Should Citizenship Test Be Used to Measure High Schoolers' Civic Knowledge?
I was intrigued by Robert Pondiscio’s proposal over at The Atlantic, recommending that every high schooler in America demonstrate the same knowledge of the nation's history and laws as adult individuals applying for citizenship.
Impossible! Not fair! Too difficult! Actually the bar is already set quite low, as Pondiscio -- executive director of CitizenshipFirst, a nonprofit initiative that focuses on the value of civics education -- points out, The federally required citizenship test has 10 questions -- drawn from a list of 100 -- and applicants need to correctly answer at least six of them. Now, math isn't my strong suit but even I know that's a score of 60 percent. Under most circumstances in many classrooms that would be considered a less-than-inspired performance.
Pondiscio contends setting, and meeting, this modest goal would be a boost to the self-confidence of the nation's public schools, particularly in this No Child Left Behind era of "moon shot" aspirations. “Yes, let's have a
Impossible! Not fair! Too difficult! Actually the bar is already set quite low, as Pondiscio -- executive director of CitizenshipFirst, a nonprofit initiative that focuses on the value of civics education -- points out, The federally required citizenship test has 10 questions -- drawn from a list of 100 -- and applicants need to correctly answer at least six of them. Now, math isn't my strong suit but even I know that's a score of 60 percent. Under most circumstances in many classrooms that would be considered a less-than-inspired performance.
Pondiscio contends setting, and meeting, this modest goal would be a boost to the self-confidence of the nation's public schools, particularly in this No Child Left Behind era of "moon shot" aspirations. “Yes, let's have a