Until recently, it was difficult to persuade parents and students about the importance of learning history. It was easy to explain why it is so important for everyone to learn to read and write or to master mathematics and science. Those studies are necessary for success in everyday life, for higher education, and for the job market.

By contrast, the case for history seemed somehow abstract.

But since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001—which I witnessed from the Brooklyn waterfront near my home—no one needs to be reminded about how important it is to learn history. We know now that our ability to survive as a nation depends on our belief in our purposes as a nation, and this can only come from the knowledge about ourselves that the study of U.S. history provides. It is also clear that we need to know the history of other nations and civilizations. We need to know much more than the current news that we encounter each day on television. So much of what we see and hear each day is a product of history, and to understand it, we need a firm background knowledge of history.

All of us need the knowledge and analytical skills that can be gained only through the systematic study of history. All of us need to understand the ideas, the traditions, and the democratic values that unify our nation. This is not possible unless one has studied and learned the history of the United States.

Given what I believe is a clear and persuasive case for the value of knowing history, the results of the U.S. History Assessment of 2001 offer a mixed and troublesome picture. On the one hand, our younger students in the fourth and eighth grades have made some significant gains. On the other, high school seniors registered truly abysmal scores, and showed no improvement since the NAEP history assessment was last given in 1994. Since the seniors are very close to voting age or already have reached it, one can only feel alarm that they know so little about their nation's history and express so little capacity to reflect on its meaning.

In fourth grade, there was a significant increase in the proportion of children who scored at the basic achievement level or above (from 64 percent to 67 percent). In eighth grade, there also was a significant rise in the proportion reaching basic (from 61 percent to 64 percent). There was an increase in eighth graders reaching proficient too, and that is good news. Yet, the proportion of eighth graders at proficient or above climbed from 14 percent in 1994 to just 17 percent last year—still a disappointing situation.

Proficient, we should recall, represents solid academic performance, and it should be the level of academic attainment that we expect for all students. Yes, it is a high standard, but it is not unreasonable. Read over the sample questions included in the report, and I think you will agree that they are not beyond the capacity of our students.

In twelfth grade, at a time when students have usually completed their formal school studies of history, 57 percent fall below basic, an achievement level that denotes only partial mastery of significant historical knowledge and analytical skills. This finding duplicates exactly the awful results of the last U.S. history assessment in 1994.

In no other subject assessed by NAEP do more than half of high school seniors register below basic. In science, the proportion at this very low level is 47 percent, which itself is a very disturbing figure. In mathematics, the proportion of twelfth-graders below basic is 35 percent; in reading, it is 23 percent.

All these figures show that there are massive numbers of poorly-educated young adults on the verge of graduating from our high schools—a situation profoundly damaging to their lives and future prospects. Such poor results in U.S. history are cause for additional alarm at a time when the United States is under terrorist threat. Our ability to defend—intelligently and thoughtfully—what we as a nation hold dear depends on our knowledge and understanding of what we hold dear. That can only be achieved through learning the history we share, and clearly far too many high school seniors have not learned even a modest part of it.

The National Assessment assesses performance, but because of its structure as a representative-sample survey, it cannot tell us why students did well or poorly. We can guess, or hope, that the gains in fourth and eighth grades were caused by the greater attention given to improving history instruction over the past decade and by the activities at the state and local levels of groups like the National Council for History Education.

The assessment does record some important differences among classrooms. The background analysis shows that fourth graders whose teachers spend more than 180 minutes a week on social studies get higher average scores than those with teachers who spend less time. Students who read almost daily from a textbook get higher average scores than those using a textbook less. Those who use a computer in school daily for social studies get lower scores, and those who use a computer to do research and write reports get higher scores.

The gains in fourth and eighth grade demonstrate that improvement is possible, that young students can learn U.S. history and begin to think critically about the past. The stagnation at a low level in the twelfth grade suggests that high school seniors still have a very long way to go. Clearly, our high schools are failing to teach U.S. history well and to awaken mature students to the value of history as a study that matters deeply in their own lives and to the life of our nation.