U.S. Students and Geography

A Chicago Trib story today reveals U.S. students have a "tenuous command" of basic geography, "including knowledge of the natural environment, how it shapes society and other cultures and countries."

Fewer than a quarter of high school seniors scored proficiently on the geography test, down from 25 percent in 2001 and 29 percent in 1994, when the national geography exam first was administered. The decline seen in the twelfth-grade scores was the most dramatic of any grade tested.

Ouch.

The funny thing is my daughter, an Honors student and scary smart, she sucks at geography.  But even she would pass the exam above with flying colors.

Earlier this year we had civics and history scores and across all of them, high school seniors did the worst.  Perhaps it's because a lot of this isn't part of the grand No Child Left Untested.  Regardless of the cause, it's bad news.