Forwarded by Elizabeth Smith, Manatee County
As you know, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently released his plan for revising the Elementary & Secondary Education Act, called A Blueprint for Reform. Unfortunately, the Blueprint failed to list geography as an enumerated discipline in its public definition of a “well-rounded” education. This omission is troubling—especially since No Child Left Behind (“NCLB”) set an important precedent by recognizing geography as a “core academic subject.” TGIF aims to correct the oversight that leaves geography as the only one of the nine core subjects under NCLB not to have received designated federal funding since NCLB went into effect in 2002.
We here at National Geographic view the omission of geography from the Blueprint as an oversight, particularly because geography was included in President Obama’s FY11 budget, and the Administration has expressed a commitment to environmental sustainability and global citizenship. However, we simply cannot trust that geography will have a strong future without our vocal support. Now is the time to take two key steps to highlight the importance of geographic literacy. Both steps depend on you acting this week (April 19-23).
(1) Write to Secretary Duncan
Please modify the attached letter and email it directly to Secretary Duncan. As the authors of the Blueprint, he and Assistant Secretary for Policy Carmel Martin need to hear from the constituency for geographic literacy. We need you to send your email this week (April 19-23).
(2) Get Your Steering Committee and “Go-To” TCs to Write Congress
Please also contact all the members of your Steering Committee—and identify 10-20 additional key TCs—and direct them to modify and send the attached language via email to their respective congressional delegations by next week (April 26-30) or earlier.
This tightly-timed two-week push will coincide with the period that key leaders will be debating what to include in education reform. During this time, it is critical that Members of Congress hear from the Alliance Network that geography must be “put back on the map.”
Your Liaisons will be in touch this week to answer any questions you may have and I am always available. Please make this a priority—I will be visiting the Hill personally over the next week to ensure TGIF’s champions that we are doing all we can to push the bill and they will need to cite your Alliance’s emails as proof of a groundswell of support as they, in turn, speak to their colleagues and to key education committee members.
Thanks again for all you are doing!
Sincerely,
Chris Shearer
* * * *
Sample email to Arne Duncan
From Alliance Coordinators
During the week of April 19-23, please modify the email below to reflect your name, Alliance affiliation, and passion for geography education, and email it to: arne.duncan@ed.gov with a “CC” to carmel.martin@ed.gov
Dear Secretary Duncan:
As a geography educator from [State], I was very concerned to learn that your recent “Blueprint for Reform” of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act did not include geography as an enumerated discipline in the public definition of a “well-rounded” curriculum.
For years now, geography has been recognized by “No Child Left Behind,” and its predecessors, as a core academic subject essential for preparing students for careers, college, and citizenship. Unfortunately, an oversight has left geography as the only core subject not to receive dedicated federal funding for teacher training and educational improvement. Fortunately, the “Teaching Geography is Fundamental” Act (TGIF, S. 749, H.R. 1240), as introduced in the 111th Congress, would authorize the first-ever federal support of geographic literacy.
I know that you will be hearing from many influential institutions and national leaders about priorities for reforming “No Child Left Behind.” Please know that our nation must have better geography education. The Obama Administration has been strongly committed to global citizenship and environmental sustainability. Geography uniquely addresses these issues—from cultural studies and natural systems to economic interdependence and human-environmental interaction. Our students will need such knowledge and skills to succeed in life, to secure employment in a global marketplace, and to analyze important federal initiatives as citizens of the United States and the world.
Here in [State], I am part of a volunteer network of university professors and K-12 teachers, called the [State Geographic Alliance]. Together, we connect educators to training, materials, and networking to help them pursue high-quality standards and to excel in the classroom. Our time and energy has been supported over the years by local universities, the state legislature, local foundations and corporations, and the National Geographic Society, which provides annual core funding for the Alliance. The only potential partner not “on the map” is the federal government.
As you develop your vision for ESEA reauthorization, please ensure that geography is again included in the definition of a “well-rounded” curriculum, and please include funding for geography education as proposed in TGIF.
