only 14 percent of 8th graders are proficient in U.S history and just 22 percent are proficient in Civics those statistics come from a report issued by a national school's assessment called the nation's report card what's even more concerning this is the lowest score ever recorded since the assessment began in 1994 and it's the first ever drop in Civic scores it's all very concerning to my next guest Arlene Gardner president of the New Jersey Center for civic education at Rutgers University who's here to shed light on what New Jersey is doing to prioritize civic education in our schools Arlene thank you so much for being with us tonight my pleasure there's a new National report I'm sure you are aware that shows really kind of abysmal scores for uh for high schoolers when it comes to history and Civics what do you make of this report what do you make of this trend I have to say I'm really not terribly surprised particularly the Civics for the last several decades it hasn't been taught I mean if it if it's not taught literally the kids are not going to do a great job on an exam um we actually did a inventory of civic education in New Jersey in 2004 61 of the school districts indicated that the kids were getting one to two weeks of civics in U.S history when they got to the period of the Constitution that was it that that's clearly not enough okay so what should that look like what should they be learning when we talk about civics well they need more time on it so really since 2004 we've spent more time on um testing math and language arts and less time on social studies that's been documented over and over again um the New Jersey Department of Ed in 2020 showed reported that 20 of the New Jersey school districts had a required Civics course in middle school 20 that made 80 percent didn't so eighty percent of the kids were getting you know those couple of weeks in high school and that was it so Arlene I think you're making the point well that more time needs to be spent I want to get to the kind of the the meat and potatoes of what it is our kids should be learning when we talk about a Civics education oh well now you're getting to it I'm really interested in um I just want to note that because this is the background um what I'm trying to say is we need to have those required Civics courses for all of our kids and in 2021 New Jersey did just that the legislature unanimously passed and the governor signed the Laura Wooten act which mandated that all New Jersey school districts require at least a semester of civics in Middle School what should that include okay well it also directed The New Jersey Center for civic Ed to provide the resources and professional development for the teachers so we've been doing that for the last year we have an extensive curriculum guide on our website which needs to be continually updated but it it starts it's it's an inquiry framework okay it starts with the idea of asking questions you want the kids to be able to not just answer the questions but also ask the questions why do we need government starts with that I mean why do we need government at all what's the value of a democracy and what are the components of a democracy if we want to continue to have a democracy we need informed engaged citizens if we want informed engaged citizens we need to provide the the education that that they need Arlene Gardner president of the New Jersey Center for civic education at Rutgers University thank you so much thank you [Music]