On the heels of last week’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results, Sandra Day O’Connor and John Glenn consider the state of civics education in the US (it’s bad) and what to do about it. Among other things, they suggest that any effort at educating young people to citizenship will have to consider digital learners.
The results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), released last week, revealed that our country’s eighth-graders aren’t just failing at civics and history. They fundamentally do not understand our democratic system of government, and have shown no significant sign of progress since they were last tested in 2010.
The scores from the test known as the Nation’s Report Card show that only 18% of the students are proficient in history, and less than a quarter are proficient in civics. For example, fewer than one-third of students tested knew that “the government of the United States should be a democracy” is a political belief shared by most people in this country.
Read the rest here.