DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 241 402 SO 015 430

TITLE Humanities and State Education Agencies: Policies,Perspectives and Prospects.

INSTITUTION Council of Chief State School Officers, Washington,D.C.

SPONS AGENCY National Endowment for the Humanities (NFAKI),Washington, D.C.; Rockefeller Foundation, New York,N.Y.

PUB DATE Dec 83NOTE 47p.; A few photographs may not reproduce clearly.PUB TYPE Reports - Descriptive (141)

EDRS PRICEDESCRIPTORS

MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.Competency Based Education; *Educational Assessment;Educational Attitudes; Educational Cooperation;Educational Improvement; *Educational Policy;Educational Research; Elementary Secondary Education;*Humanities Instruction; National Surveys; StateAgencies; *State Departments of Education; *StatePrograms; Statewide Planning

ABSTRACTTo determine the status of humanities education in

American public schools, the Council of Chief State School Officers(CCSSO) conducted a survey of State Education Agencies (SEAS) in1982. Data gained through a questionnaire sent to each SEA concernedhumanities policies in the areas of organizational structure, generaleducational goals, curriculum, testing, textbooks, graduationrequirements, funding, and current educational developments. Thefollowing findings were indicated. While SEAs express strong supportfor humanities instruction, they pinpoint several problems in programimplementation, chief among these being the need for a commondefinition of the field. Only 20 percent of the states possess a unitentitled "humanities," and less than half include humanities in theirstatements of educational goals. While 25 states havecompeteqcy-based educational programs, only 8 of these includehumanities. Less than 10 of the states having uniform graduationrequirements demand any music, art, or foreign language coursework.The SEAS' assessments of the direction for furthering humanitiesinstruction are summarized in six recommendations. Among these arethe need for states to develop specific humanities educationpolicies, establish a core of common learning to which the humanitiesare central, participate in national and regional meetings concerninghumanities, and work with state humanities councils to developelementary secondary education projects on the humanities. Appendicesinclude the survey instrument. (LP)

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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be madefrom the original document.

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HUMANITIES AND STATEEDUCATION AGENCIES

POLICIES, PERSPECTIVES AND PROSPECTSU.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FOUCATIONEDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION

CENTER IERICIPus document has been reproduced asreserved horn the person o orgarmahon

intiolginatong

et

o, changes have been made to ImprovereproduCtIon <WON

Pwrits at skew or opm,01411We on MI! dOo.meAt do not necessanIr represent °nisei NIEassMon 00 pokey

"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS

MATERJAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

"idet Sni,"71-h

TO THE EDUCATIONAL tiESOUFtCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)"

Council of Chief State School Officers

Hilda L. Smith, DirectorSharon Nell-Williams, Research Associate

Monique Bailey, Secretary

Pubic: mum and ii t Attpment of thus }1rOjelt na. StIplkir ted by grants!rum the National I Mon I1WOt for the Humanities and The Rockefeller

Foundation I lowever, the opinions expressed herein do notnecesanh reflect the positions or policies of the National Endowment

for the I humanities or The Rockefeller Foundation.

HUMANITIESADVISORYCOMMIMEHAROLD RAYNOLDS, JR.,Chairman, Commissioner N l'clti-cation, Alaska State Department otFclucatum, Juneau, Alaska

NELSON ASKINE, ketutiveDeputy Superintendent, IllinoisState lloant ot Education,

pringtielti. Illinois

DONALD BiLAGAW, Cluet.Bureau of Social Studies. NewYork State Department 01 Educa-tion, Albany New Yi

ANN FFRREN, Associate Dean,College of Arts and Sciences. theA merkan University. Vashington,DC

0. IL HARDISON, JR., Dire( tor,The Iolger ShakesptbareWashington, 1).0

ROSE HAYDEN, kectitive Di-re( tor National Council on ForeignLanguage and InternationalStudies, New York, New York

ROBIN JOHNSTON, Assistant tothe Comme,sioner, Colorado StateDepartment of Education, Denver,Colorado

BENJAMIN LADNER, ('resident,National I lumanities Faculty,Emorc University Atlanta,(;eorgia

LEROY LOVELACE, Departmentof I-nglish, Vendell Phillips I lighSchool, Chicago, Illinois

LLOYD MI:EDS, Attorney %%rash-ington, I) C.

VIRGINIA It 1:1)1), Professor ofEducation, University of Mary-land, Baltunon., County,Catonsville, Marc land

JAY SOMMER, Foreign LanguageDepartment, New Rochelle HighSchool, New Rochelle, New York

DAVID VAN TASSEL. Profe.5sor OfI hstory, Case Western ReserveUniversity Cleveland, Ohio

JOHN WILLIAM WARD, Presi-dent, American Council ofLearned Societies, New York,New York

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I lumaintits Advisor\ Committee 2Ft weword 4Preface 4Ewcutive Summary 6Introduction 7I I istoncal Background 8I lun lanities Project Questionnaire 10

Structure of State Education Agencies 10I I timaniues Curriculum Personnel (chart) 11Goals 16Curriculum 16

Curricular Guideline. and Supplementary Materials 16Stipulation of Skills 17Competency-Based Educational Programs 17

lesting 18rests Administered by lype, Subject Area and Grades (chart) 19

RAtbooks 23Graduation Requirements (chart) 24Si7A's Funding provisions 31The Humanities and Current Educational Trends (chart) 31

Recommendations 36

A PPendk 37Questionnaire 37Selected Works on Humanities Instrut bon 38:-.LA I lumanities Contacts 39

4

FOREWORD

81 1111/.4.11 I Mt UI117 PIRLCIOR OE 1111. COUNCIL :)/ Chil SIMI SCII001 ()MORS

Dist ussions and debates are ben 4g Londui tedthroughout the country over the effectiveness ofAmen( an NIAt education hr the last six monthsor so, eduL alum has been 4.km-14.1m/et( as beingin disarray and m need of reform. SpLcifiL pro-posals and recommit ndations on how such re-form might best be realised have been vigorouslysupported Educators, politicians, business andindustrial leaders, and other interested cititensare e% aluatmg the proposed reforms in light ofthe needs of their ow n states, locales andcommunities.

Emerging from this almost frenetic analysis ofpubht education, ultimately tomes the question.'What constitutes the most appropriate edu-cational (Aperient es tor this nation's cititens?"Os er thirty %ears ago. long befoul the currentdebate began to sic irl around Mortimer Adlersuggested that "The aim of education is wisdom,

PREFACE

and each must hat L the chance its bLbLome aswise as he can."

We do not L ontend that this study representsthe clehrutise tit ork on how to assure wisdom. Wedo contend. how er, that wisdom Cannot beattained without all students being exposed tothe humanities.

As the cork ems os er excellent e, discipline and"back to basics" are manifested by proposed in-creases in graduation requirements, we feelstrongly that balance in the educational experi-ences must be maintained. Consequently, thetiming of this report could not be more fortunate.We hope that the report will remind thL,se whoare struggling to reform their schools, that thehumanities cannot, indeed must not, be eitherignored or diminished if students are to be aseducated. and therefore, as wise as possible.

1W I IARMI) RAYNOLOS. IR., COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. STATE OF ALASKA

The role and duty of the chief state schoolofficer in support of the teaching of the humani-ties in the public schools must begin with aconviction that the humanities are the cornerstone of education in a free and just society Ifthe chief's personal experience provides thatconviction, then the steps are quick and certain.It not, (hen there must be a period of self-exam-ination and. perhaps. study of some of the greatworks in literature. art, drama or music fromwhich the unique nature of human experience isrevealed. When.' L'ommitment to the humanitiese. made through the essential processes of ex-perience and learning. it becomes possible totranslate that personal commitment to a statedepartment of Lbduicition through example andknowledge.

Public statements and policy documents areimpoi (ant, but a priority must be established forthe use of resounes and personnel. Responsibil-ity must be assigned and dollars allocated. Thechief is in a unique position to suggest specificprograms and it k essential that he or she encourage such programs.

Some suggestions are:

I. Offer incentive grants to stimulate totalprojects.

2. Propose the use of texts and materialsthat are the heart of the humanities: theworks of Jefferson, Shakespeare,Daumier. Durer, Rembrandt, da Vinci,Beethoven, Mozart or regional workssuch as the art representing the spiritworld of the Eskimo people.

3. Develop summer institutes for teams ofteachers representing different view-points and disciplines who wish toundertake a humanities teaching project,and utilize scholars, perhaps from theNational Humanities Faculty, to lead theinstitute.

4 Develop summit r institutes for juniors inhigh school on topics such as "Civiliza-tion on Trial," using humanities classicslike the Trial of Socrates. the Trial of Gale°,and Franz Kafka's The Trail. with studentsreturning to their respective high schoolsfor the senior year.

Possibilities for such projects abound, and ifthey are carried out with intellectual rigor and ledby able scholars, enrichment of the curriculum isinevitable. The chief state school officer is re-sponsible for the quality and quantity of technical

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ass.tanee provided to school districts in mattersrelated to st hoot t urnculum At Ong in this Hitt.:het onrrissioner or state superintendent caninfluents or duet t the infusion of :he humanitiesthroughout the t urrit illii III Tor t .ample. the en-, ouragement of w riling consortia pith mime%and elk( to e leadersh.p, based tin such programsas the Bi Area Writing Prole( t. w ill assure thatone of the central at in Ines of human existencet ommunita him through a ating, is de. eloped inschool programs. The Great Books and JuniorGreat Books programs art at adable for adoptionthrough the encouragement of a state depart-ment of education. These programs w ill reach thelull range of age ,nd grade levels in the publicschools and, through them, students will learnthe meaning at what it is to he human by writingabout their ideas and experiences and b readingabout the e .perietlie!> id others.

lnaddition. man. states hate textbook selettito, procedures. Whether such selection proc-esses are in plate or not. the departments ofeducation tan initiate and del clop approaches totexts llat suu.eed in making the great %%oils ofhuman history and experiente .v adable in allschools. Publishers can produce books contain-ing primary source material and computers makesuch textbook construction easier. A statewideorder fora book including the basic documents ofAmerican history. for example, would encouragesuch a production by publishers.

The study of languages is a key to understand-ing other cultures. The study of other cultures Is awindow on human behavior in other places andother times. The chief state school officer has aspecial respowibilitv to insure that languagestudy in the public schools goes beyond meretranslation. Instruction in languages must bebased on the culture and civilization from whichthey spring.

Placing scholars in residence in schools pro-vides lit ing human resources for students. TheFoxfire idea is a variation on that theme whereskilled and experienced people from the commu-nity become a school resource. Such peopleint-ract with students and provide both humanand historical perspectives on the community,the nation and the world.

The organization of the department of educa-tion itself can foster concern for humanities in-struction, An organization that is built of discreteboxes will never serve well to infuse the activitiesof the department with the possibilities for learn-ing and understanding inherent in the humani-ties Departmental activities involving visitingspeakers can open doors to consideration of thehumanities and encourage consultants to be

more aware of the possibilities.Perhaps the must important of all is the des el-

opment of a statement of goals for the humani-ties, appro. cxi by the state hoard of educationand commissioner or superintends. t. Clear ex-pectations, understood IA ail, are essential to theatluet ement of better us'. and understanding ofthe humanities by the school,. It is at' importantchallenge to the state board and the chief statest hoot officer to find the tt ins to make the hu-nullities an essential part of the learning expe:i-ente in, the public schools. The humanities aleessei dial if students are to expand their vtsioahet ood personal experience and test their as-s miptions and insights against the collectivewisdom of the past in preparation fora complexfuture.

Such nutiatn es haVe a x ay of developingmomentum The chief state school officer, byjudicious eat ouragement, can help to encouragethat tendeacy Teachers and administrators willtake encouragement from the efforts of the chief.Communities and state ovnizations for the en-couragement of the humanities are additionalsources for people, materials and money to assistin the effort, but the essential ingredient, the firstcause, is the cons iction and commitment to thehumanities that the chief state school officerbrings to the task.

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5

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

I., Council :: Chief State School Officersi(c, sm.)), an orgaiuzation of the ,:ommissiont!rsand superintendents of education tor the fiftystates. tne TI.strit t of Columbia and six extrastate'tomtit:I:ens, has ..oropieted a -tin ey of currentstate polities toward the humanities. The Coun-ors froject on the humanities. tt hich begar St p-tember I. 1982. was funded by the National En-dow ment for the I I umanities (NCH). w ith a sup-plementary etc art! tram The Rot kelt Ilei rounda-hon. CCS50 appointed a distinguished advisoryt ommittec for tht project. chaired by the Com-missioner of rdutation for the state of Alaska.and tomprised of humanities scholars. directorsof humanities organizations and institutions. antielementary and secondary educators. To carry(Lit ilu, survey of state polcies, the Councilde-tributed a questionnaire to each state educa-tion agent v (SEA) posing questions about theirnumaiaties policies in the areas of. organizationalstructure of the agent %. general educationalgoals, turriculum. testing, textbooks, graduationrequirements. state funding provisions anti cur-rent educational developments.

In addition to surveying state agencies con-cerning their current policies toward and assess-ment of humanities instruction, the Council de-w eloped issue papers, determined by advisorycommittee members, on the topics of: (1) the roleof the chief state school officer in furthering thehumanities; (2) the need for cooperation amongelementary and secondary educators, andteacher organizations and learned societies in thehumanities areas, and (3) particular difficultiesWang humanities teachers, especially thoseteaching American history and classes in litera-ture The protect is issuing, as u ell, a catalog ofexemplary programs in the humanities sup-ported, funded or originated by state educationagencies.

Results trom the project's survey reveal thatstate education agency personnel, while gener-ally expressing strong support for instruction inthe humanities, pinpoint a number of areas thatneed attention when furthering teaching in thearea. First, state humanities specialists do notagree among themselves, nor do they perceivegeneral agreement among educators, as to whatconstitutes the humanities. Many identify thehumanities with the arts, believing them noteasily differentiated. Others view the humanitiesas preparing students to be "humane," socially-responsible citizens. A minority see them as adiscrete group of subjects including English, history and foreign languages. Consequently, re-spondents believe that public school educators,the National Endowment for the Humanities and

humanitie, :.ch liars should work togethc, to-w and developing a common definition that canbe applied easily to instruction at the elementaryand second In It.vel. Second, respondents consitter the policies and ;hip:Ries of chief stateschool officer crucial in furthering the humani-ties a rid suggest that chiefs get e increased timeand attention to the area and develop policiesthat would enable states to work more effectivelywith local districts. Third, state education agen-cies are structured so that humanities supervisorsseldom meet as a group, nor are the humanitiesnormally a separate unit within a high school orwithin the secondary curriculum. As a result ofthese organizational divisions. state personnelreport difficulty in meeting with humanitiesteachers or administrators to discuss issues ofcommon interest.

Survey findings confirm that only 20 percent ofstate education agencies possess a unit entitled"humanities" in their organizational structure.Although generally possessing no separate unitfor the humanities. 93 percent of the states doemploy specialists for one or more of the humani-ties fields. These specialistsin the fields ofEnglish. foreign languages, social studies, art andmusicbelong overwhelmingly to teacher orga-nizations in their subjects, but very few (less than15 percent) to professional societies such as theModern Language Association or the AmericanHistorical Association.

Less than half of the states include the humani-ties in their statements of general educationalgoals. Larger numbers, 64 percent, provide cur-ricular guidelines and supplementary materialsin humanities subject areas. States, in respond-ing to a request from CCSSO, forwarded exam-ples of humanities guidelines and materials.These documents demonstrate the range of sub-jects included in the humanities by the states, forexample, art, environmental education and theteaching of musical instruments.

Most states, when discussing their stipulationof skil!s, noted these were primarily basic skillsrather than abilities tied to humanities subjects.Asa part of the emphasis on skills, half of thestates adopted competency-based educationalprograms during the 1970s, but only eight statesincluded the humanities in their program.

States administer a wide range of examinationsand, since 1970, these tests have focused more onbask skills and less on achievement in individualsuNects. Aventy-seven states have adoptedstatewide textbook adoption policies, but thesepolicies are usually quite general and not specif-ically directed l.) humanities textbooks. Amongthe states having statewide graduation require-

7

6

merits, forty-tw o require English for graduation,Went% -tit e. social studies, t! 0, foreign lan-guages, so, require art, and one state requiresin

The final section oI the questionnaire askedstate humanities eolith is to es,press opinions onthe niationship bets, evil the humanities and cur-rent educational trends. In this section, a ma-'twit ta SEA personnel state they believe that'back to basics" is a trend harmful to humanitiesinstruction Respondents see the grow ill of giftedand talented programs as the educational trendmost favoring the humanities. The majority,however, do not see the growing use of com-puters. or increase in vocational education asharmful; rather they see these trends as eitherneutral or, in about a quarter of the responses,positive to humanities teaching. Their assess-ments of the proper direction to limiter humani-ties instniction are generally suiumanied in therecommendations that follow.

Recomme lations of the project's advisorycommittee include the following.

INTRODUCTION

it are the current policies of state educationagencies toward humanities instruction/ In theFall of 1g82 the Council of Chief State SchoolOfficers initiated a study "The I lumanities andthe State Pducation Agencies: Policies, Perspec-tives and Prospects" designed to answer thisquestion Sharing the concern of the RockefellerCommission on the I lumanities about the stateof the humanities in American culture, the Coun-cil hoped to build upon the recommendationse. pre ,seed in the Commission's report, VicIlumanates in American Life In order to obtainbaseline data about state education agency policeto and the humanities, the Council's protect staffd"veloped and disseminated a questionnaire tohe fifty states. the District of Columbia and'sis

oara state lurisdictions The results of this surveyof current stale policies support the judgements ofThe Rockefeller Commission recommendations

rhe Commission mode ten recommendationson 1 lumanities in the Salon's Two focused onstate education agencies The first called forstates to "establish funding policies and otherguidelines enabling st hoots to pros idt, all stu-dents it ith general edukatit in that includes sagnifkant attention to the humanities." State edu-alum agent. s oifitials were urged to "enlist the

best teat hers at ailable to help them defer theimmeasurable educational value of the criestmins,

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1. That each state develop a specific set ofpolicies to further humanities instruction" at each state encourage the establish-ment of a core of common learning towhich the humanities are central.

3 [hat the Council of Chief State SchoolOfficers hold .1 national meeting of theirmembership on the humanities.

4. That the Council of Chief State SchoolOfficers conduct so, regional conferenceson the humanities for SEA instructionalpersonnel.That the National Endowment for theI lumanities continue its enhanced com-mitment to elementary and secondary in-struction, and that NEI.1 and humanitiesscholars consider the needs of the publicschools when formulating policies or pur-suing scholarship.

(. That state education agencies workclosely with their state humanities coun-cils to toster cooperation on projects in-oking elementary and secondary

education.

methods, and fields of the humanities." Statepolicy makers were cautioned not to "short-change educational goals that resist quantifica-tion." The second recommendation advocated a

liberal education that includes the humani-ties" as the basis for teacher certificationrequirements.

[he Commission also recommended "thatlearned societies take a more active interest in the,:ducation and professional development of highschool teachers in the humanities." In its workthe Council's protect has emphastied a moregeneral approach, seeking out such groups as theAmerican Council of Learned Societies, theAmerican I hstorical Association. the NationalCouncil for the Social Studies and the NationalCouncil of Teachers of English to encourage themto formulate mutually-beneficial policies and in-form each of the other's interests and efforts.Protect staff and the advisory committee haveproposed a meeting of the e\oAtitit e directorsand presidents of such orgamiations in order toencourage such contacts.

In respons, to another Commission recom-mendation that "school districts should maintainan .1.. tit 4 the 01 estemplon progiams and possiblesources 01 support," the Council has prepared acatalog of e \emplar humanities programs n Nthnen initiated, funded or encouraged by staleeducation agencies,

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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Tradition,' 11% the humanities ha% e been tied tothe understanding of a ((immon c oie of literaryhistorical cultuialand philosophital to (irks In%merit an high st hoots dining the nineteenthcentury this tort turritultun was still kiwi\ tiedto the classics, so that Latin and (;reek and thestud% of works bo the ancients Corned the basefur humanities instruction Wtirks b% modernuropean and A merit an author, graduall% tbs.

plated the Classics in the turrittiltim%It nad eduLational, sot and pohtit al influ-

ent es led to Changes. The l'rogressn a nut% einembrought general 'Akio' and political change., at theturn of the century. Progresso. ism leJ to an alter-ation more than to tUntiamental strut.-twat Change rn AmtgiLan society but thesehanging attics it ere nkial to education1

belief that the needs and everit.m. es of allAmerkans espet lath the neul% am% ed immi-grant population should term the::: is fororganizing slit tld politttal institutions be-came an important goal of Progressive leaders.I or education, %.% hose most etfecti L, and intim n-hal spokesperson %%as John 134.,%ot,y, Pro-gressi% ism meant m anent a to aN from atlassical and, toil lesser degree, A nglo-Sa \ ontwit Winn. A new curriculum tt.1S Bugg e.ted.

one that h address the 110243S and incorpo-rate the everiemes of Eastern and SouthernEuropean immigrants a ho read little tot or aboutthen ancestors in traditional courses. An educa-tion that might pro% e useful and releant to bothimmigrant and to or king class groups needed tobe tit.% used ---one not so c fusel allied to a t olleg c'

1

piepora tin program for those feu, largelynatio e-born tthites, who would t. \ tend theirsthooling bes and the primar% or secondary level.Such an edut-atioil Oiled tor, and resulted in, adramatit int rease in the numbers of Americansattending high from about one-tenth ofthe population near the end of the nineteenthentur% to more than half by the 1920s

Mese changes in the makeup of the highschool population and the subjects taught hadprofound effect on the core of humanitiesCourses English and American literature con-tinued to dominate in the required readings forEnglish Courses, Western :a ilization and Amer--t an histor., emphasizing the accomplishmentsand insights of our culture, comprised the heartof histor% courses taught in the public schools.Yet the shift to modern authors and recent historymooed the schools a great distance from theClassical curriculum of the nineteenth centuryand hem a locus on the needs of a small numberof the nation's children.

This new humanities curriculum, in combina-tion with training in science and math and theaddition of vocational education designed tomeet the needs of students not attending college,termed the basis for secondar) curricula until the1960s and 1970s. At that time a new wave ofcriticism contended that education had becomedm:levant for largt, numbers of students, espe-cially Blacks, women and all those whose cul-turt's did not fit so easily within the western-American do dmation model. Arguments againsta curriculum developed primarily for the benefit

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ttf lutes or males ethoed those earlier twen-tieth-century arguments about the irrelo ant y ofthe curriculum for immigrants. Further, the pushtor global education a non-ethnocentric worldhistory that respet tett raskin and third worldcultures came from a concern similar to that ofthe Progressn .s t. ho had charged that the till-tin al background of immigrant children had beenslighted in the schools. Once again .hanger weremade in textbooks. curricular materials and thela ssrOOM to respond to these criticisms.

During the late 1970s and earl: 1980s, a numberof mil% Owls. many of them representing thetraditional disciplines in the humanities, objectedto this most recent curriculum reform. They sug-gested that the questions raised by major West -ti n w n ters and thinkers were rule% ant for thelit es of all hild. en. and that the dilution ofourse content and the proliferation of electo es

nit ant that children left school without a com-mon 1. ore of know ledge There tt as a strong viewthat not all learning is created equal. that so:authors and some readings hate more importantideas to express. ideas tt hich challenge a stu-dent's mind and imagination. They contended itwas not the goal of education to reiterate whatstudents already know from their environment,nor to make them feel comfortable, but to pro-% ide students w ith challenging materials to en-tourage independent thought and contemplationof the fundamental issues of life, truth, love,beauty, justice and death. Certainly in edu-tational goals. and to a lesser degree in subjectmatter, these %iews tonform to those pre% alentthe pre-Progressive reiorm period.

Current humanities instruction in the publicschools reflects these differing views. exam-ple, social studies specialists often vietVglobal

education and the expanded vision gained byniot mg social studies instruction beyond theconfines of Western and American civilization as

provments to traditional history courses be-cause they prat ide students w ith a more sophis-ticated, comparative and self-critical view of their

n culture. Some teachers of Erglish praise theexpansion beyond the set "canon" of permissibleliterature :n their courses, tt hile others feel itresults in students reading poorer quality works.

The changing meaning of the humanities hastontribukx1 to the differing t iew s held by hu-manities area specialists concerning these issues.The mom ement attar from a classical educationfor a small minority Ina view of the humanitiesas simply the teaching of history, literature,foreign languages, art and music appreciation.and sometimes philosophy, has fostered two im-ages in the minds of public school personnel.tate personnel most often connect the humani-

ties with sonic type of interdisciplinary instruc-tion. Few respondents to the Councirs survey,either through materials submitted or throughtelephone interviews, identify the humanitieswith a set of individual subjects taught at thesecondary level. They also identify the humani-ties with experimental efforts such as team teach-ing invoking individuals from a number of disci-plines (usually English, history, art and music),or different pedagogical approaches, using theseminar or small group approach. Many believethat the public views the humanities as elitist andnot central to the public school curriculum. Re-spondents consider these view s de% clop fromlittle practical application of the humanities and amisperception that the humanities deal not withserious subjects, but with frills that only thewealthy have the time and occasion to use.

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HUMANITIES PROJECT QUESTIONNAIRE

In December of 1982 the Council of Chief StateSchool Officers mailed a so page littestion tuoreon the IMITIO11111eS to the state education agoutiesin the hit% states. the District of Columbia and sixextrastate jurisdictions. the chid state schoolofficer for each state and jurisdiction designated ahumanities contact person who, w ith the assist-ance of other SEA personnel, completed the

.estionnaire. CCSSO recen ed completed ques-tionnaires from % irtuall% all the SEAs, in+ oneextrastate jurisdiction did not return a question-naire a response rate of 98 percent. In additionproject staff conducted follow -up telephone in-ters retts with the humanities contact persons,excluimg, the extrastate junsdictions.

I he questionnaire was organized around thefollow mg topics. structure of state educationagencies, general educational goals, curriculum,testing, pa actuation requirements, SEA fundingpro% isions and the relatiOnship of current edu-cational de% elopments to the humanities. Thisreport will be structured around these generaltin isions and pro% ide both a summary of thequanntati% responses and substantan% e com-ments offered by humanities contact persons orother hum,mities specialists in the state educa-tion igencies. The (questionnaire has been re-printed as an appendix to this report.

STRUCTURE OF STATEEDUCATION AGENCIES

In this ...et non of the sities::onnaire respon-dents answered questions about thc ACA's di%son of responsibility for humanities instruction.Speolkall% thet were asked. (I) If their stateagent.% had a unit tor the humanities and if sot% hat subjects were incorporated; (2) lb providethe number t instructional specialists and orgeneralists employed in the six humanities sub-ject areas and the percentage of threeMe they de-voted to each; and El) 'hr add any other mforma-non they felt would git e a more accurate pictureof huniandie instructional responsibilities attheir state agency

Seventy' -nine percent of the respondent re-ported thir had no unit entitled, "the Nit-n(1m-i es." Onlv twelve indicated they had such units.California, Georgia, Guam, I law au, Louisiana,%lame. Montana, \e.%% fork, Oregon, Penns% I-% amo, Puerto !Zito and Virginia Ten of theselisted the subject areas inclu.led in the humani-ties. Musk and art n ere named t) soul and siX%tate, reveal% ely four states listed foreign lan-

guage a h a humanities area, fit e, social studies;and thr_e, English. Three states named danceand drama as humanities subject areas, with oneof the three also including fine arts and anotherincluding culture. Sonic states included socialscience areas and basic skills categories as hu-manities m response to this question, but re-spondents were more apt to make little sir nodistinction between the arts and humanities.

Fifteen states took the opportunity to elaborateon their state agency's division of responsibility'for humanities instruction. Even among thoseslates tt ith humanities units, most were not or-ganized to focus on instruction in the humani-ties. For example, in one state the Curriculumand Instruction Unit is divided by Science andElementary Administration and Humanities andSecondary Administration. Since humanities andscierces are taught at both the elementary andsecondary level, th. divisions within this SEAha% e more to do %vith organizational expediencyand historical accidentsuch as the field ofhpeoalization of the individual heading the divi-sin at the time it was organized than with anygoal to organize instruction around a unit entitledthe humanities.

Further, responses to this section demonstrategeneral disagreement among SEAs as to whatconstitutes the humanities. Among the more im-portant findings of the Council's survey of cur-rent state policies toward the humanities is thediffering views among SEA personnel as to whatconstdutues the humanities. t vhether respon-dents emphasized the arts or socially responsibleeducation few, if an included the same subjectareas that the National Endowment for theHumanities lists as the humanities fields. TheCongressional legislation that created the Na-tional Endowment for the I Itionanities definedthe humanities as.

the study of language; linguistics, literature;history, junspmdence; philosophy; archaeol-ogy; comparative religion; ethics; the history.criticism and theory of the arts; those aspects ofthe social sciences which have humanistic con-tent and employ humanistic methods; and thestudy and application of the humaniPies to thehuman en:wont-tient, with particular attentionto the relevance of the humanities to the cur-rent conditions of national life.

Differing ciew s as to what constituted the hu-manities e% tilt ed from a number of sources. first,the fields, as listed in the legislative mandate forNEIL are fields that conform more easily to thedepartmental structure of college, and univer-sities than to the departments and curricula of

st hook Of the fields listed in the legislativemandate, only foreign languages are taught as adist retv unit %%glue public elementary and set -tindary sthools. Literature is, of course, taught,but usualls at the elementary ley el tinder therubric ut languaw arts, ss hit.h int ludes reading.grammar, speeds and other communicationskills, In English classet, at the secondary ley el,literature is most often taught in conjunctionis tth grammar, tt riling and public speaking Inschools, history is normally t ategonied as a so-da] studies tour,e ss ith teat hers 4,4 history beingmembers or a high school's social studies de-railment Although courses are taught in Amen-... n or tt odd history, structurallY, both forteat hers' departments and fur curriculum designand 416s elopment, history is treated as a part ofsot tat studies and is more apt to be classified withthe social silent vs rather than with thehumanities.

