Opinion

ADAMS: Civic evaluation results woeful

Steve Adams
September 19, 2009

Last Thursday marked the 222nd year since U.S. Constitution was signed by Congress in Philadelphia in 1787. As importantly symbolic as July 4, 1776 is, this signing marked the true establishment of our nation’s democracy.

The Constitution expressed our forefathers’ search for “a more perfect union” and delineated the powers and limits of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government. In 1791, the Bill of Rights was added to define the individual rights afforded to all citizens, whatever their state. And many amendments followed, most notably the 13th, which ended slavery, in 1865; the 15th, which extended the vote to black men, in 1870; and the 19th, which extended voting rights to women, in 1920 …

We all know this, right? Sure we might not know every amendment or many, if any, dates of various ratifications, but any middle or high school civics class must have ingrained in us at least the gist of America’s institutions and the functioning of our government. If we didn’t snooze through years of American history, we probably even know a pretty good amount about the major happenings of our government’s life span.

And we not only should possess this type of knowledge, but also need to. Yes, of course, we need to read and write — and if our nation is to remain a global leader, do all that we can to catch up to the rest of the developed world in math and science — but a base of civic knowledge is arguably just as important to our nation’s survival. In fact, a prime justification for the establishment of a national public school system was that it would provide young people with the civic intelligence necessary to, at a time not so far in the future, ably participate in the most fundamental practice of democracy: voting.

But much to my surprise — and hopefully to yours — many of our nation’s public schools, and undoubtedly a number of private schools, are failing to provide their attendants with this highly valuable and democratically necessary commodity.

Not to single them out, but the specific public school system that recently brought this sad fact to the surface was that of Oklahoma. This state inarguably has some great college football teams, but is clearly lacking something in many of its classrooms.

As evidence, the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs last month commissioned a national research firm, Strategic Vision, to determine the state’s public high school students’ level of basic civil knowledge. The Council likely felt that students would fare relatively well, as the Oklahoma state academic standards proudly claim that all public schools teach social studies in kindergarten through grade 12 in order to prepare students “to become informed, contributing and participating students in this democratic republic, the United States of America.” The firm, whose surveys are well-regarded as some of the most accurate in the country, determined this by asking 1,000 students 10 questions randomly drawn from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s item bank — a collection of 100 questions given to candidates applying for U.S. citizenship.

Applicants for citizenship, who are also asked just ten of the questions, must get at least six correct to pass, and more than 90% of them do so on their first try. In Oklahoma, a mere 2.8 percent of students passed the test; who, notably, were not forewarned of the phone-administered test, but more notably, have spent their entire lives living in and attending the schools of the United States.

Surprising? Well, hopefully it is, but perhaps it shouldn’t be. Although it didn’t attract much attention, the same test was recently conducted in Arizona, and only 3.5 percent of high school students passed. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, which administered a grade-level appropriate civic knowledge exam to a nationwide sample of fourth, eighth, and 12th graders in 2006, found that only 25 percent, 24 percent and 32 percent of respective students scored at a proficient level. The numbers surpass Oklahoma’s and Arizona’s, but this test allotted more time and a controlled environment.

Nationwide, then, it’s unlikely that any one state’s students would far outscore Oklahoma’s or Arizona’s on the citizenship test, or would produce a majority of “civically proficient” scores. This is the case not because public school teachers are bad or students are flat out stupid and lazy — though some teachers and students undoubtedly are — but because our public school system, formerly structured under the policy of No Child Left Behind, teaches students to succeed at predictable standardized tests rather than truly learn.

Teachers teach a test, students learn a test, and this is a strategy of learning that is anything but education.

This needs to change, and hopefully President Obama and Congress, who are clearly mired in the fight that is health care and have energy policy on deck, can get some reforming done before it’s too late. Taken in a larger context, students’ civic ignorance suggests a very real danger for democracy. The system of government will no doubt remain, but do we really want a majority of idiots electing our future congressmen and presidents?

I sure don’t, and I’ve already tested myself on the 10 questions to see what I need to relearn. Fortunately for my parents — who have put thousands towards my attainment of a political science degree — and my ego, I passed. Can you?

– Steve Adams is a graduate student in journalism and mass communication from Annapolis, Maryland.

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