97% of High School Students Fail Basic Test

How would you have done on this test? (Be honest!)

  • 10/10; I am a U.S. citizen.

    Votes: 8 32.0%

  • 8-9/10; I am a U.S. citizen.

    Votes: 8 32.0%

  • 6-7/10; I am a U.S. citizen.

    Votes: 2 8.0%

  • I would have failed; I am a U.S. citizen.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 10/10; I am not a U.S. citizen.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 8-9/10; I am not a U.S. citizen.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 6-7/10; I am not a U.S. citizen.

    Votes: 2 8.0%

  • I would have failed; I am not a U.S. citizen.

    Votes: 5 20.0%
  • Total voters
    25
TheLastMohican

TheLastMohican

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Less than three percent of Oklahoma high school students would be able to pass the U.S. Citizenship Test.

Last month OCPA commissioned a national research firm, Strategic Vision, to determine Oklahoma public high-school students' level of basic civic knowledge. The firm's surveys have been used by Time, Newsweek, and USA Today, and National Journal's "Hotline" has cited them as some of the most accurate in the country. The margin of error for this particular survey is plus/minus three percent.

Ten questions, chosen at random, were drawn from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) item bank, which consists of 100 questions given to candidates for United States citizenship. The longstanding practice has been for candidates for citizenship to take a test on 10 of these items. A minimum of six correct answers is required to pass. Recently, the USCIS had 6,000 citizenship applicants pilot a newer version of this test. The agency reported a 92.4 percent passing rate among citizenship applicants on the first try.


Of course, immigrants have had an opportunity to study for the test-a distinct advantage-so we might not necessarily expect a 92 percent passing rate from Oklahoma's public high-school students.
On the other hand, most high-school students have the advantage of having lived in the United States their entire lives. Moreover, they have benefited from tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars being spent for their educations. Many immigrants seeking citizenship, meanwhile, often arrive penniless and must educate themselves on America's history and government.


After seeing the questions for yourself, you the reader can judge whether a 92 percent passing rate is a reasonable expectation for Oklahoma's high-school students. Unfortunately, Oklahoma high-school students scored alarmingly low on the test, passing at a rate of only 2.8 percent. That is not a misprint.
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And for those who might have thought this was just Oklahoma's problem:
Sadly, that result does not come as complete surprise. When the same survey was done recently in Arizona, only 3.5 percent of Arizona's high-school students passed the test.
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That's right, folks: our education system is officially in the toilet. How many of you can remember thinking that Michael Jackson authored the Declaration of Independence, or that the two major political parties in the U.S. are "Republican" and "Communist"? Where did kids learn that the first ten amendments to the Constitution are known as the Ten Commandments? What about those who thought that our east coast borders the Indian Ocean, or that Richard Nixon was the first President of the United States? You'll find all these fascinating answers and more with alarmingly high percentages in the results.
 
I took that test once in high school in a class it wasn't for points but it as graded just for fun. I passed it.

But I wouldn't surprised if others didn't pass it. American history isn't my strongest area.
 
Oy.

Mind you, it does bring to mind an early time in our history, where Blacks were forced to take an exam to "prove" they were literate. I think the citizenship test is bunk. Ask the people who want to become citizens if Brittney Spears is still popular in American culture, and make the kids in American schools take the difficult citizenship exam.

Maybe *then* we'd have progress.

And they wonder why our kids don't do well in colleges...:m080:
 
I covered the answers and got 8/10 (missed the first two because the first one was vauge, the second I said "the ten commandments"... heh... It is truly sad that people could miss this many. At the same time though, I am not surprised in the least about this. I distinctly remember in highschool thinking "sheesh... am I the only person here who actually wants to learn?). Even a lot of the honors/AP kids I had classes with were very apethetic and simply did well to get the A, then promptly forgot everything. No attempt to commit things to long term memory. It saddened me, and I had a few long talks about this with my AP chem teacher (an INTJ), who felt the exact same way.
 
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I would be interested in results on this test from several foreign countries. We already are behind in most subjects, but in the subject of our own nation's history and government? That would be sad.
 
TheLastMohican said:
Less than three percent of Oklahoma high school students would be able to pass the U.S. Citizenship Test.



And for those who might have thought this was just Oklahoma's problem:



That's right, folks: our education system is officially in the toilet. How many of you can remember thinking that Michael Jackson authored the Declaration of Independence, or that the two major political parties in the U.S. are "Republican" and "Communist"? Where did kids learn that the first ten amendments to the Constitution are known as the Ten Commandments? What about those who thought that our east coast borders the Indian Ocean, or that Richard Nixon was the first President of the United States? You'll find all these fascinating answers and more with alarmingly high percentages in the results.
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Huh. I might have been the only smart one then.
 
