An annual assessment, commonly referred to as the Nation’s Report Card, finds students are struggling in both history and civics. Only 14% of eighth graders are proficient in U.S. history, according to the assessment; it’s the lowest history score since the test first started in 1994. Just 22% were deemed to be proficient in civics — the first-ever drop in civics scores.
Arlene Gardner, president of the New Jersey Center for Civic Education, an independent nonprofit affiliated with the Rutgers University School of Arts and Sciences, joins us to discuss why the numbers are dropping and what’s being done by Gov. Phil Murphy and the Legislature to fix it. “Since 2004, we’ve spent more time on testing math and language arts and less time on social studies; that’s been documented over and over again. The New Jersey Department of Ed in 2020 reported that twenty percent of the New Jersey school districts had a required civics course in middle school — twenty percent. That means eighty percent didn’t. So eighty percent of the kids were getting … those couple of weeks in high school and that was it.”
Gardner noted that in 2021 the Laura Wooten Act was enacted in New Jersey, requiring middle school students to be taught civics.
