NCSS Response to the National Assessment Governing Board's (NAGB) report "12th Grade Student Achievement in America: A New Vision for NAEP"

Mr. Ray Fields
National Assessment Governing Board
Washington, DC

Dear Mr. Fields,

The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) firmly supports the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and believes that it performs a necessary and vital function for education in the United States. Since 1969, the periodic assessments conducted in reading, mathematics, science, writing, U.S. history, civics, geography, and the arts have provided a nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and have accomplished in the various subject areas. The disaggregating of the assessments of writing, reading, mathematics, and science have allowed individual states to judge how well their students are progressing academically in relation to the national average and to know where their state ranks in relation to each of the other states. NAEP is indeed "the Nation's Report Card."

NCSS has greeted the recommendations of the National Assessment Governing Board's (NAGB) report "12th Grade Student Achievement in America: A New Vision for NAEP" with interest, and concern. After careful review we find the report flawed. Before NCSS can endorse or support the report's recommendations our concerns need to be addressed.

Although the NAGB has continued to express a strong commitment to the assessment of social studies, and this report does acknowledge the importance of student's knowledge of civics and history, the recommendations in the report do not adequately reflect a serious commitment.

Prior to the report the scheduled assessments of the social studies, U.S. history and civics in particular, had been pushed back to allow for more frequent testing of reading and mathematics. The recommendation in the report is to assess these subjects "if resources permit." This does not square with the revitalization of concern in our nation over students' civic awareness and knowledge of U.S. history. This concern has been increasing since the events of 9/11.

Because of the less frequent assessments and a lack of state-by-state comparisons in U.S. history, civics and the other social studies, the states operate totally in the dark with regard to how their students stack up against peers in neighboring states and across the nation. This is unacceptable. For our democratic way of life to continue, we must insure that our students are adequately prepared for their most important career ? that of citizen.

Almost all of the nation's 12th grade students have recently completed courses in American history and American government, thus presenting an almost perfect curriculum alignment for a national assessment opportunity that would provide a true exit picture of how well we have prepared our students for their careers as consumers, workers, voters, or as servicemen and women.

At NCSS we were appalled to learn that the governing board did not recommend state by state comparisons for grade 12 social studies assessments, and in fact recommended to continue testing these subjects only as a national representative sample and only if resources permit.

Our country is changing. We are still a nation of immigrants, but more and more of these immigrants are coming from nations without established democratic traditions. The civic mission of our schools must be paramount. Civic knowledge was and is the primary reason for public education. Today some states are moving away from their own civic assessment programs due to a lack of emphasis and scorekeeping at NAEP. Maryland, Maine, and Washington have recently disbanded such programs. The NAGB plan will undoubtedly encourage many more states to disband what remains of their civic assessments. How would the Founding Fathers assess the governing boards actions and recommendations?

Survey after survey?the governing board's own often-delayed NAEP assessments included?point out that urban students can name more alcoholic beverages than they can U.S. presidents; that Mexican young adults ages 18 to 24 can better identify than American students the location of the United States, the approximate population size of the United States, who the Taliban and al-Qaida are, and the locations of such places as the Pacific Ocean, Russia, Japan, and Italy. Additional surveys show that American students lack an understanding of the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and some of the most basic principles of American government and economics.

As president of the National Council for the Social Studies, and on behalf of our membership and the many thousands of social studies teachers in our nation's classrooms, and most importantly for the benefit of all our students I strongly urge the governing board to revisit the report and correct this serious shortcoming.

Most Sincerely,

Jesus Garcia NCSS President