Second, the views of state education agencypersonnel relletted an earlier understanding ofthe humanities, discussed in the E listorical Back-ground section of this report. This understandingstressed the des elopment olds ilizations andpresented an integrated picture of the artistic andintelletttial atm unplishments of a particular age,region or nationality. The literary and artisticreations of a peopleoften tied to shat is

termed "high culture" ss ere seen as the legiti-mate subjects of the humanities, and not simplythose portions of the high st nool turrktilumenttunpassing English. history. and loop lan-guages. For this reason, as w ell as because of thedistinct field Anteture of secondary and post-secondary institutions, state humanities spe-cialists are more apt to associate the humanitieswith courses in the arts. This understanding ofthe humanities also led respondents to stresssmall, interdisciplinary and innovative classesthat focused on an integrated understanding ofpast culture as the typical humanities course.

Mimi, the lack of a humanities unit amongmost state departments of education, ands irtu-ally all ss hen one employs the term as defined bsthe National Et.clow ment for the Humanities,means that stale personnel, as well as localleathers and administrators, has e little occasionto see their %sork tied to the humanities in anyconcrete way. Without such a unit SEA personnelhave no particular reason to assemble as humani-ties specialists, per 4e, nor to meet with groups ofteachers and focus their discussions on thehumanities.Humanities Curriculum Persounel

Stale education agencies generally employ eithersubject area spe 'Mists or generalists to oversee

instrut bon in the humanities. The chart on pages13-15 shows the total number of specialists andgeneralists for each slate plus their distributionby humanities subject areas. expressed in full-time equn diem %. (Ern units. Please note that thern: rate for most of the specialists in lusters fallson the line betty een history and social studies.Wry few states make a distinction between thesesublet I areas or lure specialists in history alone.This is also true for ai t and music specialists,is here one person often covers both areas. Be-tc.use of the di% ersity of state education agencies,a great number of notes follow the chart. Distinc-tion:. reported 1.1) the respondents, such as jointresponsibilities in both basic skills areas and h u-ma qities subjects or specialists %so king in areasnot usually considered to be humanities, arenoted

As can be seen the num:iers of curriculumspecialists and generalists vary greatly amongstates, from a high of 197 *to a low of I, buttor ty-ei gh t 93 percentof the SEAs reportthey employ such personnel. Thirty-eight havespecialists on11, fn a has e only generalists and theremaining ten have both. On the at erage, eightspecialists and fit e generalists work in each SEA.New Viirk and North Carolina report the largestnumber of specialists. twenty-six Ind fifty, re-spectively, ss ith North Carolina's large numbersreflecting, in part, SEA staff ss orking to regionaloffices throughout the state. Other states employ -tug more than ten curriculum specialists in thehumanities areas are American Samoa (16),Louisiana (11), Texas (15) and Virginia (16). Inmost states, curriculum specialists devote at least50 pox ent of their time to a single subject area,but in a few, specialists work less than 25 percentof the time in a particular subject.

Through telephone interviews with humani-ties subject area specialists and meetings withthem to discuss the des elopment of the ques-tionnaire, it became dear that one of the moresignificant determinants off a state's ability tofurther humanitit., instruction was the SEA's in-strucht Mal orm s "Mien. States with more subjectarea specialists oduced and distributed largernumbers tilar guidelines and sup-plementary, materials and found it easier to im -pro% e humanities instruction generally because.

1. Subject area specialists with graduatetraining in their subject area have a long-term commitment to improving teachingin that area.

*Puerto Rica repar 197 crimettlifin spetwitsk, ref/e cIttigthoretiobreeprosram .4 teal 'Mg I ngibli as a !sel.111141

12

1 I

Large percentages of specialists belong toteacher organizations %% here the mostrecent pedagogical and skholarly mate-rials on their subjects are discussed.

3 Their work ..i coordinating efforts for onehumanities subject makes them familiarwith a cross section of programs andteacher in that area throughout theirstate

In addition to the information gained from thestates in responding to our questions concerningthe structure of a state education agency, wemailed a separate form asking fur humanitiesspecialists to pro% ide us with biographical data,including their education and the professionalorganwations to which they belong and are serv-ing or have served as officers These returns

demonstrate a nearh unit ersal membership inteacher organizations for these specialists' subjectareas. For social studies specialists, 100 percent ofthose submitting their forms belong to the Na-tional Council for the Social Studies, and at least90 percent each for specialists in the areas ofEnglish, language arts, foreign language, art andmusic belong to the National Council of Teachersof English, American Council on the Teaching ofForeign Languages, National Art Education As-sociation and the Music Educators National Con-ference, respectively. On the other hand, for eacharea of specialty, less than 15 percent belonged tohumanities professional societies such as theModern Language Association or the AmericanHistorical Association. We received a total ofseventy-two responses to our request for bio-graphical information.

13

12

STATE EDUCATION AGENCY HUMANTITES SPECIALISTS

FULL TIME EQUIVALENCY (FIL) RATEBY SUBJECT AREA

State Pipe

7i)tal No,Specta Itsh,

and orGeneraisti Enghch firitory

SocialStudies

Forewnbowling(' Art Musa: Other

TidalFTE

Alabama S 5 90 -.90- 90 10 .10 2.90

Alaska S

G 1 .15 .15

AmericanSamoa

S 16 6 00 00'- 3.00 1.00 16 00-6Arizona S 6 .20 .10 05 .10 .25 .25 .95

Arkansas S

C

2

3 .10 .10

1.00 1.00

1 .15

2.00

.35

California S 4 1 00 -1.00- 1.00 -1.00- 4.00

Colorado2I

Connecticut S 5 .80' -1 00- .504 1.00 1.00 4.30

Delaware S 4 1.00 -1.00- 1.004 .50 .50 4.00

District ofColumbia

S 8 2.00 200 1.00 1.00 2.00 8.00

Florida S 5 1.00 -1.00- 1.00 1.00 1 00 5.00

Georgia S

G

7

2

1.806

1.80'

-1.80- .90 .90 - 90 6.30

1.80

Guam"

Hawaii S 8 400 1.00 IMO 50 .50 7.00

Idaho S 3 1.00 .25 .25 .25 .75 2.50

Illinois S 79 .40 .10 .10 .20 .10 .10 1.00

Indiana S 4 1.00 1.00 100 .50 .50 4.00

Iowa S 5 1.00 -1.00- .24 .50 .49 .0110 3.24

Kansas S 3 1.00 -1.00- 1.00 3.00

Kentucky S 5 1.00 -1.00- .50 1.00 1.00 4.50

Louisiana S 11 1.00 1 2.00 6.00 1.00 1 00 11.00

G 2 ,gon .80n 1.60

MaineG

1

2 .10_

.80

1.00121.CO 1.00

.90

Maryland S

G

3

I

I.00'1 -1.0015-_

1.00

-1.00- 3.00

1.00

Massachusetts S 216 .50 .10 .60

Michi n S 3 -1.00-- .20 -1.00- 2.20

Type: Specialist (S) or Generalist (G)

1413

Stine hire

Iota! No.Spiv:alt.:1s

and or(lenetahit: Ungitsh I It.toru

SocialStudtes

Forms,Language Alt Mtt.:( Other

TotalFTE

Minnesota S i'' 1 00" 20 .80 1.00 1.00 1 (10 5.00

Mississippi S 4 50 .50 .50 .50 2.00

Missouri S

G 2 .30's 60 .90

Montana S 4 .67 - -100 -- .67 -1.00- 3.34

Nebraska S 4 1.00 .75 I .25 1.00 102" .10 3.20

Nevada S 2" .50 - 50- .10 1.10

New Hampshire S 3 1.0021 -1.00- 1.00 .0021 3.00

New Jersey S 2 .10241

-1.00- 1.10

New Mexico S 4 1.00 -1 00- 1.00 1.00 4.00

New York S

G

26

3

11.00 -6.25 --.75-

2.83 1.50 1.00 2238

.75

North Carolina S

G

5025

4

30.0036

.40

11.00

.40

3.00

.40

2.00"

.40

2.00

.40

2.002° 50.00

2.00

North Dakota S

G 10 .10 - 10- .10 .10 .10

___ _

.50

Northern MarianaIslands

S

G

-3

1

2.00

1.00

-1.00 _ 300_ .

1.00

Ohio S 10 5.0029 1.00 1.00 2.00" 1.00 10.00

Oklahoma S 4 1.00 .50 .50 1.00 1.00 1.130 5.00

Oregon S 4 2.00 .20 .50 .30" .15 .85 4.00

Pennsylvania -4 1.00 -1.00-

_

1.00 .5032 .50_ -_ -__-- -

4.00

Puerto Rico S

G

197" 27.0034 12.00. _

1.00

128.00" 11.00. _

12.00 7.00" 197.00-_-1.00

Rhode Island"

South Carolina S 9 5.00" .50 .50 1 00 1.00 1.00 9.00

South Dakota S

G 4 .75 .75_

1.50" 3.00

Tennessee S 3 l.004° 1.00 1.00 3.00

Texas S 15 5.00 1.00 2.00 4.00 1.00 1.00 1.0041 15.00

Trust Territory ofthe Pacific Islands42

Utah S 8 1.00 3.500 l.0044 1.00 1.00 7.50

Vermont S 3 1.00 1.00 .50 .50 3.00

Virginia S 16 6.00 4.00 3.00 1.00 2.00 - 16.00

virgin Islands4°

Washington S I 5 .70 .30 I .40 .20 .25 .25 2.10

14

15

- ,--

Maio lupe

'Dial NoSloe( laitsis

and orGenetairsis I ughsir Iiisios if

Sik tatStudies

rotas,:tangitiNe

-At I Mush Other

litalFru..-

West Virginia SI

1 1 (10 - I (10 100 1 (X) 1 1x1 5.00

Wisconsin S c I 00 -I 00- 1 00 1AX) I 00 .00

Wyoming S

C; 2

75.16 Ill() 1.00 2.75

i .10.054' 05

1 1 listor, sow, studies and torero languages are( of imed in these six individuals.

olorado's onstitution pia( es toning of instrutlion under the authority of local boards ofeducation.

1 Spec ialist's time is divided 80 percent English, 20percent in Communications

4 ( onsultant lured to work 100 percent ofthe time in foreign languages, w ith new dutiestime reduced to 50 Percent.Specialist also w orks in bilingual education.

6 One specialist works in reading.7 In owner:111gs (yolk in reading8. No numbers r( ported SEA notes that except for

torign languages all positions are filled by qual-ified, certified subject area specialists

9 SerV,CIS in the hu tionities Are provided by theProgram Planning and Development Section,staffed by specialists % oiling in clusters of three tosix persons

10 Drama and Dance11 A certified vlementar generalist works In English

80 percent of the time12 A Lead ieJ elementary generalist Narks in Social

Studies 80 percent of the time.13. Position lunded b a grant from the National En-

dowment lor the l lunianities for the last fourwars

14 Reading and writing specialist within a basic skillsbranch

I; Specialist is responsible tor history and socialsciences

lb. Stall do ided bt function or population sorted, nutcurriculum area.

17 lmerdise. iplinart aspects of humanities handled twthese five curriculum specialists

18. Subject area is titled English Communications.IQ Generalist w orks in reading and literature in

elementary grades.20. Specialist works gifted and fine art-.21. ada Department of Education designates no

staff solely as instructional specialists in thehumanities areas. The English specialist is alsoresponsible for secondary curriculum.

22 Position lost.23. Specialist in art and music employed until one year

ago.

24 Generalist in English hurls 90 pen wit of the Mitein basics and "right to read" program.

25. Includes personnel w orking in regional centers26 Subject area is titled English Communication

Skills27. One specialist in art, one in folk art28. One specialist in theatre, one in dance.29 l=our of five specialists are m basic skills area.30 Specialists stork in arts for the handicapped.31. Specialist works in foreign languages and English

as a second language.32. No one in art and music position at present.33 Total reflects large numbers in foreign language

subject area (English as a second language)34. Spanish, English is taught as a second language.35. Specialists in English; Spanish is the primary

language.36. Theatre.37. Program Den elopment Unit of eight professionals

who are generalists serve different geographicalareas of the state and link local education agencies(1.I:As) to needed curriculum services, includinghumanities programs.

38. Subject area titled Language Arts, three specialistsin basic skills, two in curriculum.

39. One generalist devotes 75 percent o% time to read-ing, one generalist works 75 percent of the time inIndian Education.

40. Reading specialist.41. Theatre Arts specialist.42 No specialists or generalists. Ernst Territory office

of education's principal function is to provide ad-ministrative and technical support in the im-plementation of federally funded programs.

43. Three of the social studies specialists work withmodel U,N., free enterprise and law-related edu-cation programs,

44. 1.enty-five percent of specialist's time devoted tobilingual education.

45 No response.46. Works as a specialist in Language Arts and as a

generalist.47 Art and music generalists work with the

handicapped.

1615

GOALS `B:It this set titth tit the questinnaire, re,pon-

dents %% ere asked %% hether Him states had geo-eral educational pals establisheti b% the board ofeducation, %% healer the state produced generaleducational guidelines distributed bt the chiefstate st haul of;icei and if the humanities %%ereincluded in these goals and guidelines Vtnety-tfy e percent of the states report that the% havegeneral educational goals established by theirstate board of education. Seventy-five percentindicated that their chief state school officer dis-tributes general educational guidelines to localschools. These general educational goals do notusually include guidelines ,or instruction in thearea of the humanities Only 21 percent of thestates hat e de% eloped such humanities mate-rials The states, upon request from the Council,sent printed materials outlining their educationalgoals. these list educational, social, citizenshipand technologically-based goals for instruction.While specific subject matter may be excluded,mant of the goals established by the states in-% olve skills dearly related to humanities instruc-tion. They focus on the mastery of basic skills:reading, mathematics, communication and prob-lem solving. They also uniformly emphasize theimportance of fostering rational thinking andcreativity two abilities closely associated withthe humanities. Citizenship goals are related tothe humanities as well, especially where theystress the importance of teaching moral preceptsand the values of American society in conjunc-tion with technical skills in preparation for initialemployment, or a longer-term career. Each of thedocuments also stress the development of politi-cal and social responsibility as a legitimate part ofeach student's education. A number note theneed for the schools to be concerned with pro-ducing "humane citizens" at the end of twelvewars of schooling.

CURRICULUM

For the curriculum section, respondents wereasked: (1) to provide information about the kindsof curricular guidelines and supplementary ma-terials they produced; (2) the subject areas inwhich they stipulate skills to be mastered bystudents; (3) if their state includes humanitiessubject areas in a competency-based educationalprogram; and (4) if the SEA mandates instructionin humanities subject areas for the local schooldistricts.

Curricular Guidelines and Supplementary MaterialsStates sent the Council more curricularguidelines and supplementary materials thanan% other t% pe of document I low e% er, the num-bers % arted greath among states, %% till somesending o% er flit items and others only three ortour. Most stales de% clop their own materials,but some offer teaching aids published by teacherorganizations to the local schools States %% ithmore humanities specialists sent more curricularguidelines and supplementart instructional ma-terials for protect staff to review.

Sixty-four percent of the states and junschc-turns report they provide both curricular guide-lines and supplementary instructional materials.More, 77 percent, report that they provide cur-ricular guidelines, while 71 percent state that theyprovide supplementary materials. For curricularguidelines the breakdown b) subject area withnumber of states in parentheses is. English (39),social studies (37), art (32), music (30), history (18)and foreign language (25). Very few states reportthat they provide such materials for a program orcourse entitled, "humanities." Only twelve do sofor curricular guides and thirteen for supple-mentary materials.

