By Susan L. Douglass  - November, 2000

"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."

A bound copy of the report is available from The Freedom Forum. Call 800/830-3733 and ask for item #00-F06 for the executive summary, and #00-F07 for the full report. Or e-mail puborder@freedomforum.org.

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