The folks at the Southern Poverty Law Center are out with a new report (the NYT has a story here) about how well America is doing in teaching its children about one of the seminal events in American history, the Civil Rights Movement.
Sadly, most states do not fare well. This is from a release accompanying the report:
“The study compared the requirements in state standards to a body of knowledge that reflects what civil rights historians and educators consider core information about the civil rights movement. It found that:
- A shocking number of states – 35 – received grades of “F.”
- Sixteen states, where local officials set specific policies and requirements for their school districts, have no requirements at all for teaching about the movement.
- Only three states received a grade of “A” – Alabama, New York and Florida – and even these states have considerable room for improvement.
- Generally speaking, the farther from the South – and the smaller the African-American population – the less attention paid to the movement.”
Quite disturbingly, North Carolina received a big fat “F.” It was the only state in the southeast to fare so poorly. Here are the details on its performance.