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You
are here: A New Crisis in America's Schools
by Allan Kullen
A new crisis is threatening America's schools. At a time when an understanding of the world around us has never been more important, the teaching of social studies, a critical part of the academic curriculum for millions of young people, is facing devastating cutbacks and even elimination. This assault on one of the moorings of American elementary and middle school education is crippling efforts to prepare a new generation of civic and business leaders even as the United States faces unprecedented global challenges.
Experts such as David McCullough, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the acclaimed biographies Truman and John Adams, warn that the trend, if unchecked, could have enormous consequences. "We are losing our story, forgetting who we are and what it's taken to come this far . . . . Our story is our history, and if ever we should be taking steps to see that we have the best prepared, most aware citizens ever, that time is now," McCullough has written.
Americans All can help keep social studies in the curriculum. Through corporate sponsorship this national education program will provide staff development resources and curriculum materials in both print and electronic formats to all schools at no cost.
Social Studies Prepares Students for Participation in Our Democracy and Workforce
For decades the role and value of social studies in elementary and middle schools were unquestioned. The traditional curriculum offered a blend of disciplines as varied as civics, anthropology, economics, geography, history, religion and sociology. Social studies helped young people prepare for what Thomas Jefferson called "the office of citizen," giving them the knowledge, intellectual skills and civic values needed to make the critical decisions in the voting booth, at a city council meeting, during discussions with neighbors that are essential to an ethnically and culturally diverse, democratic society.
Social studies programs have also played a key role in teaching young people how to survive and thrive in the workplace. Over the years, generations of students have learned how to lead, work as a team, solve problems, get along with others and appreciate diversity. The interdisciplinary nature of the field has taught young people how to gather information from sometimes conflicting sources and perspectives and to use the knowledge to develop solutions to seemingly intractable problems.
The Emphasis on Testing Is Diverting Resources from Social Studies
Today, however, the value of social studies is under attack. Following a trend that began in the early days of the U.S.-Soviet space race, schools across America are stripping resources from social studies programs to buttress science, mathematics and basic literacy programs programs in which standardized testing can provide a much clearer benchmark of academic progress. As the call for more testing has echoed across America, teachers are increasingly concentrating on subjects where testing is available—math, science, reading and writing—at the expense of subjects such as social studies.
This dramatic shift is not the result of one ill-considered edict by education bureaucrats out of touch with the needs of the country's young people. The United States has never had a single, monolithic education system. To a large extent, each of the nation's roughly 15,000 school districts is left to design a curriculum that meets local needs. But that has meant that districts facing demands for improved test scores at a time of dwindling resources have been forced to cut and reshape their education offerings.
The Lack of Attention to Social Studies Has Serious Consequences
Social studies programs have borne a disproportionate share of the burden. Moreover, as resources shrink and priorities shift, many schools cannot find qualified social studies teachers—a problem that is most acute in schools with a large percentage of poor and minority students. At least 10 states no longer have a statewide social studies coordinator to oversee the development of a common curriculum, legitimate testing standards or even textbooks. As a result, new or inadequately trained teachers struggle to create coherent, innovative lesson plans.
Results of tests and surveys conducted in the past few years tell the alarming story.
One recent study indicated some improvement among younger students, but even that modest progress is imperiled by draconian cuts in social studies programs that have begun in the last two years. A 2002 national survey by the Council of State Social Studies Specialists (CS4) found growing concern that the subject was falling by the wayside.
"Many social studies educators are very concerned about the lack of attention placed on social studies in the state," said Alabama officials responding to the survey. "In the 2001-2002 school year, there were no social studies state assessments until grade 10. The message was clear to the educators in K-9 that social studies was not as important as other disciplines." California, one of dozens of states facing huge budget deficits in 2003 and beyond, cautioned that "finding and acquiring financial resources" to help students meet state social studies requirements will be extremely difficult.
No Child Left Behind Is Posing Further Challenges
Lending a renewed sense of urgency to the debate and posing perhaps the greatest challenge to social studies today is a new federal law that is designed to improve the state of education for all of America's schoolchildren. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is an unfortunate example of a well-intended law with unintended consequences. Few people question the motives behind the legislation, which aims to substantially upgrade the skills of the nation's 47 million public school students over a 12-year period. No one disputes the need to make sure every student can read and write. Without those basic skills, learning social studies or any other subject would be impossible. But the emphasis on math, science and literacy, along with the clamor for standardized testing as the only true measure of success, have crippled education efforts in other subjects.
NCLB requires school districts to meet the rigorous standards set by the new law or risk losing millions of dollars in federal aid. This has forced educators across the United States to choose between the basic skills the legislation promotes and measures and the broader traditional curriculum in which academic success is not always as easily assessed.
Adding to the dilemma is the cost of the new federal program. The National Conference of State Legislatures says states will spend about $1 billion annually on the NCLB-mandated testing. The federal government will provide only $400 million to offset the new expenses, the group reports, meaning states will have to take money from other programs not included in NCLB to make up the difference.
