Who’s Afraid of George Washington?
Immigrants must answer 6 out of 10 questions correctly on a basic civics exam in order to earn American citizenship. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reports a 92.4% pass rate among citizenship candidates on their first try. Take a look at the question bank from which the 10 questions are drawn.
How well do you think American 12th graders who were born in this country can score on the exam? 90%? 80%? If only.
The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs recently sponsored a survey of Oklahoma high school students to see how they would do on a citizenship test. 2.8% managed to pass.
Civic ignorance isn’t limited to the Sooner State. Our own Still at Risk showed that substantial numbers of students lack basic knowledge of history and literature. And in July, USAToday called attention to a recent Goldwater Institute survey of Arizona high school students who were administered the citizenship test. Arizona students put their peers in Oklahoma to shame: 3.5% of them passed the test.
Not to fear. State legislators are busily working to hide this ignorance by getting rid of social studies tests.
James Elias