On behalf of my colleagues in the Alliance and across the state, and our students, thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Name
Address
Title
* * * *
Sample email to Your Members of Congress
from TCs and Steering Committee Members
Please modify the email below to reflect your name, Alliance affiliation, and passion for geography education, and email it to your House Representative and both your Senators (instructions for finding their emails are attached).
Dear [Senator, Representative]:
As your constituent and a member of the [State Geographic Alliance], I am writing to urge you to support the “Teaching Geography Is Fundamental” Act (TGIF, S. 749, H.R. 1240).
TGIF enjoys bipartisan co-sponsorship from nearly a quarter of both the House and Senate. Passing TGIF would be an important step in correcting the oversight that has left geography as the only one of nine core subjects under “No Child Left Behind” not to have received designated federal funding for education improvement and teacher training.
As a teacher who volunteers time to the [State Geographic Alliance] to help train other educators on world-class materials and standards, I know that passing TGIF is a necessity. Without it, our state will not be able to keep up with attrition in the educational workforce, much less develop additional high-quality teachers in this vital subject.
A solid geography education is critical for all students of [State] to comprehend the world around them, understand their place in the world and succeed in the global economy. Further, a strong geography education is necessary to prepare our children to fill and attain the over 70,000 new skilled jobs in geospatial technologies that are coming available each year nationally.
It is my hope that you will sign on as a co-sponsor of TGIF and help enact this important legislation this year.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Name
Address
Title
Phone Number
* * * *
How to Send an Email to Your Elected House Representative
and Both Your Senators
House of Representatives
Modify the suggested geography education advocacy letter in Word and then open up your Web browser (Firefox, Explorer, Safari, etc).
Go to the House of Representative’s main homepage at: http://www.house.gov/
Toward the top-left of the homepage click the link to “Write Your Representative” (it has an easy-to-spot graphic of a hand holding a pen).
Follow the easy-to-use instructions to connect to your Representative’s Website.
Once you reach the email page for your representative, fill in your contact information and cut-and-paste your message from Word into the online message form and “send” it.
Thanks!
Senate
Modify the suggested geography education advocacy letter in Word and then open up your Web browser (Firefox, Explorer, Safari, etc).
Go to the Senate’s homepage at: http://www.senate.gov/
Scroll to the very, very bottom of the homepage and click on the bottom-left link for “Contact”.
Follow the instructions for Contacting Senators by Email using the link to the “Senators from Your State”.
Once you reach the email pages for each of your Senators, fill in your contact information and cut-and-paste your message from Word into the online message form and “send” it.
Thanks!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Making War Over History
Friday, April 23, 2010
by Suzanne Fields
Texas is big. Everybody knows that. Texans, who boast about their diversity and productivity, are usually big, too. Texas produces more beef and cotton than any other state. Texas has a lot of snakes and flowers, and producers of nearly everything everywhere are determined to make a market in Texas.
When the product bears on what children in the other 49 states learn at school, what Texas produces becomes our business. Textbook publishers long ago learned that publishing textbooks for Texas was an opportunity to hit a gusher, like Jett Rink's gusher of oil in the movie "Giant." With more than 4.7 million students and a school board that adopts textbooks for the whole state, Texas attracts publishers from all over to make pilgrimages to Texas to get drafts of their books approved according to Texas standards. It follows that this one-size-fits-all cuts the cost of textbooks for schools in the rest of the nation.
This year, the Texas Board of Education landed itself in the middle of the culture wars when it rewrote the social studies curriculum, inviting a debate that mirrors the values conflict between traditionalists and multiculturalists. With partisans on the right and on the left, it's the 21st century's "battle of the books." The argument is tilted a bit to the right, with 10 Republicans and five Democrats deciding on changes in the books.
"We are adding balance," Dr. Don McLeroy, the conservative leader on the board, told The New York Times. "History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left. "
Counters Mary Beth Berlanga, a longtime Texas board member and Hispanic activist, "They are rewriting history." She complains that conservatives ignore Hispanics and want to portray a white America. She and her liberal friends accuse the board of "racist ideology" and spreading "capitalism propaganda."
