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Indicator I-3
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Knowledge of U.S. History
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NOTE TO READERS: Please include the following reference when citing data from this page:
"American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Humanities Indicators, http://HumanitiesIndicators.org".
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Although it was introduced later and is given less frequently than the reading assessment, the NAEP for U.S. history
also supplies data describing change over time in students’ knowledge of a core
humanities subject. Figure I-3 depicts fourth, eighth and 12th graders’ U.S.
history achievement in 2010 compared to that in 1994. Over this period, the percentage
of students in the two lower grades demonstrating at least
basic achievement
in the subject increased by a statistically significant margin. No measurable difference
exists between the 1994 and 2010 U.S. history achievement of high school seniors.
The greatest change over time was observed between the two cohorts of fourth graders.
In 2010, 73% of all students in this grade demonstrated at least basic knowledge
of U.S. history, up from 64% in 1994. In addition, fourth graders proved to be the
most knowledgeable, in that a greater proportion of these students demonstrated
at least basic achievement in U.S. history than did students in either of the two
other age groups (in both testing years).
Figure I-3 shows that in both 1994 and 2010 the older the cohort the lower
the proportion of students demonstrating at least basic knowledge. U.S. history
achievement is most dramatically lower in high school. In 2010, for example, 69%
of middle schoolers demonstrated at least a basic understanding of U.S. history,
while only 45% of high schoolers did so.
In addition to examining the trends both over time and across school grades, the
cross-sectional picture should be considered: in both 1994 and 2010, the majority
of American school-age children demonstrated minimal knowledge of the nation’s history.
The absence of long-term trend data prevents a systematic evaluation of how recent
a phenomenon this is, but research reveals that young people’s ignorance of U.S.
history has been a source of public concern since the beginning of the 20th century.1
(The NAEP Data Explorer permits analysis of these assessment data by gender, ethnicity,
and a number of other key variables. For both an overview of Explorer and tips for
its effective use, see
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/naep_nde_final_web.pdf. The Explorer itself
is located at
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/.)
Note
1 Sam Wineburg, “Crazy for History,” Journal of American History,
vol. 90, no. 4 (March 2004): 1401–1414.
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