Down in history (and civics)
The Nation’s Report Card just got a couple more results added to it, neither of which managed to brighten the post-pandemic educational landscape — just 20% of eighth graders are considered “proficient” in civics, while only 13% were marked the same for US history.
The new data, collated by the National Center for Educational Statistics, shows that history scores for 13/14-year-olds have slumped to their lowest levels since the assessment began in 1994, whilst civics results dropped for the first time ever.
Oh, the humanities
The report card, or the National Assessment of Educational Progress to give it its full title, has assessed America’s school children for over 50 years and is as good a reflection of the current educational state of the nation as we have. Indeed, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona reflected that the latest update “further affirms the profound impact the pandemic had on student learning in subjects beyond math and reading” (results for which were published in October last year).
One striking aspect of the results has been how different groups of students have seen their results impacted. In history, for example, the top-performing students have only experienced a 2-point drop on average, while students in the 10th percentile have seen their scores plummet by 7 points.
Go deeper: Check out the full data from the Nation's Report Card.