Calmer observers suggest the changes are a necessary correction of liberal bias. Gilbert T. Sewall, director of the New York-based American Textbook Council, an independent research organization that reviews history and social studies textbooks used in the nation's schools, argues that "for two decades, multiculturalists have tried to supplant the older view of Americans as religious dissenters, pioneers and immigrants intent on making a freer and better life, a force for good in the world, a nation that regulated reform and advanced civil rights to all."
He describes American parents as shocked and dismayed to discover their children are reading history as "a setting for power struggles between groups, or as an unjust and patriarchal society whose rapacity -- from Jamestown to Vietnam -- needs exposure and explication." Columbus isn't a discoverer and explorer, he's an invader and exploiter. Harriet Tubman is a saint. Thomas Jefferson is a sinner.
Although the more than 100 changes recently adopted by the selection board tilt rightward, they are mostly only mildly corrective. The American experience of moving westward is to be described as "expansionism," not "imperialism." The "free enterprise system" replaces the negative connotations that have come to adhere to the word "capitalism" (as in "capitalist pig"). The goals of the Great Society will be broadened to include discussions of its "unintended consequences."
Students will actually learn about "the conservative resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s," including the way Phyllis Schlafly led the successful fight against the Equal Rights Amendment and Newt Gingrich succeeded with the Contract With America and the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 1994.
These textbook controversies may soon become moot, as more schools rely on electronic books. Students would do a lot better to read different works of actual historians than the rehashed, reinterpreted history often written by hacks. Herodotus and Thucydides such hacks are not.
History, as the cliche goes, is always written by the victors, but a strange thing has happened to American education since the 1960s. Our triumphs have been trivialized and twisted, demonizing America with no celebration of what America stands for in the hearts and minds of the millions across the world.
Instead of emphasizing the abolition of slavery, the educationists encourage our children to wallow in the horrors of that "moral, social and political evil" before Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves, along with an enormous expenditure of blood in the Civil War. Instead of focusing on the courage of our ancestors, educationists obsess on what went wrong. They indulge the mindset that sneers at the tea parties as "rabble and racist," ignoring the growing aspiration to return to the smaller government as envisioned by the Founding Fathers.
Lord Byron scoffed that history was the "devil's Scripture." Arnold Toynbee defined history as "a vision of God's creation on the move." The textbook wars will continue, because they're too big even for Texas.
Suzanne Fields is a columnist with The Washington Times.
by Suzanne Fields
Texas is big. Everybody knows that. Texans, who boast about their diversity and productivity, are usually big, too. Texas produces more beef and cotton than any other state. Texas has a lot of snakes and flowers, and producers of nearly everything everywhere are determined to make a market in Texas.
When the product bears on what children in the other 49 states learn at school, what Texas produces becomes our business. Textbook publishers long ago learned that publishing textbooks for Texas was an opportunity to hit a gusher, like Jett Rink's gusher of oil in the movie "Giant." With more than 4.7 million students and a school board that adopts textbooks for the whole state, Texas attracts publishers from all over to make pilgrimages to Texas to get drafts of their books approved according to Texas standards. It follows that this one-size-fits-all cuts the cost of textbooks for schools in the rest of the nation.
This year, the Texas Board of Education landed itself in the middle of the culture wars when it rewrote the social studies curriculum, inviting a debate that mirrors the values conflict between traditionalists and multiculturalists. With partisans on the right and on the left, it's the 21st century's "battle of the books." The argument is tilted a bit to the right, with 10 Republicans and five Democrats deciding on changes in the books.
"We are adding balance," Dr. Don McLeroy, the conservative leader on the board, told The New York Times. "History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left. "
Counters Mary Beth Berlanga, a longtime Texas board member and Hispanic activist, "They are rewriting history." She complains that conservatives ignore Hispanics and want to portray a white America. She and her liberal friends accuse the board of "racist ideology" and spreading "capitalism propaganda."