Liamplo, of humarrase4 (amid:on SUWO hhint fed by Mesh:les.

16

Materials submitted by the states reveal theirview s on w hat c onstutues humanities instruc-tion Nlanc sublet t areas are represented. butartistic and cultural perspecto es rather that, thehistorical or philosophical predominate A numher ot states sent materials dealt outside thehumanities. such as detailed guides on the teach -mg of musical instruments or the proper ar-rangement of an art classroom The submissioncot such materials does not represent a misun-derstanding on the part of humanities contactpersons who oversaw their transmission. It is anaccurate reflection of that state's understandingot what constitutes the humanities and, forsome. the subjects included in the SEA's humani-ties division. CCSSO's questionnaire lists art andmusic as humanities subjects. but a footnote e'-plains. "For this questionnaire we are most inter-ested in the historical and 1nterpretn e aspects otthese subjects. not their skills, studio or perform-ance aspects." Yet a great many of the curricularguides received. focused on the arts rather thanon the humanities. Again, this reflects both theintegration of arts and humanities in the states*instnictional organization and the small amountot materials developed on humanities subjectsalone Very few states sent interdisciplinary hu-manities materials. The bulk of humanities cur-ricular and supplementary materials are cur-riculum guides for specific subjects at differentgrade lex els. A few states sent lustort itemsr.-ther than simply social studies materials,usually focusing on state history. Some enrich-ment items ic ere included, but most of the publi-cations are detailed teaching aids and curriculumplans.

Stilt:dation of Skills

Stay -eight percent of the states informedCCSSO that they stipulate skills to be masteredin one or more suilect areas. I low ever. as couldbe exp4..c, fed, those subjects were close!), tied tothe acquisition of basic skills. For states stipulat-ing skills, elementary reading and math are listedmost frequently, namely in 92 and 89 percent ofthe cases. For the humanities areas, only twelci.estates stipulated skills to be mastered throughhistory and fourteen through foreign languages.twenty-four stipulate certain skills in English.

The major conclusion to be drawn from re-s.mses to the skills section is that a majority ofthe states leave such decisions to the localschools. Second, when considering the questiontit stipulating skills, it is useful to remember thatmany states, especially during the 1970s. devel-oped guidelines for skills to be taught in indi-vidual subjects, but these were most apt to be

18

q'terY4'

Nir te10441 AI

-I

NEBRASKASTORIES

arupt. al a humaritho,earthealsan Nterde nbosiitled 110 Ott

basic skills rather than the more discipline-specific or higher-order skills associated with thehumanities. Reading is obviously fundamental toan humanities course work, but reading, whichemphasizes decoding abilities isolated from liter-ature. or other humanities subjects, is more read-ily identified with mastering discrete skills ratherthan learning a particular body of information.

Ompetency-Based Educational Programs

lalf of the respondents report their state boardsof education hac c adopted a competency-basededucation program. Only eight states indicate thehumanities are included in their competency-based programs, ten states note that English andsocial studies are included; six list history; and sixeach include art and music

One problem in computing the numbers ofhumanities subjects included in competencyprograms is defining what comprises a singlehumanities subject. For example. should English,language arts, communication and reading all becombined so that the total number of English-rekted subjects is twenty-five? Or, are those pro-grams that include reading, communications,etc. tied more to basic skills than to humanitiessubject areas? Obviously making too fine a dis-tinction is neither possible nor very useful, but itis worthwhile to note that the categories addedby the states, but not listed in the questionnaire,are skills rather than subjects. These include:"reading. writing, listening and speaking," orportions of English instruction such as "Englishcomposition and reading," "reading and writing"and "language arts and reading" --all skills notimmediately connected to the teaching ofliterature.

17

( t !In reltbnt. -based programs. adopted over-h helnungl% during thy detatle tii the 1970s, in-s ol% y an extensh e period ili preparation w herestates are gix en in e lo eight % ears to implementthe program lollou mg it adoption be the stateboard I hese prot,rams int luck agreed-uponstateh Jilt. standards of competence. Normall),the state board appros es the program in ronci-ple, and SLA personnel de% clop a more detailedoutline of skills and 1 s a 4 r CCM WS to be aquiretiin inch% !dual sublet ts. Some states adopt a pro-gram but leave the specification of competenciesto local school districts.

l'ilteen states sent information describing theirL ointment-% -based programs This information%ant, from brief discussions of the competent-%principles adopted b) state boards to lengthypublications outlining competencies for specificsubjects at %mime, grade le els Competencieslinked to reading, language arts and English in-strut lion stress the retention of % ocabular. but ina number of states it is % ocabulary specificallylinked to stir% h al skills. One state notes in a 9thgrade reading competency that students shouldacquire "a basic survival reading vocabulary,"specificall) that meaat the ability to "recognizew ords and phrases to Inch occur in daily life situa-tions." Another state connects %% Ming compe-tenc% to business and social letters and the abilityto complete commonly used forms such as em-plot limit or credit applications These outlines ofexpected competency also include general andless utilitarian educational goals. One state, forexample, listed under reading the requirementfor students to demonstrate the ability to under-stand relationships, drat% conclusions and makeinterentes I Ith.e% er, the integration of suchpractical outcomes %%ith general educationalgoals risks diminishing the idea that educationshould be learning for its own sake, enanlingstudents to think for themselves.

TESTING ...As the chart on testing (pages 19-22) makes

dear, testing tarieS t1idelv throughout the fiftystates and territories. This % ariet% reflects chang-ing patterns of testing since World War II. I listor-icalh, states have gh en achie% ement tests to allstudents in selected grades to determine %% hetherthe has learned a set hods of information incertain subjects. The achie% ement test, generally,dominated statewide testing programs in thepostwar period

More recently, with the adoption of compe-tent.)-based education programs, states haveadopted criterion-referenced examinations thatset Up specific competencies in subject areas forMuch the child is held accountable. These testsconcentrate mole on the mastery of skills (de-fined as essential for specific subjects by stateeducation agencies or local school personnel orspecialists hired for this purpose) than on theacquisition of knots ledge. Generally, they in-clude fewer materials concerning humanitiessubjects and more on basic skills.

In addition to these general developments,since 1970 states have administered assessmentexaminations to selected groups of students incooperation with the National Assessment ofEducational Progress. In addition, states havedes eloped their tn. n examinations, especially inconjunction with their adoption of a compe-1 .v-based educational program. 1 hese exam-inations generally include the phrase "basicskills" in their title, such as "Alabama Basic SkillsTest," "Arizona Basic Skills Program," "Texas As-',VSSIllent of Basic Skills," etc. Local school dis-tricts also administer man) other examinations,both competenc) and achiesement, to e% aluatethe progress of students.

-19

Is

TESTS ADMINISTERED BY TYPE, SUBJECT AREA AND GRADESSIAM

1.414.144

WA.

s.tittre

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t A114111141

4,041ct tit tit

1)1,41.14,101131111114

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b s.3 & I I 197ti

t. 1972t, 7 t) &

7 9 &

IIS1 IN(. 10K11N111".).1 S111.1S'..__.....11s

)

It 1 s

4th & Slit (ir.tAIR ( MerlonItAereittRNI I t.,is 110th );ode iilot vtlitt Atoll eittrit ie.il I A,) titeire

1 etrtguage Art,lteadln}; to \14111

& %lath

20

& i 197(.

8 4: (Iz. ;,s/i:

4 1471

1.$&10

i. Pt tk II) 1974,

'Mk

19

ti

Il

It

I.

It

1 %II

turn

. _ _______ _ _

111'1 Of 11S1

h,11,1.131, 1;,..-,1 h .. Lott

( 1111 fit.11 RV'S Nt1I'di3o..111t .1411 illrlit

_ . . .. _

' I B11 CI Mil AS1":11)I ,toittoo Mt.14..61116-,

Sn 3.11 '4114111 & S.11'11411,111

3 6416,6

--/(,RADIS 1

; & ;1 3 64

.% 7 9 I I' 123 t 1 9 3 i

4 129 I 1 $1 U

---DA I 1INI I IA II I)

1483

1.111 1951

II S I IN(; I ()RNIINIMUM SKILLS?

\A /

.- .J11.1:1 !bit All St.ttl I t ..t .11 I .41/1131

( ottirtn, P...

--I .16)..tuge Mt. .1/4 1,4 .61111.-

'-n 6.9.e6

Is till 10rope. tad

jo7 114,

111.tortkof pol 'sniffle, 1ti & 1 Iwo,\loth

6 s In 12

o '4 10b 3-:

I.reign 1 Angti.i);t. 5 -12

( onsF,..telt, % 33.6.4 d 144.(Ile, I ongtiage 1rt. Re.i.116g, 111.411t%kw). 1.61 ',Judie, Mt Iii.k 1.011 At

3 1961

'VHtlite

.-.(1101.b.lik rtitInte lest I .Ingthigt Ali. 4 Read ing 2 4 & 6 1971 NO(111 -t ennoti \MIMI A111:31 1 t3 Math :.4 64:8-1Z4 Ottletenikil vtittiffe le.t. I stgli1 $ & HP

bill

11i149Aloreigit 1 finguag,

E 10-129.11

It3,1110 Prolik 6.6k % ?.....1 i 3 eillg,1 Omit in 7'f 80' poitilvotel

Reatitllg. flung. ( twipto.i.t..6 &'veiling

9 1979 11 4,

Moon.] I entol'Abil, .V...e....nweit Projcittrolot proje..11

liv.t.long `ample ot 10thcr.ttle likient

19$2 11 S

1 .W..116)1141 [torn.% t ;tient rrogorit 1 .01gtuge Art,Reoff mg

3 St 61 4 if

1978 79

1 /);11.11 8r; 10"'mot %kite. loilt $.: ',tient e " , S 4 10

_.... _ _ .

.ino kono. 11inuntent ( fintiietenf tif..t

Reading 6, Moth 2 4 if S.& 11 1979 12-g.

enttif kt ( ontyrelif n.ne le.t fft 11.i.of 'skill. Reoffing 1 41 r. 1978 NO1 nttit.li 7 & 101 loth , 1 7 4 10

itn.iono 1 otttt.m. Kim' sktil le.ttiti:l'ttscrant

Lbriguage Art, Kt JallItt \ lath 2& 1 Ioni 11 S

Lone Monte 1' /11.1)1 01 1 atk.111011.t111,..gre.

1 Jitglt.i);. \rt & 1:...t.ittigI ng111 & 1 knitsot 1,11 simile. og -q :cot...

4

s 4 I I

31

1 orlt 7(' . NO

fan I itt.1 I. albtornht M. [netement 1....t 1 tislt.li & \Lill) 6

( oil:pc:tit.% 3N1,1..1 l'rert titS113C I ng1111 & ;lathc.fif iol ',Judie. it Iiiieninin

7.4 910

198; 1 i 's

1.1..4\1 Iiii.ett. tio..sf litif tt. 6.101 '4111. I lIngliagt. Vt.. 1 l): 2 & -1 or iI nglt.lt 7 $ at 9I.bill 1143'2 01 e;%(28

ISkilliZ.111 31,1111;m1 I atzt,It:,./111 t..incturrogr.16 41(.1T1.1..61 ',Jut& 1....ting

Heading lath 011.61 .tio,lit'..t it.:1(t Ito.4. rt .1/4 11..4111)

1 7 .: 10 1I S

,...-0.11, 1 "it'JTO

I .101311.10 16. 1:1..t.leth: so. 1,11 3 's Ac I I )\O1111I1c.(4.1 SI,Iti o ...!1)1 ni416.16 rt 1116

-...... ---------\lath N SA Will t.111141n

.s & 11

21 20

tiiunl.in.t

Nebraka

Net atIJ

\et, ilaityshire

- -

`ett her-A.%

feu 101,

Nett 1 oil.

111'1 01 II SI' SUBJECT ARI ASIISIII)

.1111441W \tlltott mt nt It .1 I at 01.1* 1ttKeathog, & kith

& I 111;Itsh

111.t.ti E 11t.11

tt 01 t l'Illtill anti

11111 Stuldh \Lit It

I 11 it! t'sil litort so. Tal\Loh tit

CRAM S

I&OI n & sU

ti

& 12

.619(asIe ;11,Readout 1 1 & isI itt:hsh & 111.4( rt 12

sot 1.61 ',twin., VI \In),Math & ',( lent (' & 12

\ ',maim I e,tlitr Sett t uB.ntrs% 0 tet offered I t 1 parnup.flton t

ssalint ot 1 'AMIN Sisals I I retitset tetiNtt.1,14 rrotitlesi. t I taw 1 ligliIt& lath 91t: 11

siontorti Inetetnent 1est

l'rlotht

Itininut Skins I est

qt Meld( fitgit ,sdhsolProllt0110 I tarn

otnprelle11.11 e 1tt 01 Ikiit Skin.

Math oinretens

rtelnionart oinvetent teI intrittni:

Ki'grnt t oinlvleik In %; ruing

%;n111: I et for I leineniartstt-

1)egreeot Reading, Pinter

North ( arohna North t artilina otnretentt

l'rt riptit e Watling !mentor

thattnot8 Lothntatu !mentor%

ahttiMhi At hit orient Ie.t

I atinage %rt & Math

I d 0,1ge Art, &I Ittort sot !al studio.. ,x: MathI nglth

%1 ruing Reading & \lath

&

DA I I 11 SIING !Olt1N1 I IA III) MINIMIJNI SKILLS?

19-1 11 S

1-s -9 11s

1970.

jo7; Nt 1

197; NO

197;

1978

1978

1978 & IWO

1IS

1t.&9 1978

I nghh, sotial tudit. & lath

I angttage 1rt. & ReathngI iitort sow! kith &Stient eI neiiIt

lath

lt min;

ritun;

Reading,

I ngliIt & Math

Reading

Math

1 ttghltReatItngMath

10

; &Ttti

1977

1972

Derr t ea 9 -12 1974- 79 11S

s,9 1979 11 S

115

1981 115

4, Ttur9& 1r 1974 tell 115

North I Xikota

NorthernMariana Nand,

lotta I eI 4.1 liaK skin, &Se holaht h Aot late,

ablornta At Imo vtnttt I et

Pubhher of I extbokProgram tot

( Ottlretent t Ihttesi 1 CA

Math

Stn tal & St tent e

I.u11;nage Art.I tighliMath

Oluo Tet of sthoIaht At hie% ement (I 1 A required lo

it

&

1 &«

9kith1, & 9

1978 115

1978 114,

1078 114,

1 1 &9 12

1 12

«;7 -1248

190

1980 11 s

1981 1Is

114,

NO

2221

121hotli.1.1.0iitl

-scilith 1 art4ina

li.iinc,,et.

