‘Crisis’: American Students Fail Basic Civics Test That Most Immigrants Could Pass
According to a test administered by the Department of Education, most eighth graders do not know what the purpose of the Bill of Rights, nor do they understand what checks and balances. At the same time, high school seniors—who are about to enter into full citizenship as voters in this country—”were unable to demonstrate civic skills such as identifying the effect of U.S. foreign policy on other nations or naming a power granted to Congress by the Constitution,” according to a report.
“Today’s NAEP results confirm that we have a crisis on our hands when it comes to civics education,” said former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who last year founded icivics.org, a nonprofit group that teaches students civics through Web-based games and other tools.
The Department of Education administered the tests, known as the nation’s report card, to 27,000 fourth-, eighth- and 12th-grade students last year. Questions cover themes including how government is financed, what rights are protected by the Constitution and how laws are passed.
Average fourth-grade scores on the test’s 300-point scale rose slightly since the exam was last administered, in 2006, to 157 from 154. Average eighth-grade scores were virtually unchanged at 151. The scores of high school seniors — students who are either eligible to vote or about to be — dropped to 148 from 151. Those scores mean that about a quarter of 4th- and 12th-grade students, and about one-fifth of eighth-graders ranked at the proficient or advanced levels.
For the rest of the article you must go to the blaze. Don’t be fooled or deceive yourselves that this story is false. It is the truth. Our children in this country are no longer being taught Civics or other subjects that the Baby bommers were required to take in school. No reading of the Federalist Papers or teaching about our nation’s history, the constitution and the bill of Rights, and why William Travis the commander of the Alamo was such a great man of courage and the love he had for the United States.
I was watching a show today that had teachers on who were willing to be honest. They risked disproval with their union for speaking about what is going on in American public schools today. How they are not free to teach to the indivdual child but must teach as a collective group. They feel it is a conveyer belt and that even is your child has not mastered the skills needed for that grade they pass them on anyway. Do you know what your child is being taught in school? Do you even care. I have had teachers tell me that they can’t get parents to even come to an open house or talk to them about their child.
If you can’t afford private school look into charter school for your child. They are better then the public government ran school who is pushing a social agenda and political correctness on your child. They aren’t learning about American History, Ethnics, or Civics. No they are learning that gays are people too and they should be able to marry, that sex before marrage is ok as long as you use protection, and if you do get pregant go to planned parenthood where you can get an abortion without your parents permission. They can’t read or write or even tell you what the bill of rights are, but they know how to have safe sex in elementary school and Jr high.
