The Suit Magazine

Results of a national test released on Tuesday indicate that students in the U.S. aren’t well-versed in American history. Of the seven subjects offered on the exam, students performed the worst in that particular section.

The American history portion of the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress – often referred to as the Nation’s Report Card – quizzed students on topics ranging from colonization, the Civil War, the American Revolution and modern American history. Only 22 percent of fourth-graders gave a solid academic performance in the section, followed by 18 percent of eighth-graders, and a mere 13 percent of high school seniors. More than 7,000 fourth-grade students, 11,000 eighth-graders and 12,000 high school seniors from a nationally representative sample took the test last year.

According to education experts, a heavy focus on reading and math under the No Child Left Behind law has lead to the neglect of other subjects such as history and science in the past decade. However, scores on the history section did not vary greatly from years past, as only 19 percent of fourth-grade students scored proficient or better in U.S. history in 1994.

“The history scores released today show that student performance is still too low,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan in a statement. “These results tell us that, as a country, we are failing to provide children with a high-quality, well-rounded education.”

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