Only 22% of American students were able to correctly answer questions about the basic principles and values on which civil society and a democratic state are based.
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
The US Department of Education is shocked by the record level of underachievement of eighth graders in history and the basics of civics. According to The New York Timesthe level of knowledge of schoolchildren has decreased to a critical minimum, which caused serious concern not only for parents, but also for teachers and experts in the field of education.
Only 13% of American high school students were able to correctly answer basic questions about periods, major events, and key figures in US history. Ten years ago, this figure was at the level of 18%. The test questions ranged from the simplest, such as “Why were the conditions of American workers inhuman before the Industrial Revolution?”, to the complex ones. Thus, eighth graders had to think about what two main ideas of the American constitution were reflected in the famous speech of Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a dream.”
Only 22% of schoolchildren were able to correctly answer questions about the basic principles and values on which civil society and a democratic state are based.
The problems in education have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Children did not attend schools, and studied at home with laziness. And in general – they are perplexed, why memorize something, if “everything can be easily found on Google.” True, it has come to the point that without the Internet, many students already call Africa a country, not a continent.
Moreover, an increasing number of schoolchildren do not understand written texts and are not able to do elementary calculations in their minds. Last year, fourth and eighth grade students in the US saw record declines in math and reading. The average score on a 500-point scale in mathematics fell to 236 and 274 points, respectively. The reading average also dropped to 217 and 260.
