Eighth-graders have dropped 2 points on the NAEP civics assessment, which measures students’ knowledge of American government and opportunities to participate in civic activities, the National Center for Education Statistics announced Wednesday in the release of the latest Nation’s Report Card results. The test is based on a 0-300 scale, and eighth-graders’ scores fell from 153 in 2018 to 150 in 2022.

In 2022, only 22% of eighth-graders scored at or above proficiency in civics by demonstrating an understanding of the purpose of government, the separation of powers and “how the ideals expressed in the nation’s core documents may differ from reality,” among other concepts, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

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This first-ever decline, in which the scores were not statistically significantly different from when the current version of the test was first conducted in 1998, raises alarms about students’ grasp of democratic principles and their chances of becoming “full participants in American democracy,” Carr said.

“Self-government depends on each generation of students leaving school with a complete understanding of the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship,” Carr said. “But far too many of our students are struggling to understand and explain the importance of civic participation, how American government functions, and the historical significance of events. These results are a national concern.”

U.S. history slumps along with civics

The 13% of eighth-graders who scored at or above proficiency in U.S. history represent the lowest proficiency level of any subject assessed by the NAEP. In fact, four in 10 eighth-graders performed below the basic level as scores declined in all four of the test’s major themes—democracy, culture, technology and world role—saw declines in scores.

Meanwhile, fewer students reported taking classes mainly focused on U.S. history. Some 68% percent of eighth-graders reported taking a U.S. history class in 2022, compared to 72% in 2018.

NAEP’s U.S. history assessment, which also uses a 300-point scale, “measures students’ knowledge and understanding of U.S. history in all its complexity—its major themes, periods, events, people, ideas, and turning points,” the organization says. The history scores—except for those of the very top-performing students—have been dropping since 2014.

Here are more key findings from the eighth-grade civics and history assessments:

Civics

• Scores declined for both lower-performing and middle-performing students between 2018 and 2022. Scores did not change significantly for higher-performing students.
• There was no significant change in the average score for students in any racial or ethnic group compared to 2018.
• 31% of eighth-graders performed below the NAEP basic level in civics in 2022, compared to 27% in 2018.

History

• Scores were five points lower compared to 2018 and not statistically significantly different from the average score in 1994, when the first U.S. history assessment was given.
• Scores declined for students at the 10th, 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles between 2018 and 2022.
• Average scores for Black, Hispanic and white students declined from 2018 to 2022.

“Now is not the time for politicians to try to extract double-digit cuts to education funding, nor is it the time to limit what students learn in U.S. history and civics classes,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “Banning history books and censoring educators from teaching these important subjects does our students a disservice and will move America in the wrong direction.”

This latest report follows the largest-ever drops in math scores for 4th- and 8th-graders recorded by the Nation’s Report Card last fall. Reading scores plummeted since the 2019 assessment, falling to levels not recorded since 1992.

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Even though an American Library Association poll found 70% of parents oppose bans, “a vocal minority” continues to target books about race and racism, gender and LGBTQ+ identities, and various periods of U.S. history. But the censorship targets appear to be expanding: Earlier this year, the movement forced the removal of books about baseball legends and civil rights heroes Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente and Jackie Robinson from Duval County Public Schools in Florida.

During the 2021-22 school year, most book-banning campaigns were parent-led but this year, these efforts have been “supercharged” by new state censorship laws that have stoked confusion in school classrooms and libraries, PEN America says.

School administrations are feeling pressured to “err on the side of caution” and remove books when parents complain. “Many public school districts find themselves in a bind,” PEN America contends. “They face threats and political pressure, along with parental fears and anxieties surrounding the books on their school shelves.”

An escalating ‘Ed Scare’

There were 1,477 individual book bans from July to December 2022, which equates to over 100 titles removed from student access each month, PEN America says. In comparison, the organization tracked 1,149 bans from January to June 2022 and 1,383 from July to December 2021.

