Texas: Average (C) In U. S. History Instruction? Lord Help Us!

Texas gets a C in U. S. history instruction in grades K-12? The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation needs to take a look at the first set of exams in my HIST I and HIST II classes this fall. (In fact, I am playing hooky from reading the drivel by writing this rant.)

Colorado - (my home state) - D
Illinois - (home of the Bobster, jazz-buddy of the Nedster) - F
Maryland (where my grandson will likely go to school) - C
Ohio (home of the Nedster) - D
Wisonsin (home of my son, daughter-in-law, and Tom Terrific) - F

Read 'em and weep at Effective State Standards for U.S. History: A 2003 Report Card. If this be (fair & balanced) educational criticism, so be it.

PS: The half-dozen A-states were : Alabama(?), Arizona, California, Indiana, Massachusetts, and New York.

[x Thomas B. Fordham Foundation]
State Education Standards Weak in U.S. History

In a state-by-state analysis of K-12 education standards in U.S. history only six states earned As, while 23 received Fs, according to a report released by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

The new study, Effective State Standards for U.S. History: A 2003 Report Card, is authored by Sheldon Stern, former chief historian at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library in Boston. Stern rated U.S. history standards in 48 states and the District of Columbia on comprehensive content, sequential development, and balance. Six states -- Indiana, New York, Arizona, California, Alabama, and Massachusetts -- earned top marks, with numerical scores of 27 or above out of a possible 30.

Bringing up the rear -- with just two points on the 30-point scale -- are Alaska, Arkansas, Maine, and Wyoming. Iowa and Rhode Island were excluded from the study, as they had no U.S. history or social studies standards as of May 15, 2003.

"Americans deserve to know whether schools are really doing their job or evading accountability by hiding behind often hollow rhetoric about 'excellence' and 'standards,'" Stern writes. "Teachers, of course, should have wide latitude in the selection of materials, points of view, and interpretations for their classrooms. But that latitude does not include a lack of knowledge of essential historical material."

Why does this matter? Notes Fordham Institute president Chester E. Finn, Jr., "Standards supply the recipe from which today's education is cooked. They declare a state's aspirations for what its young people should learn. If they are ill-conceived or wrong, much mischief follows. The curriculum will be shabby, the textbooks ill-suited, the tests misguided, the teacher preparation weak and certification flawed. In an era of standards-based education reform, the first obligation of a state is to get its standards right. This study shows beyond dispute that it can be done-look at the states that have done it -- but that in far too many states the vital subject of U.S. history is in woeful shape."

This evaluation of state U.S. history standards is the third in a series of four reports that are being released by the Fordham Foundation and Institute this fall as part of Back to Basics: Reclaiming Social Studies, the organization's effort to revitalize the teaching of US history and civics. It is a topic that will be explored this week September 24 in a U.S. Senate hearing sponsored by Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH).

Full details, rankings, specific state analyses, and examples of effective and ineffective standards are available on the Fordham Web site.

Texas


(Assessment based on Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Kindergarten-Grade 12: Social Studies and Economics, 1997, Texas Education Agency)

The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Kindergarten-Grade 12: Social Studies and Economics, often referred to as TEKS, forthrightly affirms that a solid foundation in social studies (history, geography, economics, government, and citizenship) "enables students to understand the importance of patriotism, function in a free enterprise society, and appreciate the basic values of our state and nation."

Texas begins to build this foundation in K-3 by introducing the concept of chronological order, identifying "people who helped to shape our state and nation" (such as Stephen Austin, Sam Houston, Washington, Lincoln, "and historical figures such as Amelia Earhart and Robert Fulton who have exhibited a love of individualism and inventiveness"), explaining holidays (such as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Independence Day) and the significance of state and national landmarks. Students also "learn the purpose of rules and the role of authority figures in the home and school," become familiar with the beliefs and principles that contribute to American national identity, and "learn about the lives of heroic men and women who made important choices, overcame obstacles, sacrificed for the betterment of others, and embarked on journeys that resulted in new ideas, new inventions, and new communities."

In grade 4, students move on to the history of Texas "from the early beginnings to the present within the context of influences of the Western Hemisphere," highlighting Native American origins, Spanish and Mexican rule, the Texas Revolution [of 1836], the Mexican War, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the development of modern oil, gas and aerospace industries. Students also "recite and explain the meaning of the Pledge to the Texas Flag" and discuss "the contributions of people of various racial, ethnic, and religious groups to Texas." In addition, under fourth-grade Economics, students are expected to "describe the development of the free enterprise system in Texas,""describe how the free enterprise system works in Texas; and give examples of the benefits of the free enterprise system in Texas." Students are also asked to "explain the impact of American ideas about progress and equality of opportunity on the economic development and growth of Texas."

