THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

8/19/2007

By Charlie Boss

Whenever there’s an opportunity to link social studies with other lessons, fifth-grade teacher Michael Vincent takes it.

Writing exercises range from diary entries to poems inspired by American Indian life and perspectives. And when Bexley students struggle with a concept, the Maryland Elementary teacher has kids pose as a character — Benjamin Franklin or a teenager growing up in colonial America — to talk about life and politics during that time.

“To get students involved in history is a big challenge,” said Vincent, who spends as much as an hour a day on social studies in his class. “We have to create authentic activities where they can buy into history and enjoy history.”

The approach apparently works, because Maryland’s fifth-graders survived a social-studies test that ravaged nearly 80 percent of central Ohio’s elementaries. Likewise, a new eighth-grade test took down more than 70 percent of the area’s middle schools.

Although the state introduced five new tests last school year — including fifth- and eighth-grade science tests and a writing exam for seventh grade — none damaged report cards like the social-studies tests.

Only nine of central Ohio’s 49 school districts met the fifth-grade goal and four met the eighth-grade standard of at least 75 percent proficiency in social studies. Statewide, only 58 percent of fifth-graders and 49 percent of eighth-graders passed the social-studies exams.

So administrators and teachers are now studying the results to see where students have struggled. Statewide, many students had trouble with international subjects and different cultures, Education Department officials said.

“We’re encouraging all school districts to go back and do a review to make sure the sequence of curriculum matches the content standards,” said Stan Heffner, the state’s associate superintendent for curriculum and assessment.

Scores on new tests are typically lower, he said.

“It’s evident from the scores we would like to see better (results), and we believe we will see a better performance,” he said.

Six central Ohio school districts that earned A’s on last year’s report card slipped to B’s in part because of the science and social-studies tests. Gahanna, Heath, Marysville, Westerville and Reynoldsburg each did not meet passing standards on three of the four new tests. Northridge schools in Licking County missed two.

Judging by the statewide results, some administrators said the tests did not match what schools have been teaching.

“You can’t tell me less than 50 percent of the eighth-graders” are good students, said Marysville Superintendent Larry Zimmerman.

“There’s something wrong with the test if that’s the issue.”

At Marysville, half of the district’s eighth-graders missed the mark. “We put (the kids) in a situation where we taught them, led them in to take a test, and they weren’t prepared to take the test,” he said. Educators knew the tests would include material from several grades. The fifth-grade exam included third- and fourth-grade content, while the eighth-grade test also weaved in sixth- and seventh-grade subjects.

But with such a large scope of topics, teachers didn’t expect so many questions calling for facts and figures, they said.

“I’ve talked to many teachers, and we’re concerned about this test,” Vincent said. “We were shocked with some of the questions that dealt with the minute details that didn’t get at high-level knowledge.”

Teachers prepared students for concepts and high-level thinking, not memorization, officials said.

“We’ve got to make sure the kids are learning what they need to know in sixth and seventh grade,” said Sue Witten, director of curriculum in the Hamilton Schools. “But when you have kids in eighth grade, the fact they are going to retain that information from sixth and seventh grade … that’s pretty high expectations.”

When states introduce new tests, they are spelling out what students must know, said Peggy Altoff, past president of the National Council for the Social Studies. Once that happens, schools refine what they teach to focus on what kids need to know today.

“There needs to be a balanced reach between a greater focus on what kids need to know without sacrificing good instructional practice,” said Altoff, who coordinates social studies for a Colorado Springs school district. “That’s real hard to do.”

cboss@dispatch.com

Click here to enlarge

Test troubles

Ohio students struggled with new social-studies exams last school year. About 58 percent passed the fifth-grade test, while 49 percent of eighth-graders were proficient, according to state results released Tuesday.

Some questions that students found difficult:

FIFTH-GRADE EXAM

Question 2: “Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1816

Which American document guarantees the freedom described above?

A. the Articles of Confederation

B. the United States Constitution

C. the Emancipation Proclamation

D. the Declaration of Independence

Answer: B

More than 65 percent got this question wrong. The most popular answer was D, which 45 percent chose.

Question 11: Give one reason English colonists came to Virginia and settled in Jamestown. Describe one way their experience was different from what they had expected.

Answer: People wanted to settle in North America, and in Jamestown especially, because they thought that the gold and land would lead to wealth and riches. But when they arrived, many settlers had a very difficult time, including illness, poor farming and starvation.

More than 88 percent got this question wrong, including 60 percent who earned no points (2 were possible).

Question 25: Which newspaper headline would give you information about why a town is having an election next week?

A. Councilman Quits to Take Job in Private Industry

B. Council Votes to Increase Property Taxes

C. Mayor Takes Oath of Office

D. Crime Rate Rises in City

Answer: A

More than 78 percent answered incorrectly. The most popular answer, chosen by nearly 45 percent, was B.

EIGHTH-GRADE EXAM

Question 6: The Framers began writing the Constitution of the United States in May 1787, but it was not ratified by all 13 states until May 1790. One of the issues debated during the Constitutional Convention was the congressional representation of enslaved Africans.

Students must explain the positions of both Northern delegates and Southern delegates on the issue of congressional representation of enslaved Africans.

Answer: By including slaves in their population, Southern colonies believed they could get more representatives because their population counts would be higher. Northern delegates believed this was not fair because slaves could not vote, so they should not be counted in population totals. The Northern delegates also didn’t want this because, if the Southern states could include slaves in their population counts, the South’s population would be much larger than the North’s and the South would control the Congress. This issue was settled with the Three-Fifths Compromise, which called for African slaves to be counted as three-fifths of a person for figuring out population totals.

More than 97 percent got this wrong, including 83 percent who received zero points (4 were possible).

Question 11: Between 1519 and 1605, the American Indian population in central Mexico decreased from approximately 25 million to 1 million people.

Students must identify and describe one reason why this population decline was so extreme.

Answer: Beginning in the late 1400s, the Spanish began to explore lands in the Americas. Besides bringing new products and animals, the explorers also brought diseases to America. These were diseases that were new to the American Indians. Hundreds of thousands of American Indians died because they were exposed to these new illnesses. Also, the explorers had better military weapons, which allowed them to defeat the American Indians in battle. Finally, the explorers started fights between some tribes against others, which led to separation and disunity between the American Indian tribes. This allowed the Spanish to take control of the tribes.

More than 91 percent got this wrong. More than 67 percent received zero points (2 were possible).

Question 26: The Crusades had a great impact on European culture during the Middle Ages.

Students must identify and describe two ways the Crusaders’ contact with the Middle East changed European culture.

Answer: During the Crusades, European soldiers traveled to the Middle East and brought back many new products and ideas from Islamic and Byzantine lands. As Europeans began to use these new products and ideas, they wanted to experience more of what the Middle East had to offer. This led to more trade between Europe and the Middle East, and the demand for Middle Eastern products in Europe grew.

More than 97 percent of students got this wrong. Sixty percent scored zero points (4 were possible).

On the Web

Visit http://portal.success-ode-state-oh-us.info, an interactive Ohio Department of Education Web site, to see how students performed on the social-studies exams and other state tests.