Social studies programs have been among the first to feel the impact. In the recent CS4 survey, West Virginia educators called social studies "the child left behind" by the NCLB legislation and said the new law will have a "major impact" on curriculum planning, teacher training and funding decisions. Illinois officials noted that since social studies was omitted from the NCLB act, they will begin moving money and teachers to subjects to be tested under the law. Tennessee has already eliminated some social studies programs, and Minnesota and Oklahoma are also contemplating substantial cuts in this subject.
Efforts to Keep Social Studies in the Curriculum Are Underway
To save social studies, states are scrambling to find other ways to keep the curriculum in their classrooms. The National Endowment for the Humanities has launched a "We The People" initiative that will provide modest funding for classroom projects and essay contests designed to increase understanding of American history and culture.
Despite the potentially devastating budget crises, some state and local school officials are intensifying teacher recruitment efforts to fill the gaps created by the emphasis on science, literacy and mathematics testing. And a growing number of state education officials and lawmakers are urging the federal government to reconsider some of the more crippling deadlines and funding decisions outlined in the NCLB legislation.
Americans All Can Bolster Efforts to Keep Social Studies in the Curriculum
Officials in several states are looking closely at a program developed by the nonprofit People of America Foundation almost 20 years ago. Americans All is an essential adjunct to the No Child Left Behind legislation. Already in use in more than 2,000 schools and libraries nationwide, the program traces America's history through the stories of six groups that played pivotal roles in building our nation—Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans, Mexican Americans and Puerto Rican Americans.
Supported by educators in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and by key national education organizations, Americans All aims to help students learn in all of the traditional social studies areas—especially civics, history and geography—while improving their reading and writing abilities and critical- and creative-thinking skills. Americans All does not tell school districts what or how to teach. The program is specifically designed to support state standards and curriculum frameworks that local school districts use. It affords districts the freedom and flexibility to tailor classroom instruction programs to their own needs and the diverse backgrounds and learning styles of their students.
More than 70 experts from various fields have assembled the supplemental curriculum materials—resource books, music, posters and photographs—to help teachers capture student interest and give students opportunities to undertake research and other activities relevant to them, their families and their communities. In addition, Americans All can advise local school districts on creating electronic databases on the political and cultural history of each state, with authorized links to additional Internet research and reading material. The databases will help educators develop learning materials to address specific student needs, reducing the dependency on more generic published textbooks.
Americans All will be of particular benefit to school districts facing an influx of new teachers, a problem that is generally most severe in areas serving poor and minority students—high-risk groups that desperately need a solid social studies background. Too often, new teachers are unsure exactly what to teach and, in the crush of the daily struggle to teach, there frequently is no one available to help them. Americans All can help fill that gap by providing new teachers with appropriate classroom materials and guiding them toward the development of effective lesson plans.
The People of America Foundation is working with universities, state historical societies, cultural affairs groups and other organizations to establish Americans All. The Foundation has completed implementation agreements with Nevada, North Dakota, Vermont and New York's ethnically diverse school district in Nassau County. Earlier versions of the program have met with success in many areas, including Wichita, Kansas, where it was widely praised by teachers and administrators.
Perhaps most importantly, Americans All will be offered to the nation's 100,000 K-12 public and private schools at no cost. An aggressive corporate sponsorship program calls for raising the $250 million needed for national implementation during this decade.
In the early stages of development, sponsors such as the Hitachi Foundation, the Sears-Roebuck Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Quaker Oats Foundation and the Proctor&Gamble Fund saw Americans All as a way to positively impact the students who would one day become their customers and employees. Today sponsors can provide vitally needed support for public and private education in the United States at a critical moment in its history. Sponsors will be providing resources to help America's young people meet the challenges of a global community and understand and appreciate different cultures and peoples and their contributions to our nation and the world. The stakes could not be higher. "When a nation fails to know why it exists and what it stands for," cautions National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman Bruce Cole, "it cannot be expected to long endure."
Allan S. Kullen, businessman and entrepreneur, coordinated the development and organization of the People of America Foundation. As national co-director of the Americans All® program (an unpaid position), he compiled The Peopling of America: A Timeline of Events That Helped Shape Our Nation and was responsible for the research component that led to the program's photograph, slide and poster collections.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Kullen served as executive editor of the New American Encyclopedia, production manager for the International Library of Negro (now called Afro-American) Life and History, and has taught in the adult education program at The Catholic University of America. A charter member and major funder of The Coordinating Committee for Ellis Island, Inc., the 501(c)(3) education organization that created the Americans All® program, he has also served on many local boards in the Washington, D.C., area.
Mr. Kullen is currently president of Todd Allan Printing Co., Inc., a modern, three-shift commercial printing facility staffed by more than 100 full- and part-time employees, that has served the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area for more than 29 years. To meet both marketing and public service objectives, he developed and coordinated the production of a 700-page Graphic Arts Guide. He has had numerous articles published on the printing process and holds a patent on a significant change in the art-lithographic process. In 1995 the Prince George's County (Maryland) Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities honored Todd Allan Printing as their small business "Employer of the Year."
Allan Kullen, President
People of America Foundation
5760 Sunnyside Avenue
Beltsville, MD 20705
Phone: (301) 982-5622, ext. 159
Fax: (301) 220-3730
Cell: (301) 520-8242
Web site: www.americansall.com
E-mail: allan@americansall.com
© March 2003 New Horizons for Learning
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