U.S. History Instruction Damaged By Common Core Literacy Standards
(Boston, MA) A new study authored by a Founding-era historian, a content expert, and a high school history teacher with standards-writing experience finds that the Common Core will further damage history instruction by including U.S. History in its English language arts (ELA) standards.“Imperiling the Republic: The Fate of U.S. History Instruction under Common Core,” published by Pioneer Institute, analyzes literacy standards for U.S. History that are included as part of Common Core’s English language arts standards.
“Common Core dramatically reduces the amount of classic American literature and poetry students will read in favor of non-fiction or so-called ‘informational texts,’” said co-author Sandra Stotsky who sat on the Common Core State Standards ELA validation committee. “Consequently, the writers of the national standards attempted to shoehorn little bits and pieces of decontextualized U.S. History texts into the English standards. The simultaneous result damages instruction for both English and U.S. History classrooms.”
The co-authors of the Pioneer paper urge schools to instead offer separate standards and classes for English and U.S. History. There is little, if any, research to support the efficacy of English teachers being expected to teach U.S. History or informational texts.
Common Core’s standards writers also call for the “cold reading” of historical documents without any background knowledge to place them in the appropriate historical context. David Coleman, the principal author of the Common Core ELA standards, says that excluding texts’ historical context helps “level the playing field.”
Coleman is now president of the College Board, which has issued a new Advanced Placement (A.P.) U.S. History curriculum. The College Board’s A.P. curriculum is a continuation of the “progressive education” approach, which took hold after World War II, that limits history U.S. History Instruction Damaged By Common Core Literacy Standards | Truth in American Education: