Only one in four public high school students can name the first President of the United States according to a new study commissioned by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.
One thousand students were given 10 questions drawn from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services item bank. The test was relatively simple, with questions like "who is in charge of the Executive Branch," and "who wrote the Declaration of Independence."
Candidates for U.S. citizenship must answer six questions correctly in order to become citizens. Only 3 percent of the students surveyed would have passed the citizenship test, which is an alarmingly low number to say the least.
Brandon Dutcher is with the conservative think tank that commissioned the study. He and his group were curious to find out how much civic knowledge Oklahoma high school students know. Unsurprisingly, Dutcher was not too happy with the results.
"It points to a real serious problem. We're not going to remain ignorant and free," Dutcher said.
Apparently this level of ignorance is not just a problem in Oklahoma. According to Dutcher, Arizona had similar results, which left him concerned for the entire country.
Comments
I would imagine the fact that the public schools in both Oklahoma City and Tulsa have more minority kids than non and a fair number are probably here illegally might contribute to these highly unacceptable results.
As long as we say that it's the fault of the "other" (minority and illigal populations) We don't fix it. I know a fair amount of "others", many would say I was one. And trust me Okie Mom...they're smarter than you think. Not to mention have a much better understanding about the civics of the USA. It's the homegrown boys and girls that feel like they're sooooo entitled to the best that they don't have to work for it.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 79.9% of Oklahoma’s total population is white, and 95% of total population is native, which includes people born in the US (94.1%), born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island areas, or born abroad to American parents (0.5%).
On 1 November 2007, Oklahoma’s immigration law, HB 1804, took effect. CNN reports “[immigrants] have been leaving by the thousands since the law was passed in May.”
Considering the factual environment, the number of minorities or illegal immigrants is hardly a major contribution to 97% of who wouldn’t have passed the citizenship test or 75% of who can’t name the 1st President of US.
I hope “Okie”Mom would look up the word “ignorant” in decent dictionary then read again what Ms. Kasparian writes.
Jean de La Fontaine, 17th century French poet, once said “Nothing is as dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is to be preferred.”
Love your articles, Anna. And especially love watching you on The Young Turks. :)
It seems to me that coercive education methods which create passive, uncritical, uninterested students are the root cause of such glaring ignorance.
An excellent series at PsychologyToday.com examines that idea: "Freedom to Learn -- The roles of play and curiosity as foundations for learning."
Ana, not Anna! Sorry, I know better. :-D
Shocking, but I have a funny solution to the problem. See "No Oakie Left Behind" @ The Lint Screen dot com
Okie Mom,
Your comment is conjecture plus bias.
You "would imagine" higher rates of minorities, and you "imagine" that a "fair number" of those kids must be illegal. But you don't really know. Plus, even if your supposition were true, those minority kids would still be in the same classrooms with the same teachers and the same curricula, receiving (or not receiving) the same education. Notwithstanding that any immigrants (regardless of legal status) might have a language barrier to overcome, you seem to be hypothesizing that minority kids are simply less capable in the classroom.
Have similar tests been conducted in states like New York or California ? I suspect the results would be better than in the bible thumping, evolution is bad, learning is for liberal elitists, red meat red states. It seems the answer to the question "is our children learning" is NO, at least in the states where the party of NO dominates.
Note: Ignorant bigot "Okie Mom" probably wouldn't pass the test herself.
Oh Boy, education reform can't come fast enough.
It is terrible that we are failing in educating so many kids in this generation. It will be an issue for us to address as a nation, not only while they are in K-12 ed, but as that generation funnels into the work force and adult community.
As a parent, I need to be aware of these types of studies (regardless of where I live in the USA) and work along side educators in support of bringing kids the best learning possible.
Thank you Ana for a great article!
blow job
I truly believe kids in American don't want to learn. Not all of course but the majority.
"Okie Mom", that's one of the more ignorant things I've read this week.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
You're trying to tell me that minorities don't attempt to teach their children at home? That's one of the more bigoted things I've read.
And home's where the problem begins, I promise you.
If parents themselves don't take an active interest in the quality of their childrens' education and try to encourage them to learn at home, then you KNOW that attitude will follow them to school.
If I didn't know something, I'd ask my parents, and they'd either tell me to the best of their knowledge, or they'd tell me to look it up, be it in a dictionary, or in an encyclopaedia(British spelling, just in case you were wondering).
"OKIE" MOM, you're just being bigoted. Minorities have the same teachers that non minority kids do. The problem is far deeper than just an educational problem.
Send your masters at Faux News my regards.
Is that test down to only 10 questions now, or is it just a sampling of 10 questions from the test? When I took my citizenship exam, it was 50 questions, and it had a few state government-related questions and Civil War questions and so on.
What's sadder to me is the kinds of things that pass for education reform. It's not just the idea of trying to achieve certain benchmarks, but the fact that nobody has a decent standard for actual academics in the first place. Things like the anti-science religious groups are only adding fuel to the fire. I have personally run into a religious group who wanted heliocentrism to be removed from the school science curriculum including the removal of Newtonian gravitation (because it rather clearly shows how impossible a geocentric model is).
Add to that the myth with regards to education funding which is sadly all too prevalent. Lack of funding isn't the problem -- it's pitifully poor *allocation* of funds.
yeah, I can see this easily being the case. I went to a rural High School in New York, we took the citizenship test and with me being the news/politics/business/history junkie that I am, I aced it. But the overwhelming majority of my Government class failed it in crash and burn fashion. So yes, this is a very national problem in areas that don't demand and provide for excellence.
I love how I see an article that says spanking lowers IQ 2 weeks after Cenk says he would spank his kids for not knowing these things.
I think a majority of the kids were fooling around. There is no way they dont know George Washington, or at least I am in disbelief.
1000Demons is dead on about the problems starting at home. I believe in holding teachers accountable, but there is only so much a teacher can do for a student if the parents aren't on board.
These kids probably learned all the answers to these questions at one point. I suspect they learned them through rote memorization and were not required to remember any of this stuff after the test. The problem isn't what we are teaching our kids, but how it is being taught.
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