1e1,1

111.11 01 11 SI

I lit 4ott ',Lae.% tag 1, ..11. lit

I dot itIon It Qujpit t 1...t.lik, it:

1Litilt111.111., ildt. ',loll. 1.t

sistst,11 R.I..). '401, :,...1

I tig11,11 lidit ',kill, It ...t

1tma it: 01 Ii.i.it skill,

1:1totle 1.I.§iit1 1 de s1,111. le,:

( olorri.liell.n i 1 c..,1 ..1lkioc skill.

lt,oit ',1-ell, .1Ment lot

sp,iiiii1

I t:;11.11

I ariou.1%;i 1iii.Readmit 11-ith & Stuck '4411,1 i47,111

I siglil) 11.1111 & Reatlirm

1 angit<me %oh & Re.itlin4,iil ial stutiet 11atit .' s. lent4I11012

11 rilingRe.itline,%lath

1 klittit....n. 1....1,

11141t Mitt I 1,1111 lr Grajtijtjtvit

%14111 spelling 1 .inim.we krt &Reading

language u... Reading, & %loth

1 tah

104 1,4 111elit ili SI,i, skill,,

( unirreliennt It.t in14.11t ',4,10, lorm.

12eatIm3; 1. tlimitt.mon & 11.111i

A itr.it %-intv ill tither me.otore,.1 ii.ir: et the ,tote .5tplIelltMigrant

Reading %lath 'Kleine & Ils,tor%

1t.rintisil tool rot (Must conttirni Ityc Mena of competence, ttitto,of all graduating ,tutlentmust be reported ...Lite doe,random amplingl

(.12101S

4%. !II

. ...t. I 1 1961

2

..

'I

I & s.1 fl ZS; h ION kh

Ill 197o

1 1971I /11

7 & iii

0 $ & 111 : '', & o1 2. .., o S& 11

4 & ;two& s

11 rukJilin. et! IAgUtit 12

1 ;& ti

7, Zt 11

DAIIINIIIAIII)

.

I9-', .%. 11.'+:

- .-II SI !NG I ORMINIMUM SKII LS?

11h

\ t I

1 1 s

1 I s

11s

Ns]

1990

197;

1 tingtitige Ar & Ite.ctling1 ne.11.11

11,1111 & tit 11 tt

Virgint,t

--11.1lungtiin

NInurtiorm 1 iiinpetent 1 lot

'h1401.1Ilt RthiJrt II 1.0.clt kite,-

llit Skill, 11 merlon Iteiertincet1I 1,3

11,1111 & Reading

1 angthigt. Art,Reading social Simile. %Loth &hIllit e1 n)41111

I angthme 1rt 12e.itimg. & %lath

1 .tlerinnia Milo entnt lot 1.1mttu.o Vt. & 14.4,1114%11,stliI rislii

Degree in Reading hmer10ne tome ttith iooritlel

1%et irginia 1 inurrelienine lit ot lt,14% 1441. 1 tingesage NrtRe.icling 1 iitor sot il simile.Math & ',cienteI nglo1+

1%1., tin,. fi 1 egi,Lition require. toting in 19S; Mi. teat. being (1t. t.00ped

1977 1I"

197S

Itif114.

1978

23

1 1 S

\11

22

TEXTBOOKS/IL h

In this section, state agent v personnel wereasked if their state has a statewide textbook ado!)tion policy. II it did not, respondents w ere askedit the SEA provides any guidance to local districtsfor the purchase ot textbooks and it they havetextbook guidelines for humanities subject areas

Slightly less than half ot the states surveyedhat e a statewide textbook adoption policy. In thetwenty-seven states that responded positivel,there is a wide range of structures and degree atstate lontrol in the textbook selection process.X lam states note that although they did establishguidelines or criteria for the pun-base of texts bylot al distnt ts, these criteria are sufficiently broadand suggestive that total districts have a widerange of options. States with adoption policiesntirmalh establish committees to select books ineach salmi area and Lontrat t with publishers toplace bids for texts covering the subjects specifiedin the legislation establishing the committee. Thesize ot the committees varies from nine totwenty- three, and as their functions vary widely,it is difficult to generalize about state adoptionpolicies and procedures. As might be expectedwith a procedure that is applied to a wide selec-tion of books and subject areas, guideline lan-guage is, for the most part, vague and its applica-tion is highly dependent upon the interpretationof the current members of the selectioncommittee

For instance, the textbook criteria documentfor one state includes judgments based on "thebasic and identifiable philosophy of our democra-tic society," and those that "reflect valid andquality scholarship," and those that "include ad-equate a nd relevant study aids" and "reflect highquality of typography, illustration, and other aes-thetic considerations." These principles are basicones, and more specific goals under each clarifywhat is sought under each principle, yet evenhere specific criteria reveal the difficulty in identi-fying a common set of judgments a committeecould agree on. Under the principle of valid andquality scholarship, for example, two specificgoals involve "accurate, authoritative, and realis-tic presentation of factual material" and "histori-cal reliability and soundness." Under quality ofthe typography, one can judge a text on its "dur-able materials" and whether it is "economical incost," or on its "quality and verifiable content."Although it is easy to do a simple comparison ofthe costs of a text, the other judgments are morecomplex.

The same sort of difficulties arise whenevaluating the general criteria established for

another state's Textbook Advisory Committee.Under the heading of content, the state includesgeneral provisions such as "Are the content andthe sequence of the materials reasonably consist-ent with the current state guides and other cur-riculum publications?" or "is the subject matterup-to-date and scientifically correct?" or "is thesubject matter meaningful in terms of pupilneeds, experiences, interests and understand-ings, etc ?" The other general areas under theheading of content are illustrations and instruc-tional aids. Other than content, the two othermajor divisions are organization and authorship.Again, the criteria for judging quality underthese headings seem quite reasonable, but notvery useful to a committee judging the worth of aparticular textbook. Most likely, some of the moreextreme criticisms of the arbitrary nature of statetextbook adoption procedures can be attributedto the difficulty publishers have in conforming tosuch broad criteria, and the inability of teachersand educators to understand easily why oneseries or textbook was selected over itscompetitors.

No matter what the subject area, difficultiesarise for educators confronting current textbookadoption policies. However, difficulties are inmany ways unique for humanities subjects. Thetext is often the only means by which knowledgeis transmitted to students in classes where thereare seldom if ever laboratories, large quantities ofinformation written on blackboards, or artifactsor specimens to aid students in grasping theobjectives of the lesson being presented. Further,materials covered in humanities textbooks areoften more controversial; and the way in whichthey are presented in the text is often as crucial asthe information presented. This is less apt to bethe case in science and mathematics classes. Forthese reasons, and the greater interest of thepublic in influencing the nature of humanitiestexts, both public school and higher educationspecialists in the humanities are especially con-cerned with the operations of state textbookselection procedures and the way in which thebest humanities textbooks can be produced anddistributed tinder the current system.

24

1

GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS

Fifty of the state education agencies surveyedreported statewide graduation requirements Adetailed breakdown of these requirements bystate. sublet t area and number of units requiredis provided in the at companving charts Old andnew requirements are show n for stales that re-ported recent revisions Among these states r-porting graduation requirements. tort% -two ha% erequirements in I itgltsh, bentt -eight in socialstudies, three in foreign languages, eight in artand one state requires mush for graduation Inaddition, eighteen state, retriire histor% forgraduation. tourteen include a specifie histor%requirement as a part of social sudies Somestates break dem, n histor% t'% en more spec Moll%,i\ have an Alnent an and slate 111%1011 require-ment, live require onl% American history while

Stale

Alabama'

eleven have an American histor% and goern-ment or constitution requirement

In areas other than the humanities. thirst -so en states require a course in mathematics torgraduation and thirty -eight have a science re-quirement lor states th it ha% e recentl% ret r%vtigratitiation reqturettlent% or are in the vilitco..., 01doing so, the most t or.-Imon t hange reported isan mtrease in the number 01 mathemi.tics and orscience units required for groluation Beyondsullied area requirements. eighteen states hatestudents pass a speCittL e \animation betore beinglilltMVti 10 gradtialc 1'1 milk, two states do list a-humanities- requirement for graduatien Re-sr% nnients emphasised that the units requiredthe minition. ISA, typically have requirementsthat eNceed the mininiti nr,

I 1

L`Ma

Ntmominii I \(.: I,Il 111411t I-.Una- (Ind.

(11,1 %.41 'di, t 1m \ , al I al,

2(1 241 ' 1 4 iso, 'al ...tathe.

-r r4) I li ',Jin)!i"

WM t IsI

111,411in stiitlt t t i %kg) Som4e.Ilea, I Unit. 1 Owl, Oat.

OW S. nil 1 rth

1

I )141 S ru IOU N.e.,, Ohl s,,;

ii nEli41

A1as1 a= 19 ilartgii±e Art. I 'Social %ludic.. I -.1.- i- I -. I

American %arum i_ if.1 4 Social science --1- l_Anfona I ix 20 1 ligle4i` 1 4 jAmencan 6;

I j I . )rt'Ait:

I I I

I

i

;Amerman &

1

Aria's( on.titution.

i & ( pi)1 ern-

1_ ..1 1 1I mem'

1 1 ' i2 2

----- ^--- - - ---11)1(1/%; \ 1 \ t 'AMC,/ S lin

MINIc A \I) ( Mli RSOW.

I sae Old sewI lealth I ducal ionl'Itvital I chitationDm er I location

1 1 1:lectiw,

I ectsag or e ut i 'impel .. e \WI% req111red2 Requirement being re% i.ed3 Math and .cience requirment sin rea.eil troll) 011 tl11%,i. Unit. re( tulip I.

4 Demon.tration of Nation); alvilitt at the oth grade let el required. nett requirement.etlettit e for the graduating din. of 1487

5 Mira Mt lobe grammar peaking %%flung arta reading kill. ads anted gonimdr A

Pliical I din ltion I

1

I ..ential. & Iteneta.oc I wt. I liter,pr...e st .tern

1 kiln e.

..........

I2 I.10 41;

companion Amerman hula tu ri ..lilt aim ect t 0911.(71t1t111, it,er411 'method. and.kill., and literature I reign language nut be llAl for urlt 111111 01 rttitillelllenl\1u'4 111tilltle 111,trllt poll in nien,an and A won%) ilitirtion, and ideal.Inc luck.. in.rniction in e..i rithil. .ourt e. and 111.1n 01 the( on...Mutton. 01 theL mica stale. and nfiitia( an int 1ntlt. Ont-kill Una 01 t orlirller .1ualelle,,

25

I Unsurnerrow.

Att.. 1 Old \eic ritee

Arkansas

INC./ !Nil CISthus-

Oh; \cu' I Its

lb Fnghsh 4

Colorado

13eta ware''

=i1.1*18"

18

t o1( olumbia 21

1911

1 loridait 24

Georgia '"=1

20

Guam"11.matel4

I112 iisl1

I itglesh

hoglesh"

I nglisltLanguage Arts

1

4 4 St

4

4

I so

500.41 S FUME S.4111HA: FS

thudse Old Nat

H1S1010 SURIEC7Stlittl,

rifle Old New

MathHuth

Old New

Scre'ants

Old Nett_

FOREIGN LANGUAGES. ARTMUSIC AND OTIIERS

thul$Title Old New

Amerika') One maior field 3I Won. One minor field 2& Cum s I Health & Physical

Education I

_Electives 5

. _ial Studies 3 3 1 2 1 2 I fealth Education )2 i,2

physical Education I 1

Electives 711 6102

I.: S 1 listmy 1 2 2 Foreign Language 1

U S Govern- Health & Physicalmem 12 Education I I.:

flistore of the Life Skills 1

District of Electives 7Columbia I

American Practical Arts.History 1 3 3" Vocational

Vorld I !um" 1 Education orAmerran Exploratory

Government i 2 VcicanottalEducation

'erformmg Fine ArtsLife Management SkillsPhysical Education

12

t 2

t'rkz

.Electives_

9

t ial Studies 1 U S 1 bstory I 2" 1 Citiienship elEconomicstuseness

Free Enterprise lisCareer Planning L'a

Personal FinanceHealth & Safety

1.3

k3

Physical Education 1,2

Electives 10

9

litteighteen touts or 180 semester hours or the elimalent18" graduating Blass must met tilltliMUM pertorntani e re quirobvtit, ut reading.is riling and math, nos requirements effective tor the graduating (Liss of 1487

lbTwo units must have laboratory component.Students must pass Georgia rest of Bash Skills, e(aluation of life skills cumpetentirsrewired

11 Demonstration of competence in life skills seimnar required 17. One unit may be science or math12 s4," requirvirent., a #retie a 1986 87, students must hat v oamulato v grade point

as erages ul 1 1( in required (taws18 Minimum units and distribution be subject area not ayaM.Sle

Oneeighth unit per semester13 NIalor concentration in I it-To...bon and literature14 Includes comparative stady of history. doctrines and oblectives ol an maior economic

systems

26

foldMourftwo, I \Gil

I (Inch%tate Ned Irtle

MAC i 401" 1 sighla"

to"'

0

Indiana I 18"

17 20"

Ken belie i 1$ 20

109klt1114111a

!Mil=====11....1

22

1.411 lgt MP`

Language.

Langua

Language

Sit' UOJICISUnit,

Old N.'ili

SOCIAL S wowsSUBIUCTS

Urns,idle Old Nat.

HISTORY SUBJECTSLimit,

Tole Old Neu,

MathUnnt:

Old New

ScienceUnit

Old New

FOREIGN LANGUAGES. ART.MUSIC AND OTHERS

UnitTdk Old pew--

4 Consumer 1 z 12 5 History22 122t 2 carting" 11

Economic AmericanGovernments' 1

- pe'r'ch='umanities14onsunter Economicsealthhysical Education

12

21/z

12

1

*cures 12

Art 1 AmericanI listory orAmericani i1StOry andGovernment I

AmericanI listor I

overnment of U. S& Iowa

hysical Education('

en

Art'" X Social StitkIte. 4

a U S I hstor (2)b Social studies

relating to

4" 4" Physical EducationHealth & Safety

1

1

catizenshi_p (2) - - ____ _ _ ..._Social Studies 2 3 1 2 1 2" Physical Education 1 1

;e Arts 4 4 I U S History (1) (I)b US

Electives 8 8

9ove.nntent13 (L2) ea _ _ __. . _ __Arts 3 4 Social Studies 2 2

a. U S. History (1) (I)b Citizenship (11 (0)c Elective (0) (1)

3 2 2 , .:alth EducationPhysical EducationElectives

Ira

1,z

8

ta1/z

8

4

__. __Social Studies 2a. American

2 Free FfeterpriseHealth and Physical

tlz

I listory (1)b Civics or

equwaleitt ineitirenship (1)

EducationElectives

_ _ .

