Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511200010
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
For Max Masinter, history is more important than math and science. He said it helps him understand himself and the world better.
The junior at Patrick Henry High School is taking an advanced course in American history because he wants to know more about the country's past and to improve his critical-thinking skills.
The history course has a reputation for being one of the toughest at the school. Students may get college credit for the class as a result of their score on an advanced-placement history exam.
Almost every night, Masinter has to read 15 to 20 pages in his textbook and other materials. He has to write a half-dozen essays or research papers a semester. There are tests every to 10 days.
"This class is challenging,'' Masinter said. "You have to bite the bullet.''
His love for history doesn't fit the picture portrayed in a recent national survey that showed just four of 10 seniors demonstrated a rudimentary knowledge of American history.
The same survey showed that most fourth-graders couldn't explain why the Pilgrims came to the New World. Eighth-graders also scored poorly on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam on American history, with more than a third lacking basic skills.
Masinter and his classmates said they think the scores were low partly because schools give more attention to such subjects as English, math and science.
"I don't think schools place as much emphasis on history now as other subjects," said Megan McKnight, a junior. "Other things just seem more important."
Brian Hoff, a Patrick Henry junior, said history classes have been slighted in technology. Foreign languages have laboratories; math and science classes get calculators and computers, he said.
"I think it would help create more interest if we had more technology in history," he said. "We don't have anything."
Martha Bersch, chairwoman of the history department at Patrick Henry, said the school considers history important; history classes will get more technology in the next few years, she added.
Still, she said, society's technological advances are oriented more toward computers, math and science.
"I'd like to see us push [history] up a little higher" in priority, said Bersch, who teaches the advanced history course.
A recent national survey by the Public Agenda Foundation showed that parents and the general public consider American history less important in schools than reading, writing and math.
Ninety-two percent of the public, 91 percent of the parents and 98 percent of teachers believe reading, writing and math to be essential.
But only 63 percent of the public and 61 percent of parents give the same rating to American history in the survey by the nonprofit organization that seeks to help the public better understand complex policy issues.
Eighty-three percent of teachers consider American history to be essential, however.
The state's new standards of learning will revise history requirements, particularly in the elementary grades in which American history will be split into two years and taught in the fifth and sixth grades. Two years - the eighth and ninth grades - also will be devoted to world history.
But there will be no significant change in the American history requirement in high school - it will continue to be taught in the 11th grade.
Meschelle Roy a junior at Patrick Henry, said she thinks the decline in patriotism could be a factor in the students' lagging interest in history.
"I'm in the band; and when we play the national anthem, some older people almost cry, but some students are not as respectful," she said. "There doesn't seem to be as much interest in our country."
Erica Moore said she believes students' lack of motivation might be another reason for the poor history scores. She said some students don't spend a lot of effort on history, but they must take the course because it is required.
However, students in the advanced placement course have a different attitude toward the subject, she said.
Several Patrick Henry students who have a special interest in history plan to major in the subject in college. Abby Fitzpatrick said she loves the Civil War era and likes to visit battlefields. Sarah Maxwell has a deep interest in Alexander Hamilton, believes he was a genius and enjoys studying his monetary policies. And Shamella Tribble is intrigued by the courage of slaves in the United States.
At Cave Spring High School in Roanoke County, students said they think the quality of teachers is a significant factor in history scores.
"Some teachers can make history exciting and make it come alive," said Jennifer Allen, a junior in an advanced American history course. "Some students think history is dull, and some teachers don't make it interesting."
But Allen and several classmates said their history teacher, Peter Lustig, motivates students and creates enthusiasm about the subject.
Lustig's classes have debates on major issues in American history and mock trials of some political leaders. Students research the issues, such as the reasons the Southern states seceded and President Lincoln's role in opposing the move, and develop their own arguments for debates.
"The students get more interested the more they learn about an issue, and they want to make their case," Allen said.
Lelia Kessler
thinks some high school students do poorly in history because they don't get interested in it. "We've been taking history since elementary school, and some kids think it is the same thing over and over.''
Lustig agreed with his students that a teacher can make a difference in stimulating interest in history. But, he said, the students' motivation is also important. And the community and parents' expectations are also factors in students' performance, he said.
Virginia always has had a stronger history component in its social studies curriculum than many other states, and it will get more in the new standards of learning, said Dan Fleming, professor emeritus of social studies education at Virginia Tech.
But Fleming, who worked on the new standards, said ancient history, not American history, was the biggest winner, with more added in grades two, three and eight.
The standards for elementary school will be revised so children will study American history in fifth and sixth grades instead of fifth and seventh. But that won't help pupils who have to take the national history exam in the fourth grade, as they wouldn't have studied by then some material they will be tested on, he said.
Fleming - who said the new standards focus too much on memorization of facts and not enough on critical thinking - believes socioeconomic factors contributed to the low history scores nationally.
Among high school seniors nationwide, about half of the white and Asian students failed to show basic knowledge compared with about 80 percent of blacks and Hispanics.
"I think the gap might widen as more children fall into poverty," Fleming said.
The timing of the exam might have also been a factor in the scores, he said. High school students might not have covered some periods and issues in American history before they took the exam, he said.
The poor history scores contrasted with a trend in student achievement nationally. Math and science scores have increased in recent years. This year's average Scholastic Assessment Test scores were the highest in two decades.
On the most recent national assessment science and math exams, high school seniors scored higher than those 10 years ago, and the geography scores were higher than educators expected.
David Wymer, social studies supervisor for Roanoke County schools, said he believes the state's new standards of learning will help students do better on history exams. Wymer worked on the standards.
Wymer and Fleming said proposed national standards for teaching American history may be a good idea and may improve test scores, but they have become so entangled in politics that they may be doomed.
A national panel of historians has developed standards for how schools should teach history, but the standards have been attacked by many conservative political groups and members of Congress for putting too much emphasis on negative aspects of American life and overemphasizing the role of women and minorities. The standards are being revised.
At Patrick Henry High, Dabney Edwards said she believes students would do better in American history if they realized that the course is not a story of dull events and facts. Rather, it's a story that affects students today, she said.
"I think the real heroes were the Founding Fathers," Edwards said.
"They changed the entire world."
by CNB