AMERICAN students' knowledge of his- tory is mediocre at best. In June the National Assessment of Education Progress 2010 "Nation's Report Card" for U.S. history was released. Our students failed once again. Only 20 percent of fourth-graders, 17 percent of eighth-graders, and 12 percent of 12th-graders scored "proficient" on the survey, making history the worst assessed subject. Most students scored at the basic level. Historian David McCullough has described U.S. students as "by and large, historically illiterate." As disheartening as this is, it shouldn't come as surprise.

Before we rush to blame schools, let's examine the factors that have negatively affected U.S. history instruction in the United States.

First, President George W. Bush neglected to include history in his No Child Left Behind Act, marginalizing history instruction to make more time for math and reading in the classroom. Consequently, regular history lessons are left out in many elementary-school classrooms. Without such instruction, we potentially put our students at a knowledge deficit for future history courses and productive citizenship.

Next, history standards vary greatly among the states. Not only are students learning different local, state, and national historical content and skills, but nearly half of the states do not even assess their students or require students to take history courses before graduation. The current Common Core State Standards movement seeks to create a more standardized national curriculum. (While almost all of the states have formally adopted the standards, Virginia has decided to keep the Standards of Learning and incorporate parts of the Common Core State Standards into them.)

Finally, although federal funds have been dedicated to the professional development of U.S. history teachers over the past decade, it has been shadowed by our national focus on the economy and the creation of competitive jobs. Federal and state tax dollars are being poured into science, technology, engineering, and math education (also called STEM), while less money is being spent on the humanities.