2Pa

20 1; nits ewressed as credits, torty-tteo credits required after 19882) C ic e mute required22 Includes 20th century hictory and world affairs21 Includes tederal, state and local government24 Requirement increases to 4 units atter 1988, those from tine arts (including perform-

ance). hemp language or humanities23 Units expressed as credits. requirements in Meet for students graduating in 198921i Six credits must be in English IA ith a balance of u ruing. reeding, listening. speaking.

grammar, literature and rt.- 4ta studies. tee o credits may be from technical languagearts for %manumit education nide:Ns

27 Must be social studies Waling tot nu enship a ith one cred.. In U S. Government28 her t' it,Onat edenation students Imo credits ma be trom practical ortc vocational

technical courses with predominately math content.29 Must he chosen from mow than one maim science.30. Students nwst pass an examination on American patriotism and the pnnciples of

representative government, as enunciated in the Amencae Declaration of Independ-ence. the constitutions of 11w United States and of the slaw of Iilinoii, and on theproper use and display of the American flag

31 New units are proposed only not adopted.32 Includes U S constitution.33 Laboratory science34 Fourth unit may be English IV, Speech I. Journalism I. Business English. Foreign

Language. English as a second language or LEAdeveloped course

29

Stale

'katMttuntunt

Md.011 Neu

E:.ti'GLIS!I SUBli.0 ESUttt6

fide Old New

SOCIAL STUDIESSUBJECTS

tittikTitle old New

HISTORY SUBJECTSUnit>

ThIe Old New

MilliUnits

Old New

St Wit e(hulk

Old New

FOREIGN LANGUAGES, ART,MUSIC AND OTHERS

UnitsTitle Old New

Maryland" 20 EnglishLanguage Arts 4

Social Studies 3a LI S history (1)b Contem-

porary

2 2 Physical Acliv itsProgram

Electives 8

Issues`° (1)

:Mme 0 English 4 Amencanliwory &

. .

Health and PhysicalEducations"

Gnvernment IyrMaine History 9wks

Michigan"1

Minnesota° 15 CommunicationSkills 3

Social Studies 2 I (lathPhysical Education

1,1

z

Electives 9

Mississippi" 16 English 3 Amencan American1 history 1 Government° z

Mississippillistore 1 2

Civics (StateGovernment) 2

Corn mumcation Social Studio 1 1

- _

Choice Ironsdisown"1 Communication

Skills, Social Studies.Math & Science 2

Pine Arts 2Practical Arts 1

Physical Education 1

Electives 11

Montana" 16 Language Arts 4 American Health and Physicalhistory" 2 VI" Education

AmericanGovernment r:

Nebraska 160 credit

20

hours

English 3 American Health Education s zNevada"Government 1 2 1 Physical Education 2

American Electives 9 rzHistory

lc Passage of riummi-rr competency exams in reading, vs nting, mathematics (i984) and 42citizenship 0985/ required 43

36 Including local, state and national govecnnwnts37 One or two years of physical activity, total electives arc nine if one year of physical

education elected 4438 Required courses, no minimum units designated 4539 One semester of civics between grades 9 and 12 is the only requirement40 Requirements are for grades 10.12, ninth grade has separate requirements 4641 Graduation requirements under examination by state task lorce as part of the 47

Mississippi Education Reform Act

30

Nature and threat (it 4.4.m.....mom taught at part of American governmentPassage (v1 tests on the constitutions of the United Stales and Missouri and onAmerican history and (nsututions (developed locally) required, state board of educa-tion is considering new requirementsBoard of public education is examining graduation requirementsTwo unit course in American history and Amencan democracy, which includes astudy of gin ernn ent. may b_ substouted for ho.tury and government requirementLaboratory scienceSuccessful tom pletom of the Nevada High School Proticiency Exam in math, readingand writing required

31

484950rri

3233

:+5

.16

Nen lersev"

New Mexico"

New York"

North Cam Imam

North Dakota"

Ohio"

Oklahoma

.1111.00.

Muumuu,'(hut.

4 MI \e u' i I1111'

---1 SOCIAL STUD1CSLNG! 1511 CUBII CTS i SUB /CC FS I HISTORY SUBJECTS

Una. 1

Old Neuolibu.'sf:ew bileOur:,

Old Vet, I 14 lkI

16 18 iighsh !Social Studies 2" 2"4 1Language Arts 4

92 ommunication 4

II,anguage Arts

thiglih

18 20 !English

17 21) !Languag

!Social Studies': 2

4 Social StudiesS History

b Civics and orGm eminent

4 Social Studies 3a American

History (1)

4 4 Social Studies 2a C $ History (1)b Govern-

ment &Economics 10) (1)

Arts"' 3 4 Social Studies 3 3a %WM History 101 Cl)b U S history (0) Cl)

Social Studies 2a American

I ]]stor (1 2)

b AmencanGovernment (12)

IX Ii.ngh.hLanguage Art. 3

18 20 !Language Art" 4 4

New requirements under consideration, not adopted1r S history required

S and Neu Hampshire tumors and governmentMinimum requirements expressed as t re fit., unit. iiiii 11 1%4 .11b1t ars an%toast.. Ninth grade Alters isle minimum somph its Is rt tiding and math allrequired. more rigorous testing plannedSocial studies is a te.o rear C011te In C S stunCalled computationNatural or phy sisal .reuse required1Itectis e with 1986.87 graduating classOne unit must be in a laboratory rimChoice of one or a combinat iiiii of dance, drama. music and visual artsBoard of Regents niEl at t on rows requirements no January of 1984 or later. increase rnmath, so,al studies. foreign language and science for regents students probableStudents may chose to %%Mk for regents diploma, regents students must takeexaminations

Amencanllistor)

Oklahomahistory

World History

1 1

0 12

ItMath SommeUna. (buttAi N..tie Vii NO(

1 2 1 2

2s,

2

1

2 2

1

2

1 2

1(1

r.

1

2h: 2"'

2 2

1

1

FOREIGN LANGUAGES. ART.MUSIC AND OTHERS

Units7 die Old Nap

Arts Education 0 1

Physical Education 0 1

Electives 8 6

Fine, Practical orPerforming Arts 1.2

Career Explorationor Development

Physical Education 4

Fine or Practical Arts"

HealthPhysical Education"Electives" 3

Electives 7 9

Physical Education 1 1

Driver Education" 0Electives 7 8

HealthPhysical Education 3.2

Electives 9

Electives 101/2 10

9 Must be taken even; year60 Three unit sequence in either science. math, foreign language. visual arts. business,

home economics and industrial arts or vocational subjects requiredoil Students required to pass North Carolina Competency Tests an ro2ading and mathe

malls., nen requirements Melte% a for graduates in 1986-87 school year62 One unit in life science or biology.63 One unit in life science and one in a physical science64 New graduation requirements apply to 1986 graduates65 One unit of foreign language may be substituted for one unit of language arts66 Twenty clock hours under old requirements.t/7 All graduates must take three units in any sublet-1 area in addition to the three in

English language arts68 Including reading. I:nglish and writing

33

totalMormon

Unit,1 VGI 191 RIRIE CTS

Units

SOCIAL STUDIESMINIX TS

thugsHISTORY SUBjEC TS

UnitsMathUnrts

SomaUrn&

shit. t MI S.e.i I ale Old \eze Title Old Na Title Old New OW Neu. Old Niue

°region" 2e 1 anguage Arts I 1.." S I listors I 1 1

Penns Is mom' 13 21 1 nglish 3" 4 Social Studies 2 1 I 3 I 3'2

Puerto Rat 0 I; I eigleh 1 Sot !al Studies 2 2

Rhode Island" its 1$ I isglih 4 4 Social Science C S Heston& hectors' 0 2 & Govern.

ment t 0 I 3 1 2".

',owls ( aniline'" IS 20 I anguage Art-, 4 4 Social Studies I 1

ttononost I: :L' S history "" I 1 2 3" 1 2"

(o eminent i z

south Dakota': la 1$ I a riguage A rt 4 .1 Social Science 2 2 1 2 I 2

tenni...4-.2 1$ 20 highsli AmericanLanguage Arts 4 4 I fusion 1 1 1 2 I 2

texas'', 18 I Nish 1 AmericanI (more 1 2

AmericanGovernment 1:

to ,ieitic nts mu-,t &nod %bats b.ollIpt tt'illt Ill reading (.. ruing. mathematics speaking.Iavning and reasonii g requirt meth. nia undergo rel. isms( in repolle to HO.OtIr.t. nviirements I or ad nussiton to the Oregon state ss stem of higher education

-0 v., it rt gain Mt nt.1f prop,,4 ,1 nil ,k(optcd, unit. are pi,flin.,1 4 ouk 0.. Wienplan made aailable o the department of education/

71 One unit may he spec h72 Three' units an science and technology73 N:.1 units. regime(' to complete planned program4 N., is ix +mem. ins tot tollyge boun-.1 Ancients tints, for all student grashiatuon

requirements shall lit based oil 4. lea rls identified coinpetesicies in reading, o riling.40.,,king, and 11-.S.ning inathymatos. rcaoning, and (ma , and "1W% mit

7; rot( units tot A laborators stools e7to N.' too requirements still need approval of the general assembly, effective for graduat-

ing ( lass tot 14$7

34

FOREIGN LANGUAGES. ART,MUSIC AND OTHERS

UnitsTitle Old New_

Global Studies 1

Government e..2

Career Development e 2

personal Financeand Economics 1

Applied Arts. Fine Artsor Foreign Language 1

Health I

Physical Education I

I lealth & PhysicalEduCation

Arts & Humanities 0 2Electives 0 3

Spanish 3Physical Education I 1

HealthElectives 2

Foreign Language 0 2Computer Literacy 0Arts 0Electives 0 4

Phvsical Educationor ROTC I 1

Electives 7 7

0" I

11

EconomicsHealth EducationPhysical EducationElectives

World I listor y Studiesor GeographyStudies

Health EducationPhysical EducationElectives"

1:cz

I I9 9

1

III6° z

I!:i2

77 Remedial Enghsh tan tu Rill requirement, 50 percent of instructional time. exseptremedial reading, must be devoted to s-com position and grammar

75 One unit can be computer science79 One st lent e unit plus six or more in a specelw occupational burs eiemea tidbits the

requirement.Sil Students must pass an examination on the provisions and principles ot the United

States constitution and American ensteteeteuns and idealsSI Old requirements apply to 1984.86 graduatesII: Ness requirement in effect for 1987 seniors, students must pass a proficiency

examination (three attempts allowed)$1 Curriculum ret mon in progress, graduation requirements voll be rev esed, Mt rease in

English. math and economics, with an emphases on the free enterprise systemprobable

84 To he chosen from a lest of approved subjects and courses.

35

1

I 1- T,

Mnirorron I t NGLISH SUBJECTSUrrits I Unit.

Setnlr 4 Ohl \red! i olio Old Vet

L tah" 1; 1( mini um!.cation." 1

%canton"

Virginia*"

Wishington'"

16

18 2t1'! nglish

45 4$

2040,

t%'voming1": tti

1 .1

I anguage Art

of

SOCIAL STUDIESSUBJECTS I HISTORY SUBJECTS

Una. I Una.Old Vete Title Old New

Maththot$

Old !slew

SaellteUrrits

Old `rte

FOREIGN LANGUAGES. ART,MUSIC AND OTHERS

UnitsTrtI Old stew

Sotral Studiesa A Mentall

I !Mort &Got moment (II

2

',MLA Studies (1

a AmericanStudies V' 0iVorldStudies N

t I .S & VirginiaHistory 0 (11

d & %VoilaGovernment 1) (1)

Social Studies ; 71:USIlistort& Govern-ment 42) CO

b tVashingtonState Miami' (0 01:1

c Content-roar% MildI listort,Geographt& Problem. (2) (3)

Social Studiesa U 5 History (I)

Wir141

Whiny. 01t 1 conomic (12)

onion poraryAmerica (1:1

Requirements being rt t used. denkinstration 44 functional competence:. in routing.%%riling %lit alai% listening, t in irut.lhon rot tis.t.. and .trot lure of tit motratitgot tit ria no. consumer of go4 id. and skirt ices. onto pr.oblt ni %:% mg requiredInn With must be in language art.I Jut Amin ter responsible parenthood mai part of requirement% one- hallunitt. :edit cariesStudent must master basic ccompetencie, treading, tinting. pealung, listening.mathematics and masoning/(le iii' I.t minimum Lointictent It'. in reading and math. loll and c - oncepts ofMit nshop including kilo% ledge Vf IlltkIrS and >:o nom nt neteari for npore-

bte participation in American ociett and the nodal comntionliV and 4C(1111iltill 4)1knot% Icgc and slalls to quaint for further emplot inciit or education requiredVirginia and U S fusion and got ernment1 'More and or geographeI aboratort ciente

94

LP;

97

99

10)101

102

1

344

3 6

2

Economics'"healthPhysical Educationidol. or service

expenence"

I"' 2" I Icalth & PhysicalEducation

Elective."

t

2 27 6

2" 6"" Occupational Education 3 3Elective 26 1641

Physical Education

Health EducationPhysical Educahen

8

lit a treads tan be ins h or .dente. One til It of the requirement mat be met litcompleting the scque lie of c ourses needed for oca upational preparation in one tit thefulkating programs.. grit ulturc business distribution, health occupations. occupa-tional home economks and trade and end istrial educationChosen Irlm academics, fine arts and t oratumal education.Three touts are equivalent to a one year courseInclude% composition, creative tenting. literature. speech and dramaLabora tore science.Three credits must be in laboratory sciencefourteen elf the 'twilit units must be taken in grades 10 through 12.At least one of the eight shall be t hosen from applied arts. tine or perform mg arts orecond languageAbilitt to read, tt rite and compute nith protitivm t, and an understanding, of thepokes and structure 44 democratic governante and the free enterprise system mustbe demonstrated. or completion of remedial programs LEA determines specificcompetencies and standards of proficiency

SEA'S FUNDING PROVISIONS

li. this section slates were asked what propor-tion of their discretionary income was committedto the area of humanities instruction, whatamounts to pilot programs or special projects inthe humanities, and Nvhether they had issuedrequests for proposals seeking protects in human-ities subject areas In addition. states v ere askedto list examples of humanities programs they hadinitiated over the last five Years.

Responses to this set tenon of the questionnairew ere disappointing A large numb..r of states didnot complete the section's financial portion.lhose NN ho did general!) pros ided estimated fig-ures these brief responses were tied to thestate's reporting procedures 111 their major disk re-tionarN program I he largest program was TitleIV Cot the I !mental-. and Set ondarN Edut anonAtt of IthIc. in existent e until 1t181 For Title IV-Ckinds, states reported results to the federal goteminent bN subject areas onk as thee related tost Ibloldistrit ts. school populations and be to pt.of giant, 1 e do elopmental, planning, demon-stration. tit Thus, the files maintained on theseprograms elicited little information about spetifithumanities projet is Further, the subject areas, asthe N. ere listed in a report of the Department ofEducation's DIN ision of State Educational Assist-ance. outlining the operation of Title IV-C for11480 $1, were not twat. distinguished at cordingto humanities subjects. There were no sublet!categories for English, histor or foreign lan-guages There' were, however, subject categoriesfor reading. math, language arts, science, socialstudies. art and music. Except for science andmath, humanities programs might have beenincluded. but the listing suggests that basic skillsrather than traditional humanities subjects werethe intended target for most programs. The mostprojects. and the greatest amount of funding,were for reading, instructional modes, math andlanguage arts. And even these were smaller thanthe category "Othei," %% Lich included schoolmanagement and multicurricular programs. It isthus difficult to isolate and tabulate programs inhumanities instruction. Also. very few statesforwarded requests for proposals to local schoolsspecifically in the area of the humanities

States, both in responding to the questionnaireand during follow-up telephone interviews, didprovide information concerning programs thattheir states had initiated over the last five years.Although the numbers of such programs werenot large, thee cover the range of humanitiessubjects and utiliie a wide variety of teachingmethods. Information gained here, along with

38

materials submitted by states outlining theseprograms. NN ill form the basis for the Council'scatalog of exemplary programs in thehumanities.

