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Learning Less: Public School Teachers Describe a Narrowing Curriculum

Highlights from a survey by Common Core and the Farkas Duffett Research Group Sponsored by the Ford Foundation and the American Federation of Teachers

Complete Findings | Learning Less Report

This national survey of 1,001 3rd-to-12th grade public school teachers is an attempt to gather data about teacher behavior and classroom practice. The survey asked teachers to provide detailed reporting on what they see happening in their classrooms and schools: How are they spending class time? How does state testing affect what they do? Which subjects get more attention and which get less?

Now is a particularly good time to check in with teachers. For more than two decades, the nation has been implementing local, state, and federal standards and assessment policies in an attempt to make schools, districts, and states more accountable for student performance, and policymakers’ interest in these types of reform has grown over time. It is important to know the impact of reform on the content of what students are taught. Considerable anecdotal evidence exists to suggest that current policies have had a dramatic impact on what doe —and does not—get taught in today’s classrooms. This survey attempts to put some numbers to those trends.

According to most teachers, schools are narrowing curriculum, shifting instructional time and resources toward math and language arts and away from subjects such as art, music, foreign language, and social studies.

• Two-thirds (66%) say that other subjects “get crowded out by extra attention being paid to math or language arts” (Figure 1)
• Math (55%) and language arts (54%) are the only two subjects getting more attention, according to most teachers; in sharp contrast, about half say that art (51%) and music (48%) get less attention; 40% say the same for foreign language, 36% for social studies, and 27% for science (Figure 2)

All students appear to be affected—not just those who are struggling.

• 77% of teachers who believe math and language arts crowd out other subjects say this happens across the full student body; only 21% say it is targeted to struggling students

These findings suggest that curriculum narrowing is more prevalent in elementary schools.

• The vast majority of elementary school teachers (81%) report that other subjects are getting crowded out by extra attention being paid to math or language arts (62% middle school; 54% high school) (Figure 3)
• About half (51%) of elementary school teachers say that struggling students get extra help in math or language arts by getting pulled out of other classes; the most likely subjects are social studies (48%) and science (40%)
• 59% of elementary school teachers report that social studies has been getting less instructional time and resources (28% middle school; 20% high school); 46% say the same about science (20% middle school; 14% high school)

Most of the teachers surveyed believe that state tests in math and language arts drive curriculum narrowing. They say that the testing regimen has penetrated school culture and caused vast changes in day-to-day teaching.

• Among those who say crowding out is taking place in their schools, virtually all (93%) believe that this is largely driven by state tests
• 60% say in recent years there’s been more class time devoted to test-taking skills
• Almost two out of three teachers (65%) say they’ve “had to skip important topics in [my] subject in order to cover the required curriculum”
• 80% report that “more and more” of the time they should be spending on teaching students is spent on “paperwork and reporting requirements to meet state standards”

According to teachers, the seemingly singular focus on math and language arts at the expense of other subjects has led to other outcomes:

• 90% say that when a subject is included in the state’s system of testing, it is taken more seriously, and 61% say it’s easier to get money for technology and materials for subjects that are tested
• 80% say that their school has been offering more “extra help for students struggling in math and language arts” in recent years
• Among teachers who say other subjects are getting crowded out due to extra attention given to math or language arts, 60% say that the extra attention has resulted in higher test scores and 46% say it has resulted in improved student skills and knowledge
• Fully three in 10 teachers (31%) say this statement comes either somewhat or very close to their view: “High-stakes testing makes it too tempting for teachers and administrators to manipulate test scores — after all, their jobs are on the line”

The nonpartisan Farkas Duffett Research Group (FDR Group) conducted this research at the request of Common Core, and the FDR Group is solely responsible for the interpretation and analysis of these survey findings.

Why We’re Behind: What Top Nations Teach Their Students But We Don’t

A report showing that the nations that consistently outrank us on international comparison tests provide their students with a fulsome education in the liberal arts and sciences.

Complete Report

Excerpt: Letter from the Executive Director

Each of the nations that consistently outrank the United States on the PISA exam provides their students with a comprehensive, content-rich education in the liberal arts and sciences. These nations differ greatly with regard to how they accomplish this goal. Some have a national curriculum and standards but no tests, others have both, and some leave everything up to the states. Interestingly, no state-based nation in our sample currently has a national curriculum or standards, though one is attempting to develop some.

So what is the common ingredient across these varied nations? It is not a delivery mechanism or an accountability system that these high-performing nations share: it is a dedication to educating their children deeply in a wide range of subjects.

