern over students’ civic awareness.  The twelfth grade could, after all, be seen as preparing students for the only career they will all have upon graduation—that of citizen. 

The recent completion of American history and American government courses for almost all the nation’s students would present an almost perfect curriculum alignment for such an opportunity. We might never have had such comparisons at grades 4 and 8 like those in the other subjects, but we could perhaps learn to live with a capstone understanding of such content as an exit picture of how well we had prepared our students for their careers as consumers, workers, voters, or as servicemen and women. 

Needless to say, I was totally shocked to find that, rather than recommend such state comparisons for grade 12, the governing board is going to continue testing these subjects only as a "national representative sample" and only "if resources permit."  Does this mean "never"?  Either the report’s authors are hypocrites, the states truly don’t care about civic efficacy, or the maxim "ignorance is bliss" is astonishingly accurate. 

Might I mention that millions of students take the ACT and the SAT, and while the NAGB report very accurately points out this isn’t everyone, these tests do provide a lot more data than we have concerning what our students know about their governmental and economic systems, the nation’s past, or the world in which they live. 

Help me understand why it is that reading and mathematics will be assessed every two years, science and writing every four years, and history, civics, geography, and economics once every generation ("resources permitting"), or not at all?  This represents the "best thinking" of NAGB?  And of course, let’s continue not to hold any state accountable for any of these disciplines. This is wonderful news in light of the nation’s increasing diversity and the fact that an ever-higher number of immigrants crossing our borders now come from nations without established democratic traditions. 

As important as it may be among the states to compare 12th-grade student performance in our overly tested areas (reading and math), wasn’t civic knowledge at one time a primary reason for public education?  Wasn’t it among the first  NAEP assessments? 

Isn’t it true that states are moving away from their own civic assessment programs due to a lack of emphasis and scorekeeping at NAEP?  (My count shows Maryland, Maine, and Washington as having recently disbanded such programs. In Florida, we’ve been lobbying since 1986 to know what our students understand regarding civic education!)  The NAGB plan will undoubtedly encourage many more states to disband what remains of their civic assessments.  One wonders what the Founding Fathers would say of this plan. 

Survey after survey—the governing board’s own often-delayed NAEP assessments included—point out that urban students can name more alcoholic beverages than they can U.S. presidents; that Mexican young adults ages 18 to 24 can better identify than American students the location of the United States, the approximate population size of the United States, who the Taliban and al-Qaida are, and the locations of such places as the Pacific Ocean, Russia, Japan, and Italy.  Additional surveys show that American students lack an understanding of the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and some of the most basic principles of American government and economics. 

One can only assume that the authors of the report feel comfortable with this level of performance.  

Finally, I compliment the NAGB on their stroke of genius of encouraging the other, ‘nonessential subject-area’ disciplines to fight amongst one another over what few "resources" exist.  If we don’t like the lineup of priorities for future assessments as they’ve recommended them, we’re to lobby NAGB to move us to the head of the line over the others.  Keep us all fighting among ourselves so we’ll have no time to do battle with the report’s authors, ’eh? 

Based upon the recommendations of this report, I guess it is safe to presume the National Assessment Governing Board is now actually hostile to civic education.  What facts could possibly be cited to prove otherwise?    I’m old enough to remember the example of an earlier champion of Civic Education, former Chief Justice Warren Burger, who resigned his position on the Court in the summer of 1986 in order to become national Chairman of the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution Committee for the purpose of giving the nation, as he called it – ‘a needed lesson in civics’.    Where is our Warren Burger of today?

Jack Bovee

Legislative Chair, Florida Council for the Social Studies, Lehigh Acres, Fla.   

The writer is a 30-year social studies educator, a former elementary school principal, and now the coordinator for K-12 social studies in Collier County, Fla.    [Editors note:  NAEP assessments are given in grades 4, 8, and 12 and state-by-state comparative data for grades 4 & 8 have always been provided for reading, writing, math, and science.  Virtually every state department of education website contains numerous newsletters, articles, and data comparing how children in that state compare with peers across the nation.  On April 14, Education Week reported “Mr. Bush wants to broaden participation in NAEP, often referred to as "the nation’s report card," to measure the reading and math skills of 12th graders in every state” and has thrown his support behind the measure.    The NAGB website states: “The recommendations would alter NAEP in significant ways.  Your views on the recommendations are important and will be considered carefully. You may email comments (Ray.Fields@ed.gov) or mail them to:  Mr. Ray Fields, National Assessment Governing Board, Suite 825, 800 North Capitol Street, NW  Washington, DC 20002.  Please submit your comments by June 30, 2004.]

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