Books with LGBTQ+ themes and characters and characters of color have faced the most challenges, but more topics have been targeted this fall. Schools have also removed a number of books about violence and abuse, health and wellbeing, or that include instances or themes of grief and death.

Here are some of the key findings from PEN America’s most recent book ban analysis:

• 30% of the unique titles banned this fall are books about race, racism, or feature characters of color. Meanwhile, 26% of unique titles banned have LGBTQ+ characters or themes.
• This school year, instances of book bans are most prevalent in Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah and South Carolina.
• Bans this school year are increasingly affecting a wider swath of titles, including those that portray violence and abuse (44%), discuss topics of health and wellbeing (38%), and cover death and grief (30%).
• Books are more frequently labeled “pornographic” or “indecent” by activists and politicians to justify removing books that do not fit well-established legal and colloquial definitions of “pornography.”
• This school year, numerous states enacted “wholesale bans” in which entire classrooms and school libraries have been suspended, closed, or emptied of books, either permanently or temporarily. These “wholesale bans,” have involved the culling of books that were previously available to students, in ways that are impossible to track or quantify.

“These efforts to chill speech are part of the ongoing nationwide ‘Ed Scare’—a campaign to foment anxiety and anger with the goal of suppressing free expression in public education,” PEN American concludes. “As book bans escalate, coupled with the proliferation of legislative efforts to restrict teaching about topics such as race, gender, American history, and LGBTQ+ identities, the freedom to read, learn, and think continues to be undermined for students.”

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Academic standards, accountability requirements and assessment programs—what the RAND Corporation calls the basic infrastructure of K–5 social studies instruction—are inadequate in many states, the nonprofit research organization asserts in a new report. “Concerning trends in both the United States and around the world, such as truth decay, declining trust in institutions, increased political polarization, and abuses of political power, have only underscored the need to reinvest in the civic mission of schools,” says the report’s authors, whose key findings include:

• Districts and schools provided teachers with less support for social studies compared to English language arts, math and other core subjects. In the 2021–2022 school year, elementary principals reported offering less PD focused on social studies than on English, math, and science.
• Only half of elementary school principals said their buildings or districts had adopted published curriculum materials to support K–5 social studies instruction. Teachers, therefore, tended to “cobble together” or create their own social studies lessons.
• Principals whose schools offered more extensive teacher evaluations, professional learning activities, and curriculum guidance were more likely to report that teachers collaborated on social studies instructional practices.

“Over the past few decades, school systems have invested less in students’ civic development and more in academic and career preparation as educational priorities,” said Melissa Kay Diliberti, lead author of the report and assistant policy researcher at RAND. “Our findings suggest that inadequate state and local infrastructure focused on social studies instruction may have affected what elementary teachers did in their classrooms in 2021–2022.”

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Just 16% of elementary teachers reported using a required textbook for most of their social studies instructional while about 30% of principals said their schools had not adopted social studies curriculum materials. “Even where state-level infrastructure to guide teachers’ instruction is in place, its comprehensiveness and quality vary greatly,” the authors added.

Political climates in various states are another barrier to comprehensive social studies instruction in K-5. While this has always had an impact on classrooms, educators have been increasingly intimidated by more recent pushes to restrict teaching about race, racism, discrimination, LGBTQ issues and gender identity.

Solutions for social studies instruction

To bolster instruction, district leaders can ramp up PD and teacher evaluation and feedback around social studies. Principals should commit more time to observing social studies instruction. “Principals might feel that they lack the expertise or content knowledge to identify high-quality social studies practices,” the report points out. “If so, district leaders should provide training, professional development, resources, or staff to principals to help them do that work thoughtfully.”

District leaders can also push state policymakers to develop more rigorous social studies standards that are based on national frameworks such as the C3 standards. This would likely lead to the adoption of more comprehensive social studies curriculum materials. In turn, more transparent assessments of the quality of these materials would encourage adoption by more teachers. District leaders might also prepare for states to impose tighter accountability measures around social studies achievement.

