The decision of the Mississippi State Board of Education to drop the U.S. history exam from its list of high-stakes tests is disappointing, if not surprising.
The initial vote taken by the board in April to seek public comment on cutting from four to three the number of tests most high schoolers must pass in order to graduate had only one dissenter. Objections, even from the state’s senior U.S. senator, Roger Wicker, were unlikely to change the leanings of the board’s majority.
Still, we don’t fully buy the rationale for dropping the testing requirement: namely, that Mississippi kids are overtested, that they’ll still learn as much U.S. history in school whether there’s a state-mandated test or not, and that it will save money.
Having one less test to purchase and administer will certainly cost a little less, but the savings probably represent a tiny fraction of the nearly $3 billion that the state allocates for K-12 schools.
As far as the rest of the excuses, four state tests in four years of high school were hardly burdensome. And if it were true that a passing class grade signified as much as a passing test grade, there would be no need for any of the state tests.
The reason that algebra, biology and English language arts are tested, besides a federal law requiring tests of those three subject areas, is because the quality of education is so uneven across schools that the only way to ensure that students have acquired at least a modest mastery of those subjects is to give them objective, standardized tests. A passing grade from a teacher is not proof of a student’s competency if that teacher is unqualified, undemanding or just soft-hearted.
As a rule, Americans are woefully ignorant of their own history. Surveys have repeatedly documented this. One often-cited nationwide survey, conducted in 2018 by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, found that only 53% of Americans were able to earn a passing grade in U.S. history. Three out of four did not know which states comprised the original 13 colonies, and one in four did not know freedom of speech was guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. It’s no wonder that President Donald Trump’s efforts to punish those who protest against him and his policies or to go after supposedly unfriendly media outlets do not seem to bother a sizable portion of the country.
When people are uninformed about their history, they are less likely to hold their government accountable, less inclined to perform civic duties such as voting or showing up for jury duty, and more likely to make uninformed decisions if they do vote. Having a better knowledge about our nation’s past helps produce better citizens for the future. That’s at least as important as knowing the difference between meiosis and mitosis.
Perhaps this is unintentional, but removing the U.S. history test will also lower the standards for graduation. Everybody brags about the state’s rising graduation rate, but some of it is because the officials in charge, with the blessing of politicians, have lowered expectations.
It is, in fact, often incorrectly reported that Mississippi students must pass these subject area tests in order to graduate. That once was the case, but years ago, the state backed off high-stakes testing. It gave students who couldn’t pass all the tests less-demanding ways to qualify for a diploma.
If past is prologue, Mississippi will see another bump in its graduation rate next year, and few in Jackson will bother to mention that dropping the U.S. history test might have been a factor.
