Survey targets history program
Some say US topics get short shrift
By Matt Viser, Globe Staff  |  October 2, 2005

Don't know much about history.

At least that's what some Newton parents fear is the case with their grade-schoolers, according to a recent report that analyzed how parents, teachers, and administrators view the School Department's social studies curriculum.

Teachers feel overloaded with the amount of history and social studies text they are expected to teach. Parents question whether multiculturalism is being stressed at the expense of American history. And among parents, teachers, and administrators, debate continues over whether Newton should bring its curriculum more in line with state guidelines to prepare for standardized testing.

The internal 43-page report on the history curriculum, which was obtained by the Globe, is the result of 14 focus groups that met from January to July and is part of a review of the way Newton students are taught history and social sciences. Researchers from Woburn-based Learning Innovations at WestEd also drew on a survey of 94 teachers, 56 of whom are from elementary schools.

''There is considerable fragmentation, many content gaps, and a general lack of coherence across K-12 in providing the full array of [history, geography, and current events] to students," the report said.

The report does not offer any clear-cut recommendations, instead calling for more meetings and leaving it to school administrators to decide what to do with the findings. But it does show the pulse of the department's feelings about the ways students learn about topics from the Roman Empire to the American Revolution.

''Many teachers and administrators indicate that there is a curriculum overload -- simply too much to teach with too little time," the report said. ''There is considerable agreement among elementary teachers that the amount of time that they are able to spend on social studies is inadequate."

One elementary school teacher said the ''curriculum is a mile wide and an inch deep."

The report looked at curriculum from kindergarten through 12th grade, but most of the emphasis appeared to be on the elementary schools.

Half of the elementary school teachers who were surveyed said they spend less than 30 minutes each day on social studies. Nearly two-thirds of the teachers said the time was inadequate.

The survey also found:

Eight out of 10 teachers said they implement curriculum as expected by the department, yet seven out of 10 said the department's expectations are not clear to them.

More than half of the teachers said the curriculum materials provided to them are not adequate.

Teachers said the biggest challenge for them is providing opportunities for students to delve deeply into a curriculum area.

The survey of parents and teachers appears to support the concerns raised by a group of parents last spring that formed to question the emphasis that the elementary schools place on multicultural education. The group, Newton Parents for Education, calls itself ''Newton's curricular conscience" and has about three dozen members who are part of an informal e-mail network.

''I think Newton has run the politically correct thing to the max at the very high cost of doing some balance," said one elementary school teacher in the report, which kept the opinions anonymous. ''The kids know more about MLK than Thomas Jefferson and Edison."

Greer Tan Swiston, who helped form Newton Parents for Education, said she was in a fifth-grade classroom as a guest speaker last year and the students were at a loss to answer a question about why Independence Day is celebrated in the United States.

''I would like to see more exposure to US history and US civics," said Swiston, who is running for a seat on the Board of Aldermen.

Another parent, Linda Farina, said one of her children at Franklin Elementary School did not learn about Christopher Columbus until fifth grade.

Carolyn D. Wyatt, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, downplayed the criticism as coming from only a handful of parents and teachers, but she said a 30-member committee of parents, teachers, and administrators is studying how to address the concerns.

''Part of what a review does is examine what we have and look at what needs to be changed," Wyatt said. ''We're in process of doing that very thing."

While appreciating the department's efforts to cover a broad spectrum of cultures, parents and teachers say that the schools are straying from the state guidelines and shortchanging American history. They fear this approach could put Newton students at a disadvantage when the state begins standardized testing on social studies.

Newton's curriculum for first grade, for example, suggests that students learn the biographies of four of six figures: Benjamin Banneker, Yo-Yo Ma, Rachel Carson, Selma Burke, Mae Jemison, and Thomas Edison. The only one of those that the state has on its list is Edison.

Parents are also critical of the second-grade curriculum, titled ''Children of China, Children of Ghana, Children of Mexico," which focuses on those countries and provides an introduction to world geography. The state's second-grade unit is called ''E Pluribus Unum" and covers world geography and American traditions.

Newton school administrators say that thosethree countries were chosen to reflect the city's population: Chinese-Americans are the largest minority group, African-American the next largest, and the Hispanic population is growing rapidly.

Al Frascella, director of communications for the National Council for the Social Studies, said school departments around the country grapple with how to allocate study time.

''Teaching about other countries, there's nothing wrong with it," he said. ''But there has to be a balance. In general, you first learn about yourself and the people around you.

''As you go through the grades, you learn more about the world, usually hitting on world history in middle school or high school, with some geography in late elementary school," he said.

Massachusetts provides guidelines for school departments to follow, but they are not mandatory. Newton for years has had a different focus and a different order to its curriculum.

The state is planning to pilot a social studies MCAS test in 2007, but likely will not make it a graduation requirement until sometime after 2010.

Teacher complaints that they lack time to teach social studies echo concerns expressed nationally, as schools place more emphasis on reading and math to satisfy the No Child Left Behind program, Frascella said.

''There's always a competition for time, meaning the school day is only so long," Wyatt said. ''We are constantly looking at issues related to time." She said they have not started to look at solutions for the time crunch in social studies.

Teachers in the study offered one possible answer: better coordination among subject areas. A language arts teacher, for example, could teach ''The Iliad" and ''The Odyssey" while students are learning about ancient Greece in their history class.

The School Committee is scheduled hear an update on changes to the social studies curriculum in January.

The review is part of a five-year process that began in 2003. Wyatt said some of the changes could be implemented in the next school year.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.