Calmer observers suggest the changes are a necessary correction of liberal bias. Gilbert T. Sewall, director of the New York-based American Textbook Council, an independent research organization that reviews history and social studies textbooks used in the nation's schools, argues that "for two decades, multiculturalists have tried to supplant the older view of Americans as religious dissenters, pioneers and immigrants intent on making a freer and better life, a force for good in the world, a nation that regulated reform and advanced civil rights to all."
He describes American parents as shocked and dismayed to discover their children are reading history as "a setting for power struggles between groups, or as an unjust and patriarchal society whose rapacity -- from Jamestown to Vietnam -- needs exposure and explication." Columbus isn't a discoverer and explorer, he's an invader and exploiter. Harriet Tubman is a saint. Thomas Jefferson is a sinner.
Although the more than 100 changes recently adopted by the selection board tilt rightward, they are mostly only mildly corrective. The American experience of moving westward is to be described as "expansionism," not "imperialism." The "free enterprise system" replaces the negative connotations that have come to adhere to the word "capitalism" (as in "capitalist pig"). The goals of the Great Society will be broadened to include discussions of its "unintended consequences."
Students will actually learn about "the conservative resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s," including the way Phyllis Schlafly led the successful fight against the Equal Rights Amendment and Newt Gingrich succeeded with the Contract With America and the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 1994.
These textbook controversies may soon become moot, as more schools rely on electronic books. Students would do a lot better to read different works of actual historians than the rehashed, reinterpreted history often written by hacks. Herodotus and Thucydides such hacks are not.
History, as the cliche goes, is always written by the victors, but a strange thing has happened to American education since the 1960s. Our triumphs have been trivialized and twisted, demonizing America with no celebration of what America stands for in the hearts and minds of the millions across the world.
Instead of emphasizing the abolition of slavery, the educationists encourage our children to wallow in the horrors of that "moral, social and political evil" before Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves, along with an enormous expenditure of blood in the Civil War. Instead of focusing on the courage of our ancestors, educationists obsess on what went wrong. They indulge the mindset that sneers at the tea parties as "rabble and racist," ignoring the growing aspiration to return to the smaller government as envisioned by the Founding Fathers.
Lord Byron scoffed that history was the "devil's Scripture." Arnold Toynbee defined history as "a vision of God's creation on the move." The textbook wars will continue, because they're too big even for Texas.
Suzanne Fields is a columnist with The Washington Times.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Florida's Civics Bill Makes National Headlines
From: ncss-legis-bounces@lists.ncss.org [mailto:ncss-legis-bounces@lists.ncss.org] On Behalf Of Kristen Pekarek
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 3:49 PM
To: ncss-legis legis; NCSS Affiliates
Subject: [Ncss-legis] Bill would require civics in Florida Schools
Dear Leaders,
I wanted to pass along some good news that was just sent from Florida concerning a Bill that would require civics in Florida Schools. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments at legis@ncss.org
The Associated Press
Published: April 21, 2010
A bill requiring middle school students to take a civics class and pass an end-of-course test is on its way to Gov. Charlie Crist.
The Senate voted unanimously for the (HB 105) today. It previously passed in the House.
Students would have to pass the final exam to go on to high school.
Lawmakers said the requirement is needed because many citizens don't know the difference between a state legislator and member of Congress or even who is president.
The bill is called the Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Civics Education Act after the retired U.S. Supreme Court justice.
Former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and ex-U.S. Rep. Lou Frey joined forces four years ago to push for such a requirement.
http://flhouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=42220
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/apr/21/bill-would-require-civics-florida-schools/
Thanks,
Kristen
--
Kristen Pekarek
Program Assistant, External Relations
& Council Communications
National Council for the Social Studies
8555 Sixteenth St., Suite 500
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301-588-1800 ext. 107
(fax) 301-588-2049
www.socialstudies.org
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 3:49 PM
To: ncss-legis legis; NCSS Affiliates
Subject: [Ncss-legis] Bill would require civics in Florida Schools
Dear Leaders,
I wanted to pass along some good news that was just sent from Florida concerning a Bill that would require civics in Florida Schools. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments at legis@ncss.org
The Associated Press
Published: April 21, 2010
A bill requiring middle school students to take a civics class and pass an end-of-course test is on its way to Gov. Charlie Crist.
