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
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