U.S. students grasp of geography has improved among fourth-graders, but flat-lined or fell with eighth- and 12th-graders, the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported Tuesday.
Overall, fewer than one-third of students scored at or above proficiency level in the subject a rate that mirrored previous dismal showings on civics and history exams.
Comparing test scores from 1994 to 2010, NAEP found that average fourth-grade scores climbed from 206 to 213 (on a 500-point scale). The Washington, D.C.-based educational service credited the modest gain almost entirely to improved scores by minority students.
There were no corresponding increases among higher-performing students and no significant change in the percentage of students performing at or above the proficient level, NAEP stated in its Nations Report Card: Geography 2010.
Still, the gap between white and minority students remains cavernous. Twenty-nine percent of Caucasian fourth-graders scored at proficient or advanced levels, compared with proficiency percentages of only 5 percent for African-Americans and 8 percent for Hispanics. No blacks or Hispanics reached the advanced range.
The news was bleaker at the higher grade levels. The average eighth-grade inched up just 1 point to 261 during the 16-year period. The average 12th-grade score dipped 3 points to 282.
NAEP noted similarly deteriorating performance with each ascending grade level in reporting U.S. history and civics scores earlier this year.
In particular, the pattern of disappointing results for our 12th-graders performance across all three social science subjects should be of great concern to everyone, said David P. Driscoll, chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for NAEP.
Roger Downs, professor of geography at Penn State University, said the subject of geography is suffering from underexposure in the classroom, even as a shrinking world becomes more geographically aware through GPS devices and other gadgets.
To the extent that classroom time becomes an even more precious and scarce commodity, geography, with subjects such as history and the arts, is losing out in the zero-sum game that results from high-stakes testing.
In 1994, an influential report about time allocation in the curriculum had the provocative title of Prisoners of Time. Sadly, geography is in danger of becoming a casualty of time, Downs said.
NAEP -- which tested a nationally representative sampling of 7,000 fourth-graders, 9,500 eighth-graders and 10,000 12th-graders reported that males outscored females by an average of 4 points in the two lower grades and by 5 points at the high-school level.
State-by-state breakdowns were not provided.
Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 559-4719.