At the high school level, RAND’s researchers found more robust supports—such as teacher evaluations and instructional coaching—but that the subject still takes a backseat to English, math and other subjects.

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Carter G. Woodson was a historical researcher and scholar who is known for his many educational and philosophical contributions to the world. In 1922, he penned the words above for the Southern Workman journal. In the essay, he expressed the need for Black people—children included—to (re)learn and recover their greatness through their histories.

His mission to center Black genius was inspired by the beautiful nature and essence of Black people. He knew we have a long, rich legacy and worked to resist those who overlooked, ignored, or erased it. In part, that is why he pioneered Black History Week in 1926, which later became Black History Month. He wrote:

“It is not so much a Negro History Week as it is a History Week. We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in History. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hatred and religious prejudice.”

Black History Month has evolved into a tradition to honor Black people and help everyone, regardless of cultural background, to remember and love us. Woodson sought to center truth and love—and, in the process, come into joy.

I honor Woodson and his legacy by asking, How can we continue to help Black children remember and love their Blackness during Black History Month and every other month of the year? How we can remind them of their genius, while celebrating their beauty and joy?

Teaching Black history: A fight for joy

To respond to those questions, I offer five approaches to teaching Black history that should unearth our children’s joy by considering their happiness, wellness, beauty, and advocacy. My goal is to help you help our young people to know that they come from greatness—a long lineage of brilliance, innovation, intellectualism, and joy.

1. Teach our children about Black geniuses of the past and present. After all, Black people have contributed enormously to a better humanity and society. Help students see themselves in Black genius and ask them to consider who they may become in this world. How will they use their genius?

2. When teaching about African American history, do not start with enslavement. Our lives began before that. We had joyful, beautiful, rich lives. We were queens and kings, and held positions that upheld humanity. We come from a rich continent rooted in resources. We must teach more complete and truthful histories, and not begin and end through lenses of the oppressor.

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3. Take moments to check in on students each day. As you greet them with love and kindness, ask them about their joy. Questions might include:

• How’s your heart?
• Are you experiencing any type of hurt, harm, or pain?
• Do you feel joy when you come to school? If not, how can I make school more joyful?

4. Celebrate daily all the ways our students are genius. Don’t focus only on their test scores, but also their wider brilliance and talents, which, of course, large-scale assessments don’t measure.

5. Because students need to learn about Black joy and its necessity in life, develop a unit plan on it. Consider the following learning goals, using my five-part framework for culturally and historically responsive education:

• Identity: Students will identify Black joy in their own lives.
• Skills: Students will read texts (poetry, songs, picture books, essays or short stories) on Black joy and engage in comprehension strategies.
• Intellect: Students will learn about Black joy throughout history.
• Criticality: Students will learn to (re)claim Black joy in a country that does not always honor or love Black lives.
• Joy: Students will learn about the joy of Afrofuturism.

Remember, our students are part of an ancestry of brilliant people who fought tirelessly for joy. Therefore, as leaders and educators, we must, by teaching Black history, also fight for the joy of our children today.

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Several schools had been piloting AP African American Studies for more than a year as the College Board and its content experts fine-tuned the curriculum. This process was occurring largely under the radar until late January when DeSantis and Florida’s Department of Education barred AP African-American Studies from being offered in the state’s classrooms.

DeSantis administration officials rejected AP African-American Studies because they believed it “lacks educational value,” is historically inaccurate, and veers into critical race theory in violation of Florida’s controversial Stop WOKE Act, the National Review reported last month. DeSantis led the charge against CRT and diversity programs that conservatives claimed sought to make white students feel guilty and ashamed over the actions of past generations.

AP African American Studies is designed to be an interdisciplinary course that spans history, literature, the arts, geography, science, and other subjects to guide students in exploring the contributions and experiences of African Americans. It begins with ancient African kingdoms and “traces a path from slavery to freedom,” focusing on the American Revolution, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the rise and fall of Jim Crow segregation, and the civil rights movement, said renowned professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.

“Never before have high school students had the opportunity to engage with African American history and culture in such depth and coherence,” Gates added.

Compared to the pilot version, however, the breadth of AP African American Studies has been reduced for the final version though course developers “added a small number of topics to address important subjects that were not adequately represented in the pilot version,” the College Board said Wednesday.

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“This course is an unflinching encounter with the facts and evidence of African American history and culture,” David Coleman, CEO of the College Board, said in a statement. “No one is excluded from this course: the Black artists and inventors whose achievements have come to light; the Black women and men, including gay Americans, who played pivotal roles in the civil rights movement; and people of faith from all backgrounds who contributed to the antislavery and civil rights causes. Everyone is seen.”

However, many Black scholars associated with critical race theory, the queer experience, and Black feminism have been removed from the official curriculum, The New York Times reported. The College Board also scrubbed Black Lives Matter from the curriculum and added “Black conservatism” as a potential research topic, the Times says.

More than 300 African American Studies professors collaborated with high school teachers on the AP course’s curriculum. Its designers called its interdisciplinary structure a “breakthrough” for AP courses. “By drawing not only on history but also the arts and social sciences, the course explores how African American culture has shaped our country for centuries,” said Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. “High school students and their teachers, as well as college faculty, have long been looking forward to this course.”

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Some fear that it promotes cheating, allowing students to breeze through their assignments. For example, one individual challenged ChatGPT with completing a full SAT test. Astonishingly, it performed in the 52nd percentile, according to College Board.

I made ChatGPT take a full SAT test. Here's how it did: pic.twitter.com/734sPFU3HY

— teddy (@teddynpc) December 2, 2022

Others are rather optimistic, arguing that it has the immense power to make learning, well, fun.

“In the future, we need to lean in as educators,” said Dr. Don Killingbeck, the superintendent of Hemlock Public Schools in Michigan in a previous interview with District Administration. “Because let’s face it. There are people out there thinking, ‘This is bad. It’s everything we told kids not to do.’ People are going to say we shouldn’t be using this and that kids shouldn’t be touching it. The bottom line is in the real world we’ve got to be more productive. You only get 24 hours in a day, so how are you going to make the most out of it? And I think a tool like ChatGPT maximizes that opportunity.”

But just how powerful is the tool? Out of curiosity, we asked ChatGPT to perform several tasks that your average high school student might be given. For simplicity, we asked it questions about the following three subject areas: history, writing and math. And sure enough, it performed.

History

Using recommendations from Time4Learning, a homeschool curriculum provider, we assigned ChatGPT the following task: “In 200 words or less, describe the challenges faced during the construction of the transcontinental railroad.”

Here was its response:

The construction of the transcontinental railroad faced numerous challenges, including securing funding and acquiring land rights,” it wrote. “The harsh weather conditions, difficult terrain, and remote locations made it a logistical nightmare. The labor force consisted of immigrants and former slaves, who faced dangerous working conditions, low wages, and cultural conflicts. The supply chain for materials and equipment was disrupted by the Civil War, making it difficult to secure the resources needed for construction. Tensions with Native American communities also posed a challenge, as the railroad threatened their way of life and sacred lands. Additionally, corruption and mismanagement were rampant, as railroad executives and politicians sought to profit from the massive project. Finally, competition between rival railroad companies led to tension and conflict, hindering progress and driving up costs. Despite these challenges, the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, revolutionizing transportation and commerce in the United States.

Writing

“Prepare an outline for an essay about the characters and conflict that are present throughout Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.”

ChatGPT’s response:

I. Introduction
A. Background on Shakespeare and the play
B. Brief overview of Romeo and Juliet
C. Thesis statement: The characters and conflict in Romeo and Juliet are integral to the play’s themes of love, hate, and fate.