Our report lists the subjects each nation requires in compulsory education. But it is the raw material—the excerpts from national curricula, standards, and assessments—that conveys the richness of education in these nations:

• Fourth graders in Hong Kong visit an artist’s studio, study Picasso’s Guernica, and analyze the works of modernist sculptor Henry Moore.
• Finnish 5th and 6th graders study how the invention of writing changed human life and the impacts of the French Revolution; they trace a topic such as the evolution of trade from prehistory until the 19th century.
• Seventh graders in Korea are expected to know not just about supply and demand, but about equilibrium price theories, property rights, and ways to improve market function.
• Japanese 7th to 9th graders “conduct experiments regarding pressure to discover that pressure is related to the magnitude of a force and the area.”
• Eighth graders from the Canadian province of Ontario are expected to create musical compositions, conduct, and know musical terms in Italian.
• Dutch 12th graders must know enough about seven events connected to the Crimean War to be able to put them in chronological order.
• Canadian 12th graders in British Columbia are expected to identify the author of the words: “Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men” and to what Admiral Nimitz was referring when he said: “Pearl Harbor has now been partially avenged.”
• On a Swiss examination 12th graders write an essay analyzing JFK’s October 1962 proclamation that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

We believe more research should be conducted into the relationship between content and achievement. This research should be done now because if what this report suggests is true—that a comprehensive, content-rich curriculum is the key to high achievement—than we have a lot of work to do here in the United States.

In recent years, America has increasingly embraced education policies and practices that have made our children’s education narrower and more basic. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is part of the cause of this, but is by no means the only culprit. NCLB’s intense focus on reading and math skills has dumbed down the curriculum, but so have trends such as the 21st century skills movement, which promote the teaching of skills such as media savvy and entrepreneurship disconnected from content of any significance.

We must join our desire to compete with other nations with a willingness to learn from them. Common Core hopes that the materials assembled here will encourage that desire to learn.

Continued in the Complete Report.

Excerpts (PDF format)

• Letter from the Executive Director
• Foreword by Diane Ravitch and Antonia Cortese
• Finland
• Hong Kong
• South Korea
• High Achieving Countries Don’t Narrow by Martin West
• Canada
• Japan
• New Zealand
• The Case for Content Specificity by Sheila Byrd Carmichael
• Australia
• Netherlands
• Switzerland
• Comprehensive Education Outside the United States by Eduardo Andere
• Contributors, Endnotes, Sources, Permissions and Acknowledgements

Still at Risk: What Students Don’t Know, Even Now

Common Core surveyed 17-year-olds and found their knowledge of history and literature — from Columbus to Hitler and Oedipus to The Scarlet Letter — sorely lacking

By Frederick M. Hess

Complete Report

Excerpt: Letter from the Executive Director

Senator Joseph McCarthy investigated people who protested the war in Vietnam, better known as the Second World War. Fortunately, that war was over before Christopher Columbus sailed to America; otherwise, we might have never experienced the Renaissance.

A new survey of 17-year-olds reveals that, to many, the paragraph above sounds only slightly strange. Almost 20 percent of 1,200 respondents to a national telephone survey do not know who our enemy was in World War II, and more than a quarter think Columbus sailed after 1750. Half do not know whom Sen. McCarthy investigated or what the Renaissance was.

It is easy to make light of such ignorance. In reality, however, a deep lack of knowledge is neither humorous nor trivial. What we know helps to determine how successful we are likely to be in life and how many career paths we can choose from. It also affects our contribution as democratic citizens.

Unfortunately, too many young Americans do not possess the kind of basic knowledge they need. When asked fundamental questions about U.S. history and culture, they score a D and exhibit stunning knowledge gaps:

• Nearly a quarter of those surveyed could not identify Adolf Hitler; 10 percent think he was a munitions manufacturer
• Fewer than half can place the Civil War in the correct half-century
• Only 45 percent can identify Oedipus
• A third do not know that the Bill of Rights guarantees the freedom of speech and religion
• Forty-four percent think that The Scarlet Letter was either about a witch trial or a piece of correspondence

There are parents all over America for whom this is no surprise. They know that the focus of their child’s school day is increasingly on preparing for basic skills tests, not on learning history or geography, reading literature, or participating in the arts. And their child’s teacher often shares in their frustration.

Another concern the survey identifies is a consistent gap—the size of a letter-grade—between respondents who have at least one college-educated parent and those who do not. This is devastating for students who come from homes where the discussion of literature and history is rare because if the school doesn't impart this knowledge, these students are not likely ever to learn it. The burden on schools serving less-privileged students is great because they must somehow teach more just to get their students to the starting line. This survey shows that that challenge is not being adequately met.

When students graduate without knowing what Brown v. Board of Education decided or who told them to “ask not what your country can do for you,” they are being left behind in the worst way. Everyone’s children deserve to receive a comprehensive, content-rich education in the liberal arts and sciences. Of course they must be able to read and compute. But they must also possess real knowledge about important things, knowledge of civics, biology, geography, art history, languages—the full range of subjects that comprise a complete education. Any reform idea that diminishes the ability of schools and teachers to provide students with such an education is narrowing children’s futures, not expanding them.

Continued in the Complete Report.

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