Text: SCR00026 Text: SCR00028 Text: SCR00000 - SCR00099 Text: SCR Index Bills and Amendments: General Index Bill History: General Index
PAG LIN
1 1 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. ____
1 2 BY CONNOLLY
1 3 A Concurrent Resolution urging Iowa's congressional
1 4 delegation to support a federal appropriation to
1 5 implement the Teaching America's History program.
1 6 WHEREAS, in July 2000, the United States House of
1 7 Representatives and Senate unanimously passed
1 8 Concurrent Resolution 366, which states that a basic
1 9 knowledge of history is "essential to a full and
1 10 informed participation in civic life and to the larger
1 11 vibrancy of our experiment in self-government," and
1 12 calls for a national response to the nation's growing
1 13 ignorance of American history; and
1 14 WHEREAS, the 1994 National Assessment of
1 15 Educational Progress reported that only 17 percent of
1 16 fourth graders, 14 percent of eighth graders, and 11
1 17 percent of twelfth graders were judged to be
1 18 proficient in their knowledge of history; over one-
1 19 third of fourth and eighth graders failed to reach the
1 20 basic level of proficiency and more than half of the
1 21 twelfth graders surveyed could not even achieve a
1 22 basic understanding of the history of their own
1 23 nation; and
1 24 WHEREAS, teachers too often do not have sufficient
1 25 expertise in historical understanding, and according
1 26 to the National Center for Education Statistics, 81
1 27 percent of United States social studies teachers did
1 28 not major or minor in history; and
1 29 WHEREAS, since 1974, a nonprofit organization
1 30 called National History Day has sponsored an
2 1 innovative program to reform the teaching and learning
2 2 of history in America; and
2 3 WHEREAS, the program, Teaching America's History,
2 4 developed by National History Day in cooperation with
2 5 the National Council for History Education, assists
2 6 teachers in modifying their approach to teaching
2 7 history by enhancing teaching methods to include
2 8 primary documents and community resources, and trains
2 9 participants to educate other teachers in these
2 10 methods; and
2 11 WHEREAS, the National Council for History Education
2 12 has worked in over 30 states to improve the quality of
2 13 history standards in state documents and in
2 14 instruction to implement the standards; and
2 15 WHEREAS, the National Council for History Education
2 16 programs and conferences have engaged more than 8,000
2 17 teachers, who have in turn taught an average of 125
2 18 students per day, resulting in the improvement of
2 19 learning of history for 1,000,000 students per day;
2 20 and
2 21 WHEREAS, the National History Day and National
2 22 Council for History Education programs offer
2 23 complementary summer and school year in-service
2 24 training programs to inform and instruct teachers in
2 25 effective teaching methods and history content; and
2 26 WHEREAS, funding is necessary to achieve the
2 27 purposes of supporting and expanding the program to
2 28 improve the teaching and learning of history in every
2 29 region of the United States; NOW THEREFORE,
2 30 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE, THE HOUSE OF
3 1 REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING, That Iowa's congressional
3 2 delegation is urged to support a federal appropriation
3 3 for implementation of the program, Teaching America's
3 4 History, a joint effort of the National History Day
3 5 program and the National Council For History.
3 6 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That, upon adoption, the
3 7 Secretary of the Senate shall send a copy of this
3 8 Resolution to each member of Iowa's congressional
3 9 delegation: Senator Charles E. Grassley, Senator Tom
3 10 Harkin, Representative Jim Leach, Representative Jim
3 11 Nussle, Representative Leonard L. Boswell,
3 12 Representative Greg Ganske, and Representative Tom
3 13 Latham.
3 14 LSB 3672SS 79
3 15 vl/cls/14.1
Text: SCR00026 Text: SCR00028 Text: SCR00000 - SCR00099 Text: SCR Index Bills and Amendments: General Index Bill History: General Index
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