II. The Characters
A. Romeo
1. Description of his personality and motivations
2. Relationships with other characters
B. Juliet
1. Description of her personality and motivations
2. Relationships with other characters
C. Other characters
1. The Montagues and Capulets
2. Mercutio and Tybalt
3. The Nurse and Friar Lawrence

III. The Conflict
A. Family feud
1. Origin and escalation of the conflict between the Montagues and Capulets
2. The impact of the feud on the play’s characters
B. Individual conflicts
1. Romeo’s internal conflict over love and hate
2. Juliet’s struggle with her duty to family and love for Romeo
C. Fate
1. The role of fate in the play’s conflict and resolution
2. The concept of free will vs. predetermined destiny

IV. Conclusion
A. Restate thesis statement
B. Summary of key points
C. Reflection on the themes of love, hate, and fate in Romeo and Juliet
D. Final thoughts on the play’s impact and relevance.

Math

Using problems provided on Varsity Tutors, an online tutoring and test prep site, we asked ChatGPT to answer several questions your average high schooler taking precalculus would solve:

“What is the center and radius of the circle indicated by the equation? (x – 2)² + y² = 36″

ChatGPT’s answer: “The center of the circle is (2, 0) and the radius is 6.”

But it didn’t stop there. It even showed its work:

“To find the center of the circle, we need to isolate the x and y terms on one side of the equation,” it wrote. “The standard form of a circle’s equation is (x – h)² + (y – k)² = r², where (h, k) is the center and r is the radius.”

“Starting with (x – 2)² + y² = 36, we can simplify the equation to: x² – 4x + y² = 36 x² – 4x + 4 + y² = 40 (x – 2)² + y² = 40”

“So, the center of the circle is (2, 0) and the radius is the square root of 40, which is 6.”

Now let’s try something a little more tricky.

Using another example question found on Varsity Tutors, we asked ChatGPT, “What is the shape of the graph indicated by the equation x²/16 + y²/4 = 1?”

And its answer was correct, an ellipse. Unsurprisingly, it told us exactly how it came to that conclusion.

“The graph indicated by the equation x²/16 + y²/4 = 1 is an ellipse,” it wrote.

“An ellipse is defined as the set of all points such that the sum of the distances from two fixed points, called foci, is constant. In standard form, the equation for an ellipse is (x²/a²) + (y²/b²) = 1, where a and b are the semi-major and semi-minor axes of the ellipse, respectively.”

“The equation x²/16 + y²/4 = 1 is in the standard form of an ellipse, with the semi-major axis equal to 4 and the semi-minor axis equal to 2. This means that the shape of the graph is an ellipse, where the x-axis and y-axis are the semi-major and semi-minor axes, respectively.”

So what’s your opinion? As an educator or administrator, does this frighten you? Or does it open up a world of possibilities for enhancing the student’s learning and getting kids engaged again?

More from DA: ChatGPT or CheatGPT? Students love it, educators not so much

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“Students learn by doing,” says Peter Dufresne, chief academic officer of Knovva Academy and a former principal. “Students don’t remember that essay test you gave them—they remember when you brought them outside, they remember when you had them do things with their hands, they remember what brought the work to life.”

The United Nations recently raised the alarm about the inevitability of irreversible and destructive climate change. Meanwhile, about a quarter of 18- to 45-year-old Americans were reconsidering having a child due to climate change, a recent poll found.

There are also new guides for how to teach children about climate change without scaring them. For administrators looking to supplement how their schools are teaching climate change—or for an idea to replicate—the Model G20 Summit gives students a chance to take on the role of leaders of the world’s industrialized nations to solve the myriad problems of global warming.

State mandates alone won’t galvanize students to grapple with the issue. “Mandating Algebra 1, for instance, doesn’t mean kids become Algebra 1 superfans,” says Dufresne, whose company operates the model climate summit. “We want to create an interest-based movement around climate change.”

One way that interest is stoked is by having students who participate in the summit act as presidents, prime ministers, interior secretaries and other leadership posts. The students must leverage their nation’s resources—which are sometimes limited—as a starting point in collaborating with the other “mock” leaders to create policies that will benefit their country’s citizens. Instructors at the summit often throw a wrench into those deliberations by, for example, having a “mock” war break out that causes global supply shortages and other complications, Dufresne explains.

Students often delve deeper into big trends such as electric cars and the environmental impacts of manufacturing ever-more powerful lithium batteries. There are also questions of equity, such as will less affluent families be able to buy electric cars as states and governments try to phase out gas-powered vehicles.

Another way the summit engages students is by showing them that learning about and taking action on climate change goes beyond science and the other STEM disciplines. Students explore the geo-political and socio-economic impacts of global warming, and how changes in access to natural resources will shift the balance of power. “Climate change doesn’t have to be abstract—we can go out and see it and touch it,” he says, “There are lots of things students can do to make a difference at the local level but that’s not going to happen if we drag students to that topic unwillingly.”

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“We’re trying to put the right kid with the right teacher at the right time,” Lape says. “If a kid really understands algebra, do they need to sit in an algebra class for an entire year when maybe they only a need semester?”

In the customized classes, students can work ahead or take a little more time in mastering skills and concepts. In math, teachers are dividing students into three groups: those who are working ahead, those who are right on schedule and those who are falling behind, Associate Principal Brad Seamer adds. “And when you walk into a science class, you’re likely to see four different labs and three independent projects taking place at the same time as the teacher moves around the room.”

Starting next year, students will be able to choose “custom” or “traditional” for specific classes rather than for their entire schedule. This means they can take customized math and traditional English.

This approach, designed to empower students, has also filtered down to the district’s middle and elementary schools, Lape points out. Middle school students have more control over scheduling their days. They can choose between small-group sessions and bigger class seminars, and rotate among teachers. Teachers and administrators, of course, monitor students’ decisions and will intervene if they are making “bad choices”—such as, Lape explains, picking all of the same classes as a friend. Along with academics, one of the goals is to help students begin developing time management and organizational skills.

In some elementary schools, grade levels have been eliminated in favor of grouping students together based on achievement so teachers are working with students who are all at the same level. This prevents a second-grade teacher from, for example, having to instruct students who are reading at fifth-grade proficiency and those who are only at a kindergarten level.

Problem-solving principals: Take a page from their playbooks 

And conversations play a big role in the middle and elementary assessment process. Teachers will ask students what they can articulate about their learning, looking for key “habits of mind” such as managing impulsivity, striving for accuracy, finding humor and reflecting on their own thought processes. “When you have an 8-year-old who can articulate these things, you’ve created an environment of problem-solving, instead of having students just raise their hands and say, ‘I don’t know to do this,'” Lape concludes.

Student-focused instruction is ‘the real deal’

Student-focused instruction at Holmen High School in Wisconsin is focused outside the classroom, Principal Wayne E. Sackett says. Students in Holmen’s Farm-to-School Project are handling everything from growing produce to raising and processing poultry and cattle for the school’s lunch and nutrition programs. They use the school’s greenhouse extensively and tend to an asparagus field on school property.

Their work, part of the school’s Future Farmers of America program, translates into school culinary events such as “Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner.” “We have one of the most amazing lunch programs around,” Sackett says. “It’s giving kids real-life experiences.”

Another real-life experience on offer at the high school, which is part of the School District of Holmen, is the model store that students in an entrepreneurship class run every year around the winter holidays. And they run everything, from the stocking and staffing of the store to marketing to human resources to negotiating with sponsors and vendors. They develop a name and logo, and pick a charity or a family in need that will benefit from the store’s sales, which consist primarily of baked goods and crafts. Last year, the store raised about $14,400.

The students also develop an employee handbook, create a training program for sales staff, design an incentive program for vendors, and promote the store at school events, via social media and on local radio. “They have everything you might have in a business,” Sackett says. “It’s the real deal.”