THE HUMANITIESAND CURRENTEDUCATIONAL TRENDS

Phis final section of the questionnaire surveyedthe opinions of state agent) personnel towardsthe humanities and their assessment of currentpolicies and practices regarding humanities in-strut lion Respondents NN ere asked their opinionconternmg the effects of certain educational de-t elopments on humanities instruction.

ldentifitation of these developments wasbased on discussions with intik idual SEA per-sonnel, suggestions from advis wy committeemem( ...rs and from a retie.. of recent literatureon teat lung the humanities at the pre-collegiatelo el 1 he reflet t educational trends over the lasttw ens ) ears, especial]) the decade of the seven-ties, NN hen states NN tie adopting programs em-phasiiing basic skills and using competency-based criteria to assess student achiet ement. Asis clear from the chart on page32, questionsint ok ed recent social as well as educational de-e elopments that have had an impact on the na-tion's hdlools. Respondents were asked to assessthe effect negative. positive or neutralofthese developments on the quality of humanitiesinstruction.

k

Cohtemporaru human:he:. tiawrooftt Photograph prwIttnit bli OwNalwinli Sc imit Pohlti Relations A4:ot mho.;

31

EDUCATIONAL TRENDS

Negative Neutral Posst weNot

Appin-ableNo

ChangeNo

Answer

Kul, to basic,. movement" 5(1 °a 21% 32%leaching for A.taildardited testing' . 43% 46% 13 °o

Focus on life competency .. ..... 18% 43% 41%Use ot computers for learning' . 13%. 58% 34%(-aim th of course ollrings . ... 13% 38% 48% 2%Emphasis on vocational training' . 27% 52% 25% 2%Grin% th of talented and gifted programs' 4% 14% 89%(;roth of international studies 0% 27% 75%Parental involvement in the schools` . ,u,_ ,0 34% 66%Change in class, ethnicity and race of

public school population" 5% 48% 48% 2%Change in class, ethnicity and race of

public school teachers 5% 55% 38% 2% 2%Growth of Junior college system . . 2% 55% 30% 9% 2% 2%Reduction in liberal arts requirements for

education majors 55% 29% 5% 4% 4% 4%Arts in general" 2%Education in language and international

studies program 2%Arts in education 2%teacher competency testing 2%Reduced federal & state revenue . . . , 2%Decreasing enrollment 1%Decreasing funds 2%Cut in federal funds ... ........ .. .

1%

Reduction of entrance requirements forhigher education admission .... 2%

\ .,te !oats greater than WO% due to rounding and double answers

1 ndudes double ansccer, 1 neg pos.2 ncludes double ansu er I neg. net,"i ntludes double answers. 2 neg neu4 mitt des double a nst% ers 2 neu pos I neg neu pos

ncludes double answer I neu pos6 nctu des double onstvers. 2 neg. pos.7 initedes double answers. I neg Ns . t neu pos.8 Its categ,ort and all that lollow tt ere suggested by respondents.

39

32

Responses to this section ot the questionnaire,and especially t omments Irons Si A personnelduring tollow -up telephone tone el sations. pro-% hied the t onumnee and protect shift with(.4 .plete intormation concerning the states' utrent efforts on behalf of the humanities. In addi-tion, humanities contact persons. %. ho Lieasked to Complete this portion ot the question-naire and who nil the most part spoke a ith Battduring tolloo -up inter% let% %, expressed thenopinion, concerning what constituted a succes,tut In.aianitie, plogiam. the parlitulai difficultiestat iii, their state. and what diretnons the% sat%as must appropnatt toi imphh mg humanitiesinstruction,

Responses to the questionnair make dear therenew eel link between the humanities and gatedand talented programs I igh ty-ivne percent otthe respondents judged gated anti talented pro-grams as having a positive cited on the ad-:alive:m.1i of the h Ma MIR'S. The t 10seS1 post-11\ t: assessment %%a% 73 percent for I lernationalstudies, a development in social studies educa-tion that some would Contend is not a part thehu !nand los. Among those educational trend, re-spondents designated as negative. halt identifiedback to basics" as negative to humanities in-

,trut tion, while 55 percent judged a decline inliberal arts requirements tor education majors as

negati% de\ elopment Although it might ha% ebeen assumed that S!,A personnel \\ %Reid ha, eseen an emphasis on % °cantina! training or thegrow mg use of tompnters as negalw e factors forthe importance of humanities courses, only 13percent ot respondents did so. For vocationaleducation, 52 percent telt its effects %te-e neutralmid IA computer instrut non, I3 pert c at saw it ashaving a negative Met t t, 11114..34 potent soh it aspositive.

1:4)1 low -up telephone con ers ltions, whichnormally toll4)%ced submission ot the question-naire by four to six weeks, posed questions tostate humanities contacts centered on thefollowing.

1 Does a greater focus on instruction, e% enin non-humanities areas, cam with it apositive influence on humanitiessubjects?

2 Is there a con4lict between the public'salleged skepticism concerning the worthof humanities instruction and the positiverole of parents in supporting the interestsof the humanities in the schools/

Do SLA humanities specialists feel ratherhelpless, being at state departments of

education, in furthering effectively hu-manities instruction in their states/

4 In what ways can CCSSO cooperate withyour SEA to strengthen humanities teach-ing in your state'

; Other than the problems of inadequatefunding and lack of personnel, which arem.4,111110). al%41VS %%1111 us. are there otherfundamental problems to furthering thehumanities?

State humanities personnel, when respond*to the abo% e questions, expressed opinions con-erning the direction of their state's instruction- I

programs. as well as more general opinions con-cerning the current slate of the humanities inpublic schools. A greater emphasis on instructiontrot state education agencies is an importantstep, 41 majority Of those interviewed believed, inenhancing their abilities to furth4 r the teaching ofhumanities subjects. However, SEA personnelstressed the need for specific attention being paidto the humanities This is essential, they ate, Jed,because ot strong advocacy for competing areas.Attention is being directed to science and math atboth the national and state levels, a bill hasrecently been passed by the I -louse of Repre-sentatives and its passage is under considerationby the Senate for additional appropriations inthese areas to states and local districts. A concernwith the United State's inability to compete effec-ti% ely with foreignespecially Japanesetech-nology has encouraged school administrators toaddress the need for classes stressing currenttechnology In addition, the continuing im-portance of a "back to basics" curriculum hasdirected administrators and teachers' attention toproviding all students with a minimal level ofacademic competence and has deflected attentiontram critical reading and analytical thinkingskills, Individual respondents did note that asignificant problem was the public's lack ofawareness about current humanities courses inthe public schools. Again, much of this camefrom inadequate understanding that English, his -tore and foreign languages, as well as coursesentitled the "humanities," constituted humani-ties subjects.

Project staff, when evaluating preliminaryfigures, noted an inconsistency between respon-dents negative assessments of the public's inter-est in the humanities and their positive assess-ment of the role of parents in sustaininghumanities teaching within the schools. Staffquestioned why, if the public were perceived aslacking appreciation for the humanities, did 66percent of respondents view parental involve-

4G33

ment in the schools as positive? SEA personnelsaw no conflict in this assessment They con-tended, via the telephone, that the public andparents were nut interchangeable terms, and thatonly a minority of the population had children inpublic schools. Further, respondents noted thatparents actively involved in the schools weredisproportionately middle class and educatedand were thus more apt to have a commitment tothe humanities than the general public. Theminority who disagreed with these viewsstressed two points. the public's view of thehumanities was not as dismal as is often thoughtand parents who involve themselves in schoolscare little about instruction, but rather focus Onspecial populations among students.

During telephone interviews. about half of therespondents believed they were capable of signif-iCandt improving humanities instruction in theirstate working from their position within an SEA.Those who saw themselves as being effectivestressed their ability to influence curriculum de-velopment and teaching through the productionof materials and the presentation of workshops;they emphasized the need to suggest rather thanto dictate (or appear to dictate) need for change.States where SEA personnel beheecd their effortsmost effet In e were either smaller states wherethe sta ft could become more easily acquaintedtt ith teachers or states tt here the department ofeducation had significant instructional responsi-bility State htlinalli ,c specialists noted the im-portance of teacher organizations within humani-ties subjects in facilitating their efforts withteachers They saw less to be gamed from hu-manities professional societies and were more aptto belong to professional organizations directedto the needs at the public schools, state affiliatesof the National Education Association or the As-sociation for Supervision and CurriculumDevelopment.

State specialists who discussed their limi-tations in improving humanties instruction,noted the greater difficult in tt orking with hu-manities teachers bet oust. their courses lack thestructural unity of math and science classes Thepublic's perception of the hunianttleS as a siibjectappropriate for wealthier suburban areas alsomakes it more difficult for SEA personnel toargue their general importance. No discrete fund-ing for the humanities harms efforts as well.states commit few funds for any type t f innova-tion or expansion in humanities teaching. whilefederal monies 4. 'riaalh go to support an art ormusic consultant or for computer-based instruc-tion Fmall, difficulties arise from the lack of anagreed -upon definition of the humanities when

instructional specialists from state departmentswork with local principals and superintendentsconcerning their curricula.

Respondents did not agree completely on whatthe Council of Chief State School Officers coulddo a:. an organization to improve humanitiesinstruction within the states. However, theymade a number of individual suggestions, sonicof which reflected a lack of clear understandingof the nature of our current project.

I CCSSO should provide guidance in thewriting of humanities grant applicationsespecially for classroom teachers whohave difficulty with the complexity ofsuch forms. Teachers particularly needhelp with Nal and state humanitiescotincils applications.

2. The project's staff and advisory commit-tee should assist SEA personnel in devel-oping arguments about the worth of hu-manities instruction, focusing on its prac-tical application and on an educationstressing an appreciation of life -longlearning and the ].reds of graduates antheir non-working hours.

3. CCSSO should provide SEA staff withinformation about what is happening inthe humanities in different geographicalregions and inform them of other SEAspecialists who are involved withexemplary projects.

4. CCSSO should establish regional confer-ences about specific humanities subjectsto aid both SEA personnel and teachers indiscovering the best and most currentresearch and knowledge in the varioushumanities disciplines.

5. Because the views and initiatives of chiefstate school officers are important forastate agency to focus more attention onareas of instruction, the Council shouldencourage chiefs to accept the importanceof the humanities and to enable theirstaffs to carry forwa A that conviction.

Ma m of the suggestions made by SEA human-ities contact persons were predicated uponCCSSO's project on the humanities continuingas a clearinghouse for information concerningpre-collegiate instruction, and as an intermediaryamong state agency efforts in behalf of the hu-manities. Although states were interested inreceiving reports of the Council's survey on thehumanities, respondents remembered earlier,short -l.. eel mitiatit es in the humanities tparticu-

4134

lark during the 1960s) that increased enthusiasmfor those subtects but had little lasting effect.Other respondents noted the importance of hav-mg attention to used on the humanities at thenational level, something not generally commonamong educators. Respondents made their mostwide-ra nging comments concerning the difficul-ties their states faced in improving humanitiesinstruction In referring to this issue, they relatedthe humanities to general educational trends, tothe Manual and structural limitations inherent inan SEA, and to the most effective means topresent the humanities to local teachers andad MI nistrators.

A number of state personnel stressed the grow-ing Importance of computers in classroom teach-ing and the need to deal seriously with therelationship between humanities scholarship andcurrent efforts toward technological innovation.[hose speaking to this issue felt quite stronglyabout it, contending that the humanities ignoresuch developments at their own peril. Respond-ents stressed most often, however, the problemscentered upon the issue of definition. Discus-sions with local school officials have convincedSEA personnel that there is a general confusionover the term, "humanities" (.nd that problemsarise over its vagueness and lack of clarity. Manyin the public schools unfamiliar with the humani-ties view values clarification as a synonymousterm. In order to be effective with local adminis-trators and members of school boards, it is im-portant to have solid arguments concerning thenature a nd the essential place of the humanitiesin the secondary curriculum.

42

Their focus on definition included a desire tocorrect the public's misconceptions concerningthe humanities. One means was to make clearthat subjects such as English and history, whichpeople see as mainstays of the public schoolCurriculum, are simply a part of the humanities.Further, educators must ckmoristrate that p-epar-ing children by the acquisition of basic skills,while an important and primary goal. is not allthat is required fora good education Too great anemphasis on basic skills can overlook the signifi-cant educational goals of evaluation and judg-ment or lead, for example, to history being re-duced to dates and events while more complexquestions of causation are slighted.

The views of SEA personnel reveal both thecurrent understanding of what constitutes hu-manities instruction at the elementary and sec-ondary level and suggestions about howCCSSO, and this project specifically, can work toimprove teaching by bringing together state edu-cation agencies, local principals and superinten-dents, and the classroom teacher. Some of thesesuggestions are obviously beyond the purview ofthis project, but in working with state educationagencies, we can suggest where state supportcould make significant difference in curriculumreform, such as developing a humanities core.We: can work with state administrators encourag-ing them to discuss the importance of the hu-manities to principals and administrators, andespecially emphasizing its central importance tothe pursuit of excellence and to instruction in thepublic schools over the next decade.

35

RECOMMENDATIONS

RECOMMENDATIONS FORSTATE EDUCATION AGENCIES:

1. Each state education agency should develop aset of policies, procedures, and organizationalstructures to Waller humanities instruction basedupon the realization that the humanities seldomconstitute an integral unit within the agency'sstructure or within elementary and secondarycurricula generally

2. Each state education agency should encouragethe establishment of a core of common learningincluding the humanities, as well as mathematicsand science.

3. leach state should aid local school districts inassessing current humanities textbooks, to sup-port efforts to encourage the production of betterquality texts, and to provide supplementary ma-terials, including original literary or histoncalsources to accomi.lan% the classroom textbook.

4. Chief state school officers and their staffsshould discuss the importance of the humanitieswith superintendents' and principals' mg:u-:awns and should cooperate with their efforts inimplementing state and local policies regardinghumanities teaching

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THECOUNCIL OF CHIEF STATESCHOOL OFFICERS:

1. The Council of Chf State School Officersshould hold a nationai meeting on the humani-ties for their membership to enable them to dis-cuss Ind fonnuli,te policies that can in turn beimplemented 13% Cieir state education agencies.

2. The Council of Chief StateSchool Officersshould conduct six regional conferences on thehumanities for each SEA to send representain esin 0-der to can) out the recommendations agreedupon at the chiefs' national meeting.

3. CCSSO, building upon the assessments ofSEA personnel, should work with computer andinstructional specialists to determine the utility ofcurrent computer technology for the presentationof humanities materials within the classroom.

4. CCSSO should initiate joint projects with theNational Association of Secondary School Prin-cipals to encourage state education agencies andlocal school administrators to work togethern ore effectively to further the humanities.

GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONSOF THE HUMANITIES ADVISORYCOMMITTEE:

1. State education agencies, in cooperation withCCSSO and state and national humanities in-stitutions, should establish a network amonglocal subject area supervisors, state humantiesspecialists and humanities teachers that will sys-tematically pursue the improvement of humani-ties instruction.

2. State education agencies should cooperateclosely with their state humanities council indeveloping projects that can combine the edu-cational needs of students and the humanitiesgoals of state-based NEH programs.