The Senate voted unanimously for the (HB 105) today. It previously passed in the House.
Students would have to pass the final exam to go on to high school.
Lawmakers said the requirement is needed because many citizens don't know the difference between a state legislator and member of Congress or even who is president.
The bill is called the Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Civics Education Act after the retired U.S. Supreme Court justice.
Former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and ex-U.S. Rep. Lou Frey joined forces four years ago to push for such a requirement.
http://flhouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=42220
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/apr/21/bill-would-require-civics-florida-schools/
Thanks,
Kristen
--
Kristen Pekarek
Program Assistant, External Relations
& Council Communications
National Council for the Social Studies
8555 Sixteenth St., Suite 500
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301-588-1800 ext. 107
(fax) 301-588-2049
www.socialstudies.org
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Colleges Get Failing Grades In Civics
by Dr. Richard Brake
(April 8) -- On this day 97 years ago, the 17th Amendment was ratified, changing the way we elect senators. Not that many college students would know anything about it, either when they get to college or when they graduate.
For the past five years, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute has tried to measure how well colleges and universities do in giving their students a basic understanding of America's core history, key texts, and enduring political and economic institutions.
The results aren't pretty.
Half of the 14,000 incoming freshmen tested failed the 60-question multiple-choice test, getting just half the questions right. Worse, they barely know any more when they graduate, with seniors scoring 54 percent correct. No school, not even Harvard or Yale, got above a 69 percent average among seniors. Worse still, in some schools, students did worse coming out than going in.
At right is a sampling of the questions. (You can take a more complete version of the test on our Web site.) Some of the most missed questions by students dealt with such fundamental American concepts as judicial review, George Washington's warning against "foreign entanglements," the Monroe Doctrine, "The Federalist Papers" and basic details of the Revolutionary and Civil wars.
Colleges like to pride themselves on preparing their young citizens to become the future leaders of the Republic, but how can you be an effective leader if you don't know the story of how our nation's past leaders grappled with the perennial challenges of governing a free people?
Here's the list of the top 10 schools that improved their students' knowledge of civics (the figures show the percentage point increase in scores between freshmen and seniors):
Rhodes College (Tenn) +11.6
Colorado State (CO) +10.9
E. Conn. State Univ. + 9.66
Calvin College (MI) + 9.5
Marian College (WI) + 9.44
Murray State U. (KY) + 9.12
Grove City College PA) + 9.0
Concordia U. (Neb) + 9.0
U. of Colorado + 8.9
St. Cloud State U (MN) + 8.59
Source: Intercollegiate Studies Institute
And here are the bottom 10 schools -- which saw their students lose the most ground (the figures show the percentage point decrease in scores between freshmen and seniors):
John Hopkins (MD) -7.3
Cornell (NY) -4.96
Yale (CN) -3.09
Brown (RI) -2.7
Duke (NC) -2.25
St. John's (NY) -1.87
Princeton (NJ) -1.7
Georgetown (D.C.) -1.2
University of VA -1.1
Rutgers (NJ) -0.93
Source: Intercollegiate Studies Institute
So, what should we make of this?
First, there's clearly room for vast improvement on the part of all colleges and universities when it comes to effectively teaching America's history and institutions. No school did terribly well.
Second, prestige doesn't necessarily guarantee quality and excellence. In fact, most of the schools on the losing side were in the elite category. And while schools like Johns Hopkins do a better job attracting smarter students, when it comes to actually doing the job that colleges are paid to do -- promoting learning -- little schools like Rhodes College and Murray State leave them in the dust. Clearly, exorbitant tuitions don't guarantee a curricula that ensures that students learn the basics about American history and government.
