National Report Card: Geography doing poorly

Posted by on August 01, 2011

Neither encouraging nor surprising

The most recent results of the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress reveal that U.S. students are making little progress in understanding geography and how people change and are changed by their natural environment, The Wall Street Journal reports. For instance, only a third of fourth-graders could determine distance on a map, and less than half of eighth-graders knew Islam originated in what is now Saudi Arabia. Twenty-three percent of fourth-graders, 30 percent of eighth-graders, and 21 percent of 12th-graders rated “proficient” or “advanced.” The results, which come on the heels of similar disappointing scores on the national history and civics exams, were attributed by some to students’ obsession with technology, which they said reduces facility with maps. Others said the social sciences, especially geography, are losing ground because of the intense focus on math and reading under NCLB. Geography “is losing out to the zero-sum game that results from high-stakes testing,” said Roger Downs of Pennsylvania State University. “As the economic and cultural forces of globalization and the impacts of global environmental change are felt by everybody everywhere, the case for geography seems both obvious and inescapable.”

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303661904576455903848634470.html

Related: http://tinyurl.com/43kakjd