Grade 5 students tackle a very general introduction to American history from the colonial era through the twentieth century, including "the roots of representative government in this nation as well as the important ideas in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution." The substantive historical details include: when and why people colonized North America, the contributions of colonial leaders, the origins and results of the Revolution, the events that led to the Constitution, the [early] industrial revolution, westward expansion, the Civil War and Reconstruction, postwar urbanization and industrialization and "world wars, and the Great Depression." Students are also expected to "Identify the challenges, opportunities and contributions of people from selected Native American and immigrant groups." However, even though the grade-five survey delves into the reasons for the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, the origins and development of slavery are never mentioned in the K-5 Texas/U.S. history sequence. (Even the word "slavery" does not appear.) Likewise Jacksonian democracy and antebellum reform movements are skipped (though they are included later in eighth grade). In addition, borrowing nearly verbatim from fourth-grade Texas history, students are asked to describe "the development of the free enterprise system in colonial America and the United States," "describe how the free enterprise system works in the United States," and to "give examples of the benefits of the free enterprise system in the United States."

Texas history is revisited in grade 7 but, TEKS asserts, "Content is presented with more depth and breadth than in grade 4." Students are also expected to "use primary and secondary sources to examine the rich and diverse cultural background of Texas as they identify the different racial and ethnic groups that settled Texas." The content is indeed detailed, particularly on Texas political history leading to independence and statehood. But, despite asking students to "analyze the causes of and events leading to Texas statehood" and to "explain reasons for the involvement of Texas in the Civil War," TEKS, as in the K-5 sequence, never explicitly mentions the role of slavery in early Texas history (especially in the controversy over statehood and in the 1844 election). After covering Reconstruction in Texas, the seventh-grade history content becomes far sketchier, referring very generally to expansion of the Texas frontier, development of the cattle and oil industries, the growth of railroads and reform movements such as Progressivism. Populism is not mentioned despite the fact that Texas was a leading Populist state. The civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century is discussed, but oddly without historical context since the development of Jim Crow in late nineteenth-century Texas and the South is not included.

Eighth-grade United States history, from the early colonial era through Reconstruction, "builds upon" the fifth-grade survey "but provides more depth and breadth." The content is particularly strong on the growth of representative government during the colonial era (although this key development is never linked directly to the origins of the Revolution) and on political events from the 1790s through the antebellum period. A good deal of solid historical content is also included in the Economics, Government, and Citizenship sections of the eighth-grade social studies survey. Students are asked, in discussing the Civil War, to review "the effects of political, economic, and social factors on slaves and free blacks" and to "analyze the impact of slavery on different sections of the United States." This appears to be the first use of the words "slaves" and "slavery" in the K-8 Texas/U.S. history sequence. The Economics section also requires students to "explain reasons for the development of the plantation system, the growth of the slave trade, and the spread of slavery" and, rather paradoxically, to also "describe the characteristics and the benefits of the U.S. free enterprise system during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries."

Students complete the Texas/U.S. history sequence in high school with a full-year survey on American history since Reconstruction. Political and social history in the quarter century after 1877 is covered in reasonable detail (including Indian policies, industrialization, urbanization, immigration, the expansion of railroads, the growth of political machines, civil service reform, the development of labor unions, and farm issues). But Populism is not mentioned again, nor are crucial issues such as restoration of white supremacy, the rise of the KKK, the disenfranchisement of black voters and the spread of Jim Crow sanctioned in 1896 by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson.The impact of the Progressive Era is inaccurately placed after Wilson's Fourteen Points and the Treaty of Versailles, and Theodore Roosevelt's progressive agenda and record are not discussed at all. (The Rough Riders, many of whom were Texans, would not be amused.) The history sequence also skips directly from the 1920s to World War II; however, the Great Depression and New Deal are covered under Economics, and FDR's effort to "pack" the Supreme Court is included under Government. Similarly, the civil rights movement and the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr., culminating in the 1964 Civil Rights Act, are discussed under History, but Brown v. Board of Education appears under Government—such is the bizarre historical logic of social studies.

A political agenda is clearly evident throughout the TEKS. The history of America, and especially of Texas itself, is not merely celebrated, but glorified. Important facts, such as the central role of slavery and southern political power in the movement for Texas statehood, or the rise of Jim Crow and the KKK after Reconstruction, are evaded. Students are also repeatedly expected to extol the virtues of the "free enterprise system in Texas" and to use the oil, gas and aerospace industries as examples. In fact, at least since Alexander Hamilton, the U.S. has never been a laissez-faire, free enterprise society. Many states and the federal government have promoted specific sectors of the economy, and denied support to others, through tax policies, tariffs and land grants (for example, to railroads in the nineteenth century). The oil and gas industries have benefited from tax breaks (such as the oil depletion allowance), and the aerospace industry has received massive federal support for decades. The development and importance of free enterprise is obviously central to understanding Texas and American history, but students should be encouraged to reach their own conclusions about its virtues and shortcomings. To, in effect, require students to espouse a particular ideological viewpoint, whether from the left or the right, violates the basic purpose of public education.

The historical material in the TEKS for Kindergarten-Grade12: Social Studies and Economics is sequentially exemplary, admirable in its specificity from the early years to high school, but substantively uneven. In addition, an ideological subtext may discourage teachers from including or thoroughly exploring some essential historical material. A revised, more balanced version of these standards would be both intellectually and educationally advisable.

Copyright © 2003 Thomas B. Fordham Foundation