Teaching History in Public Schools: an Analysis of State Requirements

TEACHING HISTORY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS: An Analysis of State Requirements By Robert Holland, David Inman, Kristen Nye Larson and Don Soifer TEACHING HISTORY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS: An Analysis of State Requirements By Robert Holland, David Inman, Kristen Nye Larson and Don Soifer April 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary .......................................................................................1 I. Teaching History in Public Schools ............................................................2 II. Testing Requirements for Teaching History ............................................6 III. Varied Approaches, Murky Requirements ..............................................7 IV. Concluding Thoughts and Recommendations .....................................11 V. Certification Requirements / State-by-State Summary ........................16 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY merican students continue to demonstrate a pattern of alarmingly poor knowledge of their nation’s history. Whether measured by the U.S. Department of Education or by private organizations, the results vary little and show no improvement over time. AWhile this disturbing trend is indicative of a wide range of factors, it certainly calls into question the extent to which those who teach history are prepared for the task by developing adequate knowledge in the subject themselves. This report examines the requirements across all 50 states for teaching high school at the secondary level. It includes a detailed appendix with descriptions of each state’s requirements. Among its findings: • Rhode Island and Texas stand as examples of states where gaining specific content knowledge of history comprises a major part of requirements for certification to teach history. • Currently, 14 states require candidates to pass state proficiency tests. Half of states require candidates to pass versions of the Praxis II tests developed by the Educational Testing Service. Many states, including Virginia, require teachers to pass the Praxis II in social studies content, of which only 15 to 20 percent is dedicated to knowledge of U.S. history, rather than the Praxis II that focuses entirely on U.S. and world history knowledge. • Additionally, there are several states that set a low bar, including South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, Mississippi and Colorado, which allow the lowest passing scores on Praxis II tests. Another key problem is more than half of states do not clearly define the academics required to become a certified U.S. history teacher. Illinois represents a state with this problem. Without defined recommendations on the state level, universities have the autonomy to allow history certification to be an often all-encompassing social studies umbrella of expertise. Details follow. 2 TeachiNG HISTORY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS TEACHING HISTORY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS: AN ANALYSIS OF STATE REQUIREMENTS Despite documented evidence of Americans’ declining level of knowledge about their own nation’s history, most states continue to give the study of U.S. history an extremely low priority in the certification of teachers for public schools. A nationwide study a decade ago by researcher Sarah Drake Brown, now an assistant professor of history at Ball State University, found that no state teacher-certification authority required that would-be history teachers have earned majors in history.1 Today, few states give so much as lip service to the idea that a major in history earned in a serious university department of history ought to be a prerequisite to teaching history to high-school students. Too often, state certifiers allow an array of alternatives that do not demand study of American and world history in any real depth. The appendix to this report details, on a state-by-state basis, wide variations in coursework and rigor of testing required of prospective history teachers. A major weakness in many states is that coursework and testing requirements are focused on credits and scores garnered in social studies rather than specific knowledge of U.S. history. At best, social studies (or social sciences) is a big tent encompassing many disciplines – economics, geography, philosophy, religion, and even psychology and sociology – often with history receiving only periodic or incidental attention. At worst, it is what historian Sheldon Stern called a “miasma” of nebulous, or even anti-historical, content from which the legitimate discipline of history needs to be liberated.2 In a recent paper for the Pioneer Institute, authors Anders Lewis and Sandra Stotsky discuss how the growth of the social studies movement impacted the teaching of history: The social studies movement, culminating in the establishment of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) in 1921, sought an integrated curriculum from K-12 encompassing not only U.S. and world history but also sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics, geography, and U.S. government (often called “civics” education), in effect lessening the emphasis and time on U.S. history alone. It also stressed a participatory notion of citizenship, which many thought was more appropriate for the hundreds of thousands of new high school students required by compulsory attendance laws to stay in school until 16 and who were forbidden by child labor laws to work in a factory. A social studies curriculum that simply included the study of history (and not necessarily chronologically) became the dominant model in the elementary and middle school, leaving only the high school years for concentrated study of U.S. and world history.3 LEXINGTON INSTITUTE 3 SOCIAL STUDIES OR HISTORY? In most of the United States, the study of history is typically lumped into a larger category of “Social Studies” (or “Social Sciences”). Proponents of social studies argue that focused instruction in areas of government, geography, and economics provide students with the skills necessary to live productively within a society. For example, the preamble to North Carolina’s K-12 Social Studies standards calls the subject of social studies “a coordinated, systematic study drawing upon such disciplines as anthropology, archaeology, economics, geography, history, law, philosophy, political science, psychology, religion, and sociology.”4 To be certain, history as a stand-alone subject receives special attention within many states’ social studies curricula. In Tennessee, the 8th grade Social Studies standards specifically mention history (U.S. or Tennessee) at least 16 times. But it is also a concern that broadly-defined Social Studies content dilutes the importance of history and, importantly, reduces the depth of content knowledge among those teaching history classes in public classrooms. There is little consensus to be found among different state requirements on this question. Often, states rely on the broad Social Studies category when it comes to content standards for K-12 students, but require history teachers to pass tests specifically covering world and U.S. history content: • Alabama’s teacher certification test covers World & U.S. history content -- the very cover of the state’s Course of Study in Social Studies wraps geography, economics, civics and government, and history into one large swath of “responsible citizenship.”5 • Virginia requires prospective social studies and history teachers to satisfy specific coursework requirements that provide various opportunities for the formal study of U.S., Virginia and world history, and to pass the Praxis II Social Studies Content Knowledge test, of which U.S. History and World History each make up only 20 percent.6 High school students receiving an Advanced Studies diploma must complete courses that include U.S. and Virginia History, U.S. and Virginia Government, and at least two courses in world history, geography, or both.7 4 TeachiNG HISTORY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS As this paper demonstrates, some proficiency in social studies (or social sciences) often is Passing Scores by State the primary requirement for being certified as Praxis II, World and U.S. History a history teacher, with knowledge of history Content Knowledge only a secondary consideration. Nevada 152 A look at both coursework and testing Wisconsin 150 requirements for all states shows stark Iowa 147 contrasts between states that demand little Alabama 143 demonstration of knowledge by history Alaska 141 teachers and those that have fairly substantial Idaho 141 requirements. Tennessee 136 South Dakota 135 New Jersey offers certification as a social studies teacher, but stipulates only a minimum of one course in American history. Even that bare minimum might not apply, given that instead of history “related courses may be accepted depending on the course description/ content.” (Candidates are to provide a course description if the alternative course does not come from the History Department.) New Jersey also requires a passing score of 157 on the Praxis II Social Studies test, about the midpoint for passing scores nationally, on which only 20 percent of content is U.S. history. It appears possible that one could teach social studies in New Jersey while possessing precious little knowledge to impart to students about American history. Arizona and Illinois State Universities: Contrasting Examples Of course, just because a state may require its high school history teaching candidates to take a certain amount of credit hours, or even to obtain a major in related content area, does not guarantee the specific content they will have studied or learned. In such instances, the ultimate decision

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