I can only hope and think that the results or reporting are skewed in some way. I would have easily passed that test in high school. I find it so hard to believe that not a single student answered 8 out of 10 right. I'd say the hardest question was the number of supreme court justices...other than that the only (questionably) somewhat difficult question for a student who's taken a civics class would be the term length of a senator. Of course, that's just my opinion.
 
The government can't educate people. If it does, they will realize how corrupt it is and take action to hold it accountable. Commies and terrorists are bad. God bless America.
 
Lol.

I can tell you part of the problem.

Schools need government funding. Governments use certain tests to see how well school districts are performing. The teachers and school administrations know what the tests are.

So what does a "smart" school do?

It cheats.

Schools help their students learn the answers to the achievement tests - nothing more, nothing less. That way their school "looks" stellar (like it's learning) and they get their funding.

Voila, there you have it. Capitalism at its finest.
 
arbygil said:
Schools help their students learn the answers to the achievement tests - nothing more, nothing less. That way their school "looks" stellar (like it's learning) and they get their funding.

Voila, there you have it. Capitalism at its finest.
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I wouldn't blame that on capitalism. The problem is that the schools are trying to make the "profit" from the government, which is not very good at telling the difference between the genuinely good schools and the cheating schools. If education was a private matter, however, then the schools would be accountable to the parents, who would have a better idea of what their kids were actually learning.
 
No, you're right - it's not Capitalism's fault (I was being more sarcastic there). It would be *great* if the schools were more private and parents could have a greater say. Homeschooled kids often rate far higher than the average public schooled individual - same with private school kids. But much of the time parents are so busy (or so broken) that they don't even notice what their kids are reading, let alone what tests they're taking. If their child comes home with a paper to sign the parent doesn't even look at it anymore. Or, the opposite becomes true: The parent is OVERLY involved in their child's academic life and they're threatening the instructor to teach "only" those things that are important to the parent.

Parents do need to be active parts of their child's education without inhibiting their son or daughter's learning process. But that's probably the biggest disconnect: Parents think TV and the government will teach their child everything they need to know.
 
Deathjam said:
how can some many people fail, its not like you have much history to remember
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Heh. Not to mention hollywood reinforcing all that crap all the time.

I got 8/10 because I didn't know how long senators are there for, nor how many justices are appointed. The rest were a joke.


However, to be fair, try yourself on this test.
http://www.australiancitizenshiptest.net/?p=sample_test

My Results:

Total Questions: 20
Answered: 20
Unanswered: 0
Correct Answers: 12
Wrong Answers: 8
Time Taken: 2 Min & 56 Sec
Score: 60 %
Result: FAILED
 
Heh. The Australian test was interesting, though. But yeah. I wouldn't make a good little Aussie.

Total Questions: 20
Answered: 20
Unanswered: 0
Correct Answers: 6
Wrong Answers: 14
Time Taken: 4 Min & 37 Sec
Score: 30 %
Result: FAILED

To be honest, I shouldn't have gotten that many.
 
I think the problem is that kids don't care and it's their responsibility to not be stupid. Schools aren't entirely to blame, it's 'cool' to be an idiot. I blame the parents and culture at large with school being a small part.
 
American History just isn't something people care about from a national stand point.

It isn't that people are stupid, people don't care. We're a society based on working and of course freedom of ideas. But honestly it's mostly just the American dream of living a good life that most Americans have.

History doesn't really add to the getting the American dream, the money, the good house, the good family, the good car. How many jobs depend on the knowledge of history?

How many jobs depend on your actually knowing how to do your job?

I'll tell you this, I know more about greek mythology than I will ever know about American History. History is never really accurate, some of the best you can hope for is to know the events that happened and many the chain of events that led to that, mostly everything else is just filler and fluff to make you think you're living in the best country in the world.

Side Note: Of course no one can deny the power of the U.S. and our 5 nation pact of England, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
 
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I knew the answers to 8 questions. Those questions really are easy...

I have been in both pubic and private schools here in the USA. Public schools are a joke.
 
Got 6 out of 10. I am smarter than 97% of America's future :D

I wouldn't blame it on public education though for it works quite well here in Europe. The same I hear is in Asian countries too. It's probably a matter of motivation - if you get sufficient income from a medium-low level job then why try harder? In my country during the last 20 years as the quality of living rose education levels were on decline (despite the increased funding).
 
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