By Alan Lytle
Lexington, KY – Kentucky has received low marks for its standards in teaching U.S.
History in its schools. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a national educational advocacy group gives the Commonwealth, and twenty-seven other states, a less than impressive D in a new report card. Fordham spokesperson Kathleen Porter Magee, says they found Kentucky lacking in content and rigor, as well as clarity and specificity.
"They need to organize the content in a more straightforward manner so that it's easily accessible from an instructional standpoint; so teachers can really use it to drive their lesson planning in the classroom. The second thing is they just really need to provide more content; otherwise you're not doing the job of saying what students need to learn. And that really is the state's responsibility."
But Kentucky Department of Education Spokesperson Lisa Gross, says the Fordham Institute's methodology is flawed.
"Fordham would like the states to outline in great detail what teachers should be teaching every day in the classroom. Here in Kentucky, teachers are given a lot of latitude in how they want to approach big ideas; the concepts around U-S History. But, when you look at the documents we provide for teachers to develop their curriculum, they really are pretty specific."
Overall,the Fordham Institute characterizes a majority of states as mediocre to awful. Porter Magee says the low marks are a by-product of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which has placed more emphasis on subjects like reading and math. The state with the highest A grade in the report card, was South Carolina.