Wednesday, April 3, 1996
By Rachanee Srisavasdi
Daily Bruin Staff
UCLA’s National Center for History released new standards today
for teaching history in K-12 Â a revised version that will aid
school districts in refocusing their current history
curriculum.
The standards, divided into U.S. and world history, are
voluntary guidelines distributed to 17,000 school districts across
the nation. They were created by the National Center for History,
an organization established to improve history education, along
with dozens of other national education organizations.
The standards are part of a larger effort to establish
guidelines in all K-12 subjects, including mathematics, English and
social sciences, explained Linda Symcox, the center’s associate
director.
"We need national standards," Symcox said. "Historical literacy
is not being achieved. By creating a national assessment of
standards, we’re able to pull knowledge from historians from all
over the country and give this to local (school) districts."
The standards were revised in response to past criticism of the
initial 1994 version. Historians and government officials
criticized the 1994 standards, citing that they left out key
aspects of American history and were too politically correct.
Additionally, the 1994 version had examples of teaching methods,
which critics argued could potentially bias a student toward a
certain position.
Some educators thought criticisms of the 1994 standards were
unfounded.
"The criticism was completely misdirected," argued James
McPherson, a history professor at Princeton University. "Most of it
came from Republicans who had a political axe to grind. They jumped
on the absence of some political icons. …The standards were not
meant as a curriculum guide, but rather as an outline of
themes."
Establishing history standards could improve student performance
by giving a clearer idea of what students should be learning, said
Christopher Cross, president of the Council for Basic Education,
which endorsed the new edition.
"The question is, do districts have the resources to teach all
these standards?" Cross asked.
Currently schools are not teaching all the topics suggested by
the center’s standards, which may contribute to student’s poor
performance in history, he added.
Whether due to a lack of schools’ resources or unclear
standards, students’ proficiency in history is lacking, according a
1994 report by the National Assessment of Education Programs. Only
1 percent of 12th graders have reached the advanced level of
historical literacy, the report found.
The new standards include expanded material in both U.S. and
world history. The U.S. history standards included an emphasis on
achievements in science and technology, economic history, the role
of education in the United States and post-World War II foreign
policy.
The world history standards were created to provide a true and
comprehensive world historical approach, Symcox said.
The standards tried to respond to the criticism that history
curriculum is too Eurocentric, by incorporating historical events
in Russia, Southeast Asia and Oceania.
Additional world history subjects include international science
and technology, the enlightenment and scientific revolution and
international economic history.
"In order to understand religion and culture, students need to
understand a complete world history," said Gary Marx, executive
director of American Association of School Administrators. "In the
past, historical approaches have leaned toward Eurocentrism. It’s
important that students learn about events happening all over the
world, not just about their own culture."