Assignment 11: Civics

Kentucky requires all high school students to pass a U.S. citizenship test to graduate.

Kentucky recently became the ninth state in the United States to require high school students to pass a U.S. citizenship test in order to graduate. This comes after a study from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation revealed that students and young adults aren't as familiar with the United States government as they should be.

Photo via The Lexington Herald-Leader

The study showed that from a sample of 1,000 American adults, only about 36 percent would pass a U.S. citizenship test. Adults 65 and older performed the best on the mock test while only 19 percent of participants 45 and younger passed the test. Also, 60 percent of participants were unaware of the countries the United States fought against in World War II.

Kentucky now requires high school students to get a 60 out of 100 on a civics test before being allowed to graduate. This new protocol doesn't come without opposition as the National Council for the Social Studies is against the test.

"While the Naturalization Test as presently constructed does assess a surface level of civic knowledge that may be quickly forgotten, it ignores the skills and dispositions component so necessary for true civic literacy and learning,” according to an NCSS position statement posted in March, 2018. “Indeed, rote knowledge of civics content does not equal understanding of what it means to be a citizen."

Original story via The Great Bend Tribune
More information on the test can be found here.