U.S. public schools mandate teaching about religion, new report finds

11.20.00

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ARLINGTON, Va. — A new report by the Council on Islamic Education and the First Amendment Center reveals that nearly every state mandates the teaching about religion in public school social studies classes.

"Now public education has finally acknowledged that study about religion is an essential part of a good education, even while promoting religion in schools is inappropriate. This reflects both the consensus built by the First Amendment Center and the uniquely fair and balanced guidelines for teaching about religion that the organization has promoted," said Shabbir Mansuri, Founding Director of the Council on Islamic Education.

"Teaching about Religion in National and State Social Studies Standards" is the first study to examine how the new standards movement deals with religion. The finding that standards cover religion is significant, Mansuri says, because the content of national and state standards largely determine if, when, and how religion is studied in the classroom.

State standards documents will decisively impact content in teaching, textbooks and testing for the foreseeable future. The study by the Council on Islamic Education and the First Amendment Center analyzes the standards and program frameworks in seven national curriculum documents, most of which were published in the early 1990s, as well as the academic standards documents adopted or undergoing adoption by most of the 50 states.

While the report shows positive signs for the future of teaching about religion in public schools, it also reveals some important limitations in the standards, raising the question of whether the subject is being pursued with much seriousness or depth. Among the weaknesses in the state standards documents identified in the study:

Coverage of religion in the early grades is mostly superficial.

Many American history courses largely ignore religion after the Civil War.

In world history, the major world faiths each receive a thumbnail sketch, but, with the exception of Christianity, historical developments in religious thought and institutions are often omitted.

The report also warns that the presence of religion in the standards will not necessarily translate into serious academic treatment of religion in the curriculum. According to the author of the report, Susan L. Douglass, "The standards are only a starting point. The challenge is to take advantage of the opportunity the new frameworks offer for encouraging academically excellent and interesting teaching about religion."

The report makes a number of recommendations for reform, including knowledge about religion as test items in assessment, improving treatment of religion in textbooks, and offering in-service and pre-service educational opportunities for teachers in religious studies.

"If public schools are to be fair under the First Amendment, they must ensure that the curriculum includes religious as well as secular ways of understanding the world," said Charles Haynes, director of religious liberty programs at the First Amendment Center. "The inclusion of teaching about religion in the standards is a good first step. But we have a long way to go before religion is treated seriously in public schools."

The First Amendment Center works to preserve and protect First Amendment freedoms through information and education. The center serves as a forum for the study and exploration of free expression issues, including freedom of speech, of the press and of religion, the right to assemble and to petition the government. The center, with offices at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and in New York City and Arlington, Va., is an independent affiliate of The Freedom Forum and the Newseum, The Freedom Forum's interactive museum of news. The Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan, international foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people.

The Council on Islamic Education is a national, non-profit resource organization for K-12 educators, textbook publishers, education officials and policymakers, curriculum developers, and other education professionals. CIE is comprised of scholars of history, religion, education and other disciplines at major universities and institutions throughout the United States, as well as curriculum specialists and teachers. CIE works with textbook publishers during the development of new K-12 history-social science instructional materials, conducts in-service workshops for schools districts, and organizations, participates in education conferences, and produces supplementary resources for educators to help them teach about Islam, Muslim history, world history and geography in an inclusive and meaningful fashion.

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