Nation’s Report Card shows America is flunking at civics | Opinion

America has just received its civic education report card − and it’s not good. Given the threats to our democracy in recent years, the results should rattle the nation out of its civic slumber.

The recent release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for civics shows that schools are not teaching students enough about democratic norms, values and institutions. Only 13% of eighth graders were proficient in history and 22% in civics. These low rates have been flatlining since 1998 when they were first measured.

Such deficits aren’t just academic, they have dangerous effects.

Every state constitution puts the cultivation of citizens at the center of education. The drafters knew that without an educated citizenry − without knowledge of our history, Charters of Freedom, and citizens’ role in electing representatives, checking political corruption, and ensuring policies reflect the will of majorities − the country would not sustain a healthy democracy.

And today, our democracy is unhealthy.

Support for democracy is declining, particularly among the younger generations. Slightly more than half of young Americans believe that it is "very important" that the United States remains a democracy, and 52% believe the country's democracy is "in trouble" or "a failed democracy."

It is hard to support something you don’t fully understand. As former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has noted, citizens aren’t born but made.

Neglecting civic education also deprives Americans of their fascinating history, milestone moments and inspiring stories. Students know such learning matters − given twice as many students who perform well in civics or U.S. government believe they can make a difference in their communities compared to those who do not.

We all should know more about what happened at Independence Hall, Trenton, Gettysburg and Little Big Horn − at Seneca Falls, Selma and the Lincoln Memorial. Historians agree that most transformational change has come from the ground up, often with people with no public title or institutional authority. In a democracy, "citizen" − not president, senator or governor − is the highest office in the land.

Our country’s independence was propelled by Thomas Paine’s pamphlet "Common Sense;" our national park system by George Catlin, John Muir, and William Henry Jackson; and our rights movements by Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Martin Luther King, Jr. Fannie Lou Hamer, and Dennis Banks. Our leaps in science and innovation are full of names like Thomas Edison, Rachel Carson, Richard Feynman, Vera Rubin, Gladys West and Jonas Salk. When individuals understand our past is replete with stories of Americans just like them changing our country for the better, it is instructive and motivating.

It should not be such a hard lift to put civic learning back at the center of education. Recent polling and reports indicate voters and parents of school-aged children across the political spectrum want more and better funded civic education for their children. Civics does not need to be confined to a single course. It can be integrated across the curriculum. Students in biology can learn about how scientists have cured disease, in math about the role of mathematicians in the moonshot, and in history about how social entrepreneurs improved our world.

The most recent NAEP results are hardly a surprise given civics’ marginalization: Although 47 states require some civics instruction in high school, only seven states require a full year, most elementary schools allot only 30 minutes per week to the social studies, and only seven states have stand-alone civics requirements for middle school.

So, what’s to be done? A landmark Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy (EAD) – funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities under both the Trump and Biden Administrations – provides a framework for excellence in civics and history education and invites students to engage with primary sources, prompting the exploration of many points of view.

In 2022, Congress boosted support for civic education from $7.75 million to $23 million, and the administration’s proposed budget would triple that support. Congress should pass the bipartisan, bicameral Civics Secures Democracy Act for a generational investment.

State legislatures also are turning the tide. In the last biennium, 16 states adopted 17 bipartisan policies advancing civic education, and this spring, more than 65 bills to advance civic education were filed in 24 states. We should support such efforts.

The most recent NAEP scores also indicate eighth graders who learned about civics in a designated class outperformed those where it was embedded in another class, with a wider gap for those with no civics instruction.

The NAEP results should further propel these federal and state policy advances. As the nation nears its 250th birthday, let’s ensure that students in all 50 states graduate with the civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for informed, effective, and lifelong civic engagement. Our democracy depends on it.

John Bridgeland is a native of Cincinnati. He is CEO of More Perfect and former director of the White House Domestic Policy Council for President George W. Bush. Louise Dubé is executive director of iCivics, an organization founded by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Both are leaders of More Perfect, an initiative with all 14 Presidential Centers working to renew democracy. 

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Nation’s Report Card shows America is flunking at civics | Opinion