Shortly before the 4th of July, I wrote about the need for a “post-BS” education that focuses far less on celebrating activism and far more on the duties of citizenship and cultivating an understanding of republican government. Well, the piece sparked a lot of reactions. I especially liked one from Patrick Kelly, the director of government affairs at the Palmetto State Teachers Association, a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, an AP U.S. Government teacher, and a former U.S. Department of Education Classroom Teaching Ambassador. With his permission, I thought it worth sharing his note. Here’s what he had to say.
—Rick
Dear Rick,
My summer reading list this year includes a book that has me rethinking how we approach civic education in America. The book in question is the excellent biography of John Quincy Adams by Randall Woods. It draws heavily from Quincy Adams’ voluminous personal diary, a remarkable record capturing the sixth president’s reflections on seemingly every detail of his life. His diary also outlines what is unquestionably one of the most exceptional civic education programs in American history.
A portion of his education was rooted in the unique life experiences of Adams’ adolescence. He was the son, and personal secretary, of John Adams. He had a front row seat to a Founding Father working to secure American independence. But Quincy Adams also embarked on a lifelong quest to read as many works of Western political history and theory as possible. If that bibliography were turned into a curriculum, it would dwarf the scope of even the most rigorous doctoral reading list in modern American education.
It would be impractical—and probably undesirable—to build a modern K–12 civic education program on the writings of Cicero, Tacitus, and the leading figures of the Enlightenment, as the elder Adams required of 14-year-old John Quincy. But our education system should still embrace John Adams’ belief that part of the “end of study” must be preparing a student to be a “useful citizen” in a democratic republic.
By seemingly any measure, American education is falling short of that goal. The 2024 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey found that 15% of American adults couldn’t name a single branch of government, while 22% associated the right to bear arms with the First Amendment. Such results are not terribly surprising in light of trends on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in U.S. history and civics. In the most recent assessment, average scores on the civics test declined for the first time ever, and only 14% of students met the criteria for “proficient” or “advanced” in U.S. history.
If James Madison’s admonition that “knowledge will forever govern ignorance” is correct, those results should set off alarm bells about our approach to civic education. In fact, they should spur action on par with how states deliberately focused on improving reading instruction in the aftermath of the “Mississippi miracle.” To get students back on track in civics, I believe states should immediately adopt four policy actions.
First, states must overhaul the training of history and civics teachers. Currently, educator training in the social sciences is too often a mile wide and an inch deep. While the broad scope of courses that can be taught with a “social studies” certification in most states provides schools with valuable staffing flexibility, it also means the collegiate coursework for future educators often lacks extensive study in American history and government. This is especially true in degree programs that more heavily focus on pedagogy than content mastery.
I can personally vouch for the critical importance of rich and rigorous preservice content study through my time as a James Madison Fellow. Created by Congress to celebrate the bicentennial of the Constitution, the Madison Fellowship requires educators to complete advanced studies in American political history and theory. I continue to use lessons and materials from my time as a Madison Fellow in the classroom 20 years later. The upcoming 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence presents an opportunity for states to establish their own versions of the Madison Fellowship, particularly as the federal Education Department is inviting applications for an American history and civics discretionary grant.
Second, the in-depth study of primary sources in American history and civics should be prioritized. I am confident only a small percentage of American students read the entire Declaration of Independence and Constitution prior to graduation, to say nothing of other foundational texts like The Federalist Papers or landmark Supreme Court opinions. Our political discourse in recent years has been consumed by debates over the use of various secondary-source curricula named after key dates—1619, 1776—in American history. What our students desperately need is to study the documents written during those key dates.
Next, states must increase the amount of the instructional day allocated to civics education. Highly qualified teachers using rich primary sources will achieve little if students aren’t also provided adequate time to study history and civics. Currently, they are not. The 2018 National Survey of Science and Math Education found that students in grades K-3 received an average of 16 minutes of daily social studies instruction, which only grows to 21 minutes per day in grades 4-6. Those low numbers are even more alarming when you analyze what is actually occurring during those minutes—or more specifically, what is not occurring.
A 2022 report commissioned by the NAEP Validity Studies Panel found more than 50% of participating states provided no coverage of post-Reconstruction U.S. history for students during middle school. In my home state of South Carolina, curricular standards don’t provide any study of American history until grade 4, and even these indicators provide little coverage of critically important topics like the political debates of the Washington administration. Civics instruction is even weaker, as the only true required curriculum is a half-credit U.S. government course during the senior year of high school. As a running coach, I don’t expect my athletes to perform well in a race if they haven’t had sufficient time to practice. Similarly, we shouldn’t be shocked when students demonstrate limited mastery of history and civics when they aren’t given time to study them.
Finally, states need to get serious about evaluating the caliber of history and civics education. This is a recommendation I don’t make lightly. My experience as a teacher and parent demonstrates the many ways current accountability systems can reduce needed instructional time in return for unusable data from low-quality assessments. But I also know modern American education values those things that are measured. The other three actions I’ve recommended are unlikely to happen in a meaningful way without the visibility and attention that comes from systems-level accountability.
Since social studies is not a subject area required for federal accountability under ESSA, states should be innovative in their approach and avoid adding another one-time, high-stakes, selected-response assessment to their accountability portfolio. Priority should be given to assessments that require students to demonstrate mastery of core civic knowledge through application of civic aptitudes and skills. For example, the written components of the 2018 revision to the College Board’s AP U.S. Government and Politics exam do a nice job of evaluating content and skill, especially the Supreme Court Case Comparison and Argument Essay prompts.
In his 1825 inaugural address, John Quincy Adams focused extensively on his generation’s duty to pick up the baton from the founders to extend and secure the lofty goals articulated in the Constitution’s Preamble for the benefit of future Americans. That work remains unfinished, but it can only be accomplished by ensuring students today are receiving the civic education necessary to successfully take up the duties of citizenship in the future.
