This past Thursday, Arizona became the first state in the nation to require a passing grade on a citizenship test for high school graduation.
“Proponents of the new law claim that Americans do not know enough about civics and that urgent measures must be taken to ensure American students at the very least develop the same baseline knowledge required for new citizens.”
However, some against the new requirement say yet another test isn’t the best way to measure civic engagement.
The Christian Science Monitor reports:
“The interest is promoting civics, and we want to see students engaged,” Joe Thomas, a high school government teacher from Mesa, Ariz., told the Associated Press. “I don’t know if a test engages students.”
Many education advocates argue that students are already tested too much and question whether they really absorb and retain the information they are required to memorize to pass a test.
David Bradley, the only Democrat on the Arizona Senate Education Committee who voted against the bill, says that civic engagement cannot be measured by just one test.
“Don’t be fooled into thinking that this does it, that this solves some bigger problem, because it doesn’t,” Bradley said on the Senate floor, AP reported. “My point now is tests don’t make citizens, citizens are tested by their actions.”
While I’ll be the first to agree that the current testing craze in the US is getting out of control, this is just one exam — and students can take it as often as necessary in order to get a passing score (60 out of 100 questions).
The testing craze across the country continues its laser-like focus on mathematics and language arts (English). Certainly one assessment for civics shouldn’t be much of an additional burden — especially since a federal study showed two-thirds of students score “below proficient” on the subject.
In addition, “fewer than a dozen states require students to take a civics exam,” and none of them (until Arizona last week) require a passing score on it in order to graduate.
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