Finally, parents and taxpayers who pay the bills of American higher education need to start holding colleges accountable for the actual outputs of their academic programming and, if necessary, start demanding more transparency in terms of what is taught on their campuses.
From: http://www.aolnews.com/opinion/article/opinion-colleges-get-failing-grades-on-civics/19430737
Dr. Richard Brake is co-chair of Intercollegiate Studies Institute's National Civic Literacy Board. For more details regarding ISI's past and current civic literacy studies, and to take the test online, please go to www.americancivicliteracy.org.
(April 8) -- On this day 97 years ago, the 17th Amendment was ratified, changing the way we elect senators. Not that many college students would know anything about it, either when they get to college or when they graduate.
For the past five years, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute has tried to measure how well colleges and universities do in giving their students a basic understanding of America's core history, key texts, and enduring political and economic institutions.
The results aren't pretty.
Half of the 14,000 incoming freshmen tested failed the 60-question multiple-choice test, getting just half the questions right. Worse, they barely know any more when they graduate, with seniors scoring 54 percent correct. No school, not even Harvard or Yale, got above a 69 percent average among seniors. Worse still, in some schools, students did worse coming out than going in.
At right is a sampling of the questions. (You can take a more complete version of the test on our Web site.) Some of the most missed questions by students dealt with such fundamental American concepts as judicial review, George Washington's warning against "foreign entanglements," the Monroe Doctrine, "The Federalist Papers" and basic details of the Revolutionary and Civil wars.
Colleges like to pride themselves on preparing their young citizens to become the future leaders of the Republic, but how can you be an effective leader if you don't know the story of how our nation's past leaders grappled with the perennial challenges of governing a free people?
Here's the list of the top 10 schools that improved their students' knowledge of civics (the figures show the percentage point increase in scores between freshmen and seniors):
Rhodes College (Tenn) +11.6
Colorado State (CO) +10.9
E. Conn. State Univ. + 9.66
Calvin College (MI) + 9.5
Marian College (WI) + 9.44
Murray State U. (KY) + 9.12
Grove City College PA) + 9.0
Concordia U. (Neb) + 9.0
U. of Colorado + 8.9
St. Cloud State U (MN) + 8.59
Source: Intercollegiate Studies Institute
And here are the bottom 10 schools -- which saw their students lose the most ground (the figures show the percentage point decrease in scores between freshmen and seniors):
John Hopkins (MD) -7.3
Cornell (NY) -4.96
Yale (CN) -3.09
Brown (RI) -2.7
Duke (NC) -2.25
St. John's (NY) -1.87
Princeton (NJ) -1.7
Georgetown (D.C.) -1.2
University of VA -1.1
Rutgers (NJ) -0.93
Source: Intercollegiate Studies Institute
So, what should we make of this?
First, there's clearly room for vast improvement on the part of all colleges and universities when it comes to effectively teaching America's history and institutions. No school did terribly well.
Second, prestige doesn't necessarily guarantee quality and excellence. In fact, most of the schools on the losing side were in the elite category. And while schools like Johns Hopkins do a better job attracting smarter students, when it comes to actually doing the job that colleges are paid to do -- promoting learning -- little schools like Rhodes College and Murray State leave them in the dust. Clearly, exorbitant tuitions don't guarantee a curricula that ensures that students learn the basics about American history and government.
Finally, parents and taxpayers who pay the bills of American higher education need to start holding colleges accountable for the actual outputs of their academic programming and, if necessary, start demanding more transparency in terms of what is taught on their campuses.
From: http://www.aolnews.com/opinion/article/opinion-colleges-get-failing-grades-on-civics/19430737
Dr. Richard Brake is co-chair of Intercollegiate Studies Institute's National Civic Literacy Board. For more details regarding ISI's past and current civic literacy studies, and to take the test online, please go to www.americancivicliteracy.org.
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