Erik W. Robelen
Education Week
5/4/2011
Many high school seniors may be old enough to vote, but just one-quarter of them demonstrate at least a “proficient” level of civics knowledge and skills, based on the latest results from a prominent national exam.
That statistic, 24 percent, represents a slight dip from the proportion of 12th graders scoring proficient or “advanced” in the subject four years earlier.
Meanwhile, the average 4th grade score rose in the latest administration of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, compared with both 2006 and 1998, the first time “the nation’s report card” in civics was given. Twenty-seven percent were proficient or better in 2010, compared with 24 percent in 2006, according to the NAEP data issued Wednesday.
No significant change was seen for 8th graders, who have remained stuck at the 22 percent proficient-or-higher mark since 1998.
“Knowledge of our system of government is not handed down through the gene pool,” retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said in a statement. “The habits of citizenship must be learned. … But we have neglected civic education for the past several decades, and the results are predictably dismal,” said Justice O’Connor, who has been promoting civics instruction in the United States.
The article continues at Education Week.
