Are you smarter than a 12th grader?

((TAKE THE TEST YOURSELF BELOW))


Most AZ high school students would fail US citizenship test
By Rhonda Bodfield
arizona daily star

You know those groan-inducing spots on late-night television when the typical person-on-the-street can't identify the vice president?

That's akin to what happened to the state's education system Tuesday, with the issuance of a new report that found only 3.5 percent of traditional public high school students would be able to pass a U.S. citizenship test — bombing out on questions such as who was America's first president, who wrote the Declaration of Independence and what do we call the first 10 amendments to the Constitution.

There's little room to be smug from the charter school or private school arenas. While they both did better, they still did poorly, with only 7 percent and 14 percent of those students passing the test, respectively, according to a survey by the Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank.

"I was dismayed and shocked at just how poorly the kids did," said Matthew Ladner, vice president of research. "When 74 percent can't tell you that George Washington was the first president of the U.S., that's really disturbing."

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Don't know the rep of this "Goldwater Institute" that conducted this study, but they took their questions straight out of the U.S. Citizenship test, so I'll just link to that:

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/100q.pdf (the answers are listed DIRECTLY below the questions, so you'll have to "proctor" yourself while taking it.)

Me? I got a total of three wrong. And I bet, fresh from the U.S. History courses I took in high school, I would've gotten those right, too, at that age....

I'm no fan of NCLB. But I don't think it can be entirely to blame for this. Especially given the results for the private schools, which, if I'm correct, don't have to follow the NCLB test standards.

Even if, let's say, no one in school ever mentioned that the Atlantic Ocean was on the east coast of the country, how does one live 18 full years and not know this?

Take the test and post your results. If anyone has or knows a high school senior it would be interesting to see how they did, too.

It's a trick question they don't have a phone. You can't call them.

He was the first President of the United States under the Constitution. John Hanson was the first elected official to legitimately use the title President of the United States as the elected executive of a political body uniting all the independent American States.

:rofl:

Seriously, he wasn't much of a president. Governing in Federalist Utopia proved not only thorny but utterly unworkable, which is why a constitutional convention was called so quickly.

the don't-give-a-shits. If you put a test paper in front of a bunch of people (especially high schoolers), and inform them that the test will have absolutely no bearing on anything whatsoever, how do you account for the number of kids who are simply going to write bullshit instead of wracking their brains for half-forgotten knowledge? Unless there's an incentive to demonstrate knowledge thoroughly and completely, there will always be plenty of people who simply won't, regardless of whether they can.

I love to take tests at a .gov site. :loveya:

the lack of school funding, the insane NCLB, the intentional omission of civics in order to dumb down the populus. Just to start.

that contribute to a student's educational progress.

I mean, it's not like there aren't any poor people in Arizona. . . . . .

look at the stats for the private school kids, who, by and large, aren't subjected to those negatives.

Like I said in my OP, I know nothing of this "institute." I read about initially on DKos.

But they took the Q's straight from the citizenship test --

you may gets some blurbs in 7th grade history, but for the most part it's meant to be that way. Policy you know, can't let them people know about their country or these things called "rights". Voting? whats that?

"in order to dumb down the populace."

Really easy.

of H.S., as their minds aren't cluttered with a lot of other garbage and the material is fresh in their minds.

Kids not encouraged to take an interest in education from a very early age, regardless of any difficulties or stumbling blocks that the child may have in learning, generally grow up incurious and will not seek out information that is not directly relevant to their immediate or short-term situation, and that which they do learn as a matter of necessity in class will be easily forgotten once they are no longer responsible for that information.

It's the "I'll never need that, so what's the point of knowing it?" syndrome.

Now granted this is just some BS I fabricated just off the top of my head, but it sounds good at least. I could be completely wrong, however.

I used to teach at a charter school out in Arizona. Our student body was mostly high risk students and migrant workers' children. The history teacher there would give the US citizenship test as a review to the final exam on the constitution unit. Those students that failed had to wear a sticker the rest of the day that said "I can't be a US citizen." (or something to that effect...she'd change it each year) Every year more than 75% of the class, even after studying for it and knowing it was coming, would fail. It was sad really.

I don't think public humiliation is an effective method, but parents never complained about it (though they complained that I was teaching Romeo and Juliet to freshman - "when will they ever need to know that!?") and I think she was even a teacher of the year in the county or state one year. It was a charter school, so they got away with just about anything in any case, so I doubt much would have happen even if parents had complained.

and I'll bet I couldn't have done that in 12th grade. Civics was made as utterly boring and witless as possible. The material was dry, the teacher exhaled dust with every word, and discussion was discouraged. This was in the south during the Civil Rights movement and while the discussions would have been lively, peckerwoods would have finished them out in the school parking lot.

They often whine about the poor acheivement of highschools and they put out "how well do you rank" online quizes.

These questions often have easy "gimme" questions about U.S. history and civics facts.

They also always include subjective questions, usually involving current events, and the "correct" answers are always promoting the agenda the Goldwater institute wants to promote.

Not saying their latest test is included in this M.O.

This has been another episode of Simple Answers To Simple Questions.