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Public school teachers were asked to rank 10 reasons for teaching civics and citizenship education in a survey conducted by the RAND Corporation, a research think tank. Here is how teachers prioritized building students’ skills in the following areas:

1. Critical and independent thinking: 68%
2. Conflict resolution skills: 54%
3. Knowledge of citizens’ rights and responsibilities: 41%
4. Community involvement: 35%
5. Protecting the environment: 27%
6. Knowledge of social, political and civic institutions: 23
7. Learning effective strategies to reduce racism: 20%
8. Participation in school life: 13%
9. Defending one’s point of view: 11%
10. Preparing for future political engagement: 5%

Knowledge of social, political and civic institutions ranked in the top three for high school educators while elementary teachers said that skills related to social-emotional development—such as respect for the environment—were the most crucial.

Integrating civics and citizenship education

But elementary school teachers were more likely than secondary teachers to say that civics and citizenship education are covered in all subjects. More than a third of elementary school teachers—compared to just 12% of high school educators—said civics and citizenship were embedded across multiple subjects.

This finding has implications for professional development. “Elementary schools, and the teachers in them, might have more experience drawing connections to civic and citizenship education topics during instruction in other subjects,” the researchers wrote. “Teachers at the secondary level could benefit from understanding more about how elementary teachers weave civic and citizenship education into students’ whole-school experiences.”

Views of the purpose of civics and citizenship education did not vary much by the subjects that teachers taught or their school’s characteristics. But the poll did uncover some differences based on the teacher gender. While both male and female teachers most often chose critical and independent thinking as the most important skill to build, female teachers cited conflict resolution and confronting racism as their civics priorities. Male teachers more often selected knowledge of social, political and civic institutions, as well as how to defend one’s point of view.

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The battle no longer is over slavery, but between two opposing views of how our country should be governed. One side believes in an unchanging Constitution, and the other envisions a progressive new structure.

Feelings over how we should teach American history are another example of this divide. There are generally two camps that have emerged in recent years. One side advocates for the introduction of curricula like critical race theory, which espouses that U.S. institutions are laced with racism and must be dismantled and rebuilt. The other believes a more traditional approach still serves well, while recognizing that history should not be altogether uncritical.

The rhetoric has reached a fever pitch at school board meetings and has undercut parental trust in teachers.

This divide is made worse by the fact that our nation is functionally illiterate when it comes to how our country works and the reasons behind its design. To our national shame, a 2018 study by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation found that only 36% of Americans could pass the citizenship test that is part of the immigration process, a test that 97.5% of immigrants pass.

There are three steps that high schools can take to turn this ship around:

1. Beef up Civics instruction.

While most states require some kind of instruction in civics in order to graduate high school, students tend to do poorly on standardized tests. The average score on the AP U.S. Government exam is just 2.64 out of 5, which is among the lowest of all AP exams.

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How can we possibly have reasoned discussions about our country’s history if we don’t have a fundamental understanding of how our government was founded and why it’s unique? Schools need to recommit to a rigorous civics curriculum that makes the topic relevant to today’s students.

2. Address the whole truth.

Review curricula to ensure that American history is taught in an unbiased, nonpartisan way. This means addressing head-on the unsavory aspects of our history, such as slavery, racism, and discrimination—without indoctrination. Likewise, the successes of the American experiment, such as free markets and immigration, should also be taught without glossing over where we’ve failed. People are hungry for the truth, and our students can handle it.

3. Teach students how to think.

No skill is more crucial to students than knowing how to think. Today’s youths are bombarded with content from multiple sources: social media channels, traditional news, online sites, influencers, groups, and friends. They need to learn how to sift through ideas, search for the facts, and then use their judgment to come to a conclusion.

Flipped classrooms are especially good at doing this by engaging students in active, dynamic learning with class time reserved for robust discussions. Lectures are replaced by digital “inputs” conducted at home, such as viewing a fact-based video lecture, reading, or listening to an audio clip. These are paired with relevant content like music, paintings, maps, illustrations, podcasts, and video clips from television shows or movies that add depth to the topic and make it current. Students then come to the classroom prepared to discuss the topic respectfully with their peers.

This approach of strengthening our civics education, delivering honest history content, and teaching students how to think will go a long way in raising the next generation of independent thinkers who can share and debate ideas without denigrating others.

We sure could use that.

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