Position Statements
Statement on Assessment
The following statement was adopted by the NCHE Board of Trustees on December 21, 2006.
History education must be a vital and integral component of every citizen's school experience. Historical literacy represents an important link between the language arts skills mandated by state examinations and the kind of active civic engagement that has been demanded by our political leaders. Since our nation's founding, our educational system has sought to produce citizens who have the skills to make informed judgments and are equipped for thoughtful participation in our democracy. These skills are the hallmark of historical literacy. The ability to demonstrate reasoned historical thinking using analysis, synthesis and evaluation of evidence is at the core of our educational endeavor and is nowhere more clearly represented than in well-designed history assessments. It is for this reason that the NCHE recommends mandated testing in history become part of the No Child Left Behind legislation and that it be included in measuring a school's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
Each state has already created proficiency tests to monitor its students' learning and its schools' AYP. These tests now focus on mathematics, language arts, and science. The failure to include testing in history poses a serious challenge for schools in fulfilling their basic educational and civic missions. The inability of students to reach informed conclusions based on historical evidence represents as grave a threat to our educational system as any that has been identified by the No Child Left Behind legislation. The creation of such tests can help ensure that the type of historical literacy demanded by our current challenges will be taught to students because these scores will be required in each school's AYP reporting.
Assessments should be guided by the skills they are meant to measure--historical knowledge, logical reasoning, and organized communication. Demonstrating historical knowledge and analytical ability is often not easily revealed in one-dimensional, multiple-choice answers. Instead, proper assessment would focus on an ability to write about history in a coherent fashion. This would include at least two types of writing: one which demonstrates historical thinking (e.g., "How would you compare in importance the two following causes of the Civil War?"), and one which would demonstrate a student's ability to draw conclusions from a primary source (e.g., "What can one infer about the power of the federal government from reading Lincoln's Second Inaugural?"). Coupled with a limited number of multiple choice questions that demonstrate historical knowledge, states could develop a solid assessment that is tied to state standards in history and is compatible with NCLB requirements.
Models for such assessments should be constructed by the various professional history organizations in conjunction with the College Board, the International Baccalaureate Organization, NAEP, and the various states that already have assessments as part of their statewide curricula. A concerted effort by these parties will produce assessments that fulfill the civic mission of our schools and are free from old partisan debates that have surrounded this subject.
