NPR: History and Civics scores are down, and nobody should be surprised.  The response to the Covid pandemic by the government and education officials was deplorable.   I heard this story on NPR this morning, and it also illustrates how trivial their news reporting has become.  Everyone wants to know how much damage was done to students by long periods of remote learning.

Scores in U.S. history and civics for eighth-graders are down across the U.S., according to recent results from the assessment known as the “Nation’s Report Card.”

NPR refers to the “Nation’s Report Card”.  Okay, but what is it?   With news media integrity in doubt by almost everyone, the journalist could have taken three seconds to google it.  The public might want to know what organization and test we are talking about.  From the NAEP website:

NAEP is a congressionally mandated program that is overseen and administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences.

The NPR report sounds more sensational than it is.  Giving some sense of the drop would help.

This year’s history scores are the lowest recorded since the assessment began in 1994, and the new data mark the first-ever drop in civics.

A brief look at the NAEP website shows the context, and it’s different than what NPR is implying.  The historical History scores look like this.

The data show there was a linear decline since 2014.  The Civics scores are also interesting.

The Civics scores are nearly flat since 1998, with a small bump in 2014. 

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement that the results, from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, further underscore the “profound impact the pandemic had on student learning.”

Mr. Cardona is in a political position so his statement isn’t precise, but it’s worth considering whether it the pandemic that impacted student learning, or the school shutdowns mandated by education and governmental officials.

The NAEP provides some interesting data that someone should be looking at if we ever intend to improve education.  Different states had different shutdown policies during Covid.  The full data for the History and Civics portions aren’t yet available, but there is data broken out by state for other NAEP tests administered in 2022.  The 8th grade reading test is related to history and civics.  California had harsh shutdown policies while Utah was much more relaxed.

Utah 8th Grade Reading

California 8th Grade Reading

I can’t explain it.  Utah continued a decline that started in 2014, while California didn’t drop at all as a result of the Covid lock down. 

There have been several news reports about the futility of shutdowns in altering the pandemic.  In education, the length of time spent in remote learning mode varied by state, district and public vs private.  As NAEP, ACT, AP and other standardized test results come in, researchers should be investigating the effect of shutdowns.