3. State education agencies should encouragecloser relationships between the community andthe schools by encouraging local school districtsto teach humanities courses in evening highschools and to include groups of citizensseniorcitizens in particularin classes that will blendthe intellectual interests of persons acrossgenerations.

4. The National Endowment for the Humanitiesshould continue its commitment to the needs ofthe public schools, and humanities scholars ingeneral should give greater attention to pre-collegiate instruction when discussing the hu-manities, defining their general outline, and evenwhen pursuing individual scholarship.

5. Higher education organizations should makea more concerted effort to encourage secondaryschool teachers to join and should provide serv-ices of special worth to teachers in order to fostergreater cooperation among professional societiesand teacher organizations pursuing humanitiesteaching and scholarship at the elementary, sec-ondary and higher education levels.

6. State education agency humanities personnel,the National Endowment for the Humanities andhumanities scholars should cooperate in develop-ing a working definition of the humanities thatcan be easily adapted to elementary and second-ary education.

4336

APPENDIX

QUESTIONNAIRE/ A

Definition of the Prim"Humanities"

The humanities arc committedto encouraging "insight, perspec-tive, cnti. al understanding, dis-crimination, and creativity,' as thegeneral educational goals to bepursued in the following subjectsThe "I lumanihtbs can only be de-fined in broad outline, at their mostbasic they are the study of lan-guages, literature, history,philosophy, musicology and arthistory and cntosm. For theelementary level these areas wouldnormally be taught within the fol-lowing subjects. language arts,reading, social studies, music andart. At the secondary level theywould tall under English, socialstudies, foreign languages, art andmusic Most centrally. the humani-ties focus on the culture, under-standing and feelings of humanexperience, for which they providenot precise answers but a richersense of questions andpossibilities

Thus general discussion of thehumanities is not intended as de-finitive and is provided only asguidance for t ompleting this vv.-humane. It is mchided so that wecan gather consistent data no mat-ter how your state defines the hu-manities and no matter how it or-ganises responsibility for humani-ties instruction in your SEA

A. S l*RUCTURI: OF :31AI I; IOU.cmioN AG1 NO' if your hu-manities subjects differ from those(Ned in our dehmtion, you can soindicate in question 4 of thissection.

1. Does your state have a unitfor the humanities within its or-ganmational structure?

2. If your answer to question l isyes, what subjects an: includeduithin the humanities'

3, Does your state agency em-ploy instructional specialists re-sponsible solely for the follow-ing subject areas or does it em-ploy generalists whose dutiesint ludo responsibility for thesesubject areas' Please indicate thenumber of individuals and the

percentage of their time devotedto the following subject areas.

a. Englishb Historyc Other social studiesd Foreign languagese Artf Music

4. If none of theabove accu-rately describes your state agen-cy's division of responsibility forhumanities instruction, pleasedescnbe that structure

B. GOALS. In this section we aremost interested in discovering howthe humanities fit into your state'sgeneral educational goals

1. Does your state have generaleducational goals established bythe state board of education

2. Does your state have generaleducational guidelines distrib-uted by the chief state schoolofficer to local educationalauthorities?

3. Has your SEA den elopedguidelines for instruction in thegeneral area of the humanities?

4. Has yoor SEA developedguidelines for insiniction in thefollowing subject areas withinthe humanities*?

a. Englishb. Historyc. Other social studiesd Foreign languagese. ArtI Music

5. If your state has developedinstructional guidelines for thehumanities in ways differentfrom those listed in questionsI-4, please explain:

C. CURRICULUM. I sere wean:gathering more specific informa-tion about your course offerings,requirements and curricularguidelines for humanities subjects,especially particular directives,guidance materials or sup-plementary materials that statesdistribute to local districts.

1. Does your SLA provide cur-ricular guidelines and sup-plementart instructional mate-rials for (1)a program or courseentitled, "humanities," or (2)

44

any of the subjects listed below'a. Humanities (elementary)b Humanitiesnines (seeondary)c Englishd Historye Other social studiesf Foreign languagesg. Arth. Musici Other (specify)

2. Does your SEA stipulate par-ticular skills lobe masteredunder (I) the general area of thehumanities (2) within any of thefollowing subject areas?

a. Humanitiesb. Englishc Historyd. Other social studiese Foreign languages,

g. Musich. Reading comprehension

(elementary)i Reading comprehension

(secondary)ScienceMathematics

I,k.

3. has your state board of edu-cation adopted a plan for acompetency-based educationalprogram?

a. If yes, is the general area ofhumanities included within it?b. If yes, please check any ofthe following subjects that arespecifically included: English,I listory, Other social studies,Foreign languages, Art,Music.

4. Does your SEA mandate in-struction for the LEAs in any ofthe following areas"

a. English or language artsb. Historyc. Other social studiesd Foreign languagese. Artf. Music

0. fli.STING. We would like to de-termine the kinds of examinationsadministered at the state level andthe attention given to the humani-ties in these tests IM., are particu-larly interested in determiningwhether statewide testing isprimarily focused on basic com-petencies rather than on higherlevel skills taught in most humani-ties subjects.

37

1, Dots our state administeram of the follow ing of e\aminations) Please pro% itle thename of the test anti the date itA trithatett

a StatewideCompetenct -based

h National StandardizedOther tpet it'

ti None

2. Is the primary purpose of thisexamination to determine mineMIMI skill levels?

3. Does t our state administerspecialized humanities exam-inations is k. tests on federal orstate onstittifion. U.S. or statehistiort.

4. Indicate each area and gradelet el in is hit h your state ad-ministers sta to hie. stand-ardized, or other 0,31113nationsFur grade levels I-6. subjects,Language arts. Reading, I litorKOther social studies. Art, Music,Math and Science For gradelevels 7-12, st3hleits English,I listory, Other viral studies,Foreign languages. Art, Musk,Math and Science

E. i I BOOKS We are interestedin determining d cour state hasstatett kie textbook adoption policyor it the selection of textbooks isleft to the LEAs,

1. Does dour state hat eatextbook adoption policy' (Itre. please ubnut current listsfor humanities subject areas.)

2. It your state does not have atextbook adoption policy, do voupros 'deafly type of guidance tolocal thstrnts for purchasingtextbooks"

3. It your slate does not have atextbook adoption policy, do yoobat e textbook guidelines (Or thehumanitk subject areas'

(eRADUAllON REQUIRE -MI NI'S Please answer the sec-tions belon whether or nut yourstate has specific statewide gradua-tion requirements. liar question 2,it Your stale has no graduation re-+moments. please respond interms of general educationaltrends

1. Does t our statt hat earnfatw ide graduationrequirements'

2. Indicate the degretotiinCrea.,e. de( wow. no c 'inge)hi the lotion mg over the lastdet ade.

a Number of social studiesunits

b Number of history C41tir.,e1/2%%Min X141 studies units

t Number of foreignlanguage courses

d. Number of English unitse Number of literature

courses within Englishunits

I Number of composition orgrit courses tt ithinEroglish units

G. SLA's FUNDING PROVI-SIONS. We are interested in de-terms lung how your state agencyspends its diserehemary incomeand to tt hot extent that income iscommitted to the area of humani-ties instruction.

1. What percentage of yourSE/ Vs discretionary funds (eitherfederal or state) o er the last fiveyears has been committed to thetollowing areas/ If available,please provide dollar amounts

a I iu ma nities instructiongenerally

b Pilot projects or specialprograms in thehumanities subject areas

2. I las your state issued re-quest for proposals or tither fi-nancial directives to LEAs askingthem to submit proposals orprojects for funding in humani-ties sullied areas?

3. Please list examples of pro-grams in humanities subjectsthat your state agency initiatedtwo- the last five Years.

H. EDUCATIONAL DEVELOP-MENT This section should becompleted by the humanities con-tact person

1. Please indicate what vote con-sider to be the effects (negative.neutral or positive) of the follow-ing developments on the quan-tity and quality of humanitiesinstruction in the elementary

45

and erontiart curriculuma "Back to basics"

movementb Teat lung for standardized

testingt I ot tls un htCohlpteheyd Use of corn inners for

learninge. Growth in course offerings

Emphasis on vocationaltraining

g Growth of talented andgifted programs

h Gtundnivetsh of international

i Parental involvement inthe schoolsChanges in class, ethnicityand race of public schoolpopulation

k Changes in class, ethnicityand race of public schoolteachers

I. Growth in junior collegesystem

m. Reducathm in liberal artsrequirements for educationmajors

n. Other (specify)

2. Do you feel that formulationof new policies at the stale levelwill lead to improved humani-ties instructoon in your state?

If yes, what policy changeswould you suggest?

3. What do you see as the majordifficulties to be faced in improv-ing humanities instruchonwithin in your slate?

SELECTED WORKSON HUMANITIESINSTRUCTION

AIXER, N.1()RI IMF R J Int Pahl,Prepotil 11,onie.teNeu \ork Maeiuillan PublishingCo Inc 1982

Al'I'l 1.111 I 11.12 N Latter..":in in( ft (hboic e: I rOii

I Crbana, Illinois Na-tional ( mind of leachers of I lig-lush, 1974

Hie Arts and 1 Ionia times inAmerica's Sc he (Special Issue)

ferl PIN! b.t the tnItri, anadorn, t sPid ri t,r SOM.me r I1483

n AA:km..1), F CRAN' Sooi. !rt.. Re: ho4c,ek

pi ltd, ortic rtt t 'two New Nods.Vintage Books, 1980

Iii RI All RC, secoa/siodk ROOF pit Mtii l:44 Boulder,Colorado. Social Science EducationConsortium, Inc 198I

1100K, JN hau lo,, in,re: %ma; few (4 VII !psi

silts se; or leap. Urbana, Illinois.National Council of lox hers ofEnglish, 1979,

LADNER, BENJAMIN, eel /hehananitit. Sin Pie( 441e5Z141 te I .Illtttrtttfl

Chicago National Society for theStudy of Education, forthcoming,1984.

REPORT OF T1 !1: COMMISSIONON rnE HUMANITIES I lwilumanine. tit .tinerttaii I deBerkeley, California. University ofCalifornia Press, 1980.

RONNING, RONALD I I andREEDY, JEREMIAI I, eds Ae titidai-mg Me Met/able Amon& lies to thekat luii of the lbw:tonne- 1Vashing-ton, D.C.. University Press ofAmerica, 1979

STATE EDUCATIONAGENCIESHUMANITIESCONTACTS

11:11 {:1.11.1

C Berryman, DirectorDivision of Instnictional Ser. tie.

1I lsn IVerdell Jackson, Program ManagerCareer Illd Votational Education

MI Rh 1 s 1110APaul Stevenson, Program DirectorInstnictional Deceit opment

Mit )N. 1Humus R Reno. Associate

superintendent

IR& 1 N.sBrenda turner, Art Education

Specialist

If i1 ORM 1Kat I gner. Pine Arts ConsultantLouis Nash, Fine Arts Consultant

(retired)

t 01012 11)0fray Pillars. State Coonlma forStudent Program.. tor Gifted

4.lif talented

(-MAI Cl/C(1IFrancis A McElaney, Assistant

DirectorDivision of Elementary and

Secondary Fducation

/)/1.11ARIGary I loupt, State SupervisorEnglish Language Arts

DIS1 RIC I Of COLI.1111MAMary White, Supervising

DirectorEnglish *Language Arts

II ()MAJames L Crosier, A demonstrator.

Program AssistanceBureau of Curriculum Services

cif ORGIAClaude !vie, DirectorArts and Humanities

(;11.1.11Frank D. Lizama, Associate

SuperintendentCurriculum and Instniction

4C

11 -111

elvn Mint-lona im. AssistantSuperintendent

°On tot !wank tional Services

III 1/14 )Bert Portia, ( onsultantNfusit. Art

/I/ I N.0 1/S

I yntion Wharton, ManagerProgram Planning and

I)eveltopment

1\0/Rita S. Schilling, State

I Itimainties Consultant

nALaura Magee, ConsultantArts Education

n:1 \S,ISRav Linder, Ethic-Moon

Program Specialist

VItIC/0Donald B.1 hinter, Assistant

Superintendent for Instruction

It )01SIA.N...1I Wien Brown, DirectorBureau of Curriculum Inservice

and Staff Development

Patricia O'Connell, ConsultantGifted and Talented Education

.11.4107

Richard J Deasy, Assistant SlateSuperintendent

Division of Instruction

MASSACIRISI 1. ISJames H. Case, Associate

CommissionerCurriculum and Instruction

MICHIGANTeressa V. Staten, Interim

SupervisorInstructional Specialist- Prgratn

MINNLSOIAGilbert Valdes, Supervisor

of Curriculum

.v1;SSISSIPPIRalph Brewer, threctorDivision of Instruction

N1155()IliZIWarren 1 I. Solomon, Director of

Curriculum Dissemination

39

thravt,.%Rod Stec, Assistant

superintendent for Bass( skills

%I iii isk 1Stan Carlson, Administrator( urriculum and lnstnictional

tele. ision

\11.1p.iBill Abrams, I duration ( onstiltantBasic I (location Branch

\! WHAM:NI URI[rank II %%%%% ii, Chiet

In iskin 01 Instruction

\I11 II.RSE )I heotiore Gourley. Acting

Assistant Commissionernit mon 01 School Programs

\1 iv ",II KILOcanne Knight. firer torI lementary and Secondary

Edutation

\!11 ) OnDonald 11 Bragaii. ChiefBureau of SOlial Studies

\ORM CAROLINABetty Moore, Special Assistant for

Curriculum and AdministrationInstructional Services

NORM DAM/ /APaincal I lerbel. Curriculum

Coordinator

01110Frank I. Schiraldt, ConsultantSocial Studies K-I2

Oki 111().11.1

Mart Reid, Adsumistratot( urn( ulum Set non

OR I CA) 's,'

David Arlington, ( urritulumSpecialist

Languages and Sot tat Studies

Pt vcs) 1 vn viA

!arid Campbell, DirectorBureau of Cork oluin and

Instruction

PEI! Kit ) RICOAnibal Laureano. DirectorLinguistic Corn ponent ,

Bilingual Education Program

1<11( int ISLANDlamee M Baker. CoordinatorNianagement Information Unit

WWI I CAROLINAI toward Y Thomas. Social

Studies Consultant

S( 41711 I /AKOIAJot CV Levin, Program DirectorCurriculum and Instruction.

Division of Elementary andSecondary Education

1 LNNI 5511Beasley Overbet, Art Specialist

II.XASI homas I:. Anderson, Ir ,

Deputy Commissionerfor Planning, Researchand Curriculum

47

!RIM I I RRI WWI SI hiabeth 1) Rechebei,

CoordinatorChapter 1 Program..

t11,4/1Leroy Lindeman, AdministratorDivision of Curnculu ea and

Instruction

V/ R1VION TJames Lengel, Acting, Director:-ederal Assistance

VIRGINIANOMA P. Bradner. DirectorDivision of Humanities and

Secondary Administration

11:1SIIINGTONLarry Strickland. SupervisorSocial Studies Programs

WEST VIRGINIAJeanne Moore. Music Coordinator

WISCONSINEunice Bethke. ChiefCurriculum Development Section

wyOMINGAudrey M. Cot hernia n. Deputy

SuperintendentSecondary Education

40