ST PAUL, Minn. — The Nation's Report Card is out and shows history scores dropping.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, just 13 percent of surveyed eighth graders were considered proficient last year.
About a decade ago, 18 percent were proficient.
Educators say a history-making time is what is setting history scores behind.
"The pandemic definitely did a number on all of us," said Carrie Newman, a seventh-grade history teacher at Murray Middle School in Saint Paul.
Newman said the results aren’t surprising.
History and civics scores are the lowest they’ve been in about three decades.
"We're just kind of putting all the pieces back together for what happened," said Sofia Patronski.
Patronski and Patrick Tennison are Murray Middle School students who are advancing to a national history competition.
But even these champs say there are holes in their knowledge.
"There's almost nobody that's going to be fully caught up with everything from distance learning," Tennison acknowledged.
"A downward projection is not something we want," said Chong Xiong.
Xiong is the K-12 social studies coordinator for Saint Paul Public Schools and says they’re changing what they teach and how.
"What are they interested in learning what their ethnic background is, and to really see that they can find themselves in the curriculum, and to really see that they belong in history," said Xiong.
The district is putting an emphasis on making classes more interactive.
But fall results from The Nation's Report Card shows math and reading skills are also down.
"If you struggle with reading and comprehension, it is really hard to understand something like historical documents," said Xiong.
"Our democracy depends on voters who do research and are informed," said Newman.
WATCH MORE ON KARE 11+
Download the free KARE 11+ app for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV and other smart TV platforms to watch more from KARE 11 anytime! The KARE 11+ app includes live streams of all of KARE 11's newscasts. You'll also find on-demand replays of newscasts; the latest from KARE 11 Investigates, Breaking the News and the Land of 10,000 Stories; exclusive programs like Verify and HeartThreads; and Minnesota sports talk from our partners at Locked On Minnesota.
- Add KARE 11+ on Roku here or by searching for KARE 11 in the Roku Channel Store.
- Add KARE 11+ on Fire TV here or by searching for KARE 11 in the Amazon App Store.
- Learn more about the KARE 11+ app for Apple TV in the Apple App Store.
- Learn more about KARE 11+ here.
Watch more local news:
Watch the latest local news from the Twin Cities and across Minnesota in our YouTube playlist: