History is not le plat du jour in the classroom

What is NAEP? Ever heard of it? Don’t feel like the lone ranger.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest continuing and nationally representative assessment of what our nation’s students know and can do in core subjects. The results of NAEP are released as The Nation’s Report Card. Teachers, principals, parents, policymakers, and researchers all use NAEP results to assess progress and develop ways to improve education in the United States (Video).

The 2010 results are in. So how well did the students perform?

Actually, the overall performance was not so disappointing. There is hope. The 2010 tests showed that the weakest subject for students is — history. It appears that much of the emphasis these days is on science and math, especially math. Are the other subjects lacking because of this?

A similar 2009 report revealed that less than half of students were proficient in science. Few students have the skills that might lead to promising careers in the science field. Also, the rate that students were learning would leave them unable to compete on a global scale (HuffPo).

In the 2010 report, history was the focus, or the lack of focus you might say. U.S. students were less proficient in history than any other subject. Less than a quarter of students are scoring at or above the proficient level in history (Reuters).

Only 2% of 12th graders answered correctly on a question about the Brown vs Board of Education case. But to be fair about that, I wonder how many adults in the United States would have gotten it right. Can you say Jay Leno Jaywalking trivia?

Economics was the students’ best subject it seems (NY Times). That’s reassuring to know. In today’s economic environment, at least some of them might be aware of the increasingly rising cost of a college education…