Stephen Sawchuk and Sarah D. Sparks are reporting for Education Week test scores released April 23, show the nation's eighth-graders' grasp of topics in history and geography have plummeted. Scores fell among nearly all grade 8 students in history on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also called the Nation’s Report Card, since the last history exam was administered in 2014. The decline of four points overall erased fully half of the overall gains made in the subject since 1994, the first year the exam was given. Federal officials described themselves as “disappointed” and the results as “pervasive” and “disturbing.” Scores fell in geography, as well. The overall decline of three points since 2014 was due to a downturn in the performance of the lowest-performing students. In civics, the third subject tested, scores remain flat. Since the first civics exam was given in 1998, scores in that assessment have increased by only three points. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos called the results “stark and inexcusable.” She said, “In the real world, this means students don’t know what the Lincoln-Douglas debates were about, nor can they discuss the significance of the Bill of Rights, or point out basic locations on a map.” Read the full story in Education Week.