Opinion: Making HS Grads Pass Citizenship Test Is Fine. But Civics Ed Must Start Earlier

Yahoo

19-02-2025

A version of this essay originally appeared on Robert Pondiscio's Substack.
Answer these questions without Googling them:
What are the first 10 amendments to the Constitution called?
What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
Who was the first president of the United States?
What ocean is on the West Coast of the U.S.?
Name one branch of government.
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Not hard, are they? These are a representative few of the 100 questions on the U.S. Citizenship Test. Immigrants must answer six out of 10 correctly to become citizens. It's not an esoteric academic exercise — it is a straightforward test of basic knowledge about the country's government, history, geography and democratic principles.
By now, it has become a bromide (and, in some quarters, a sore point) that a substantial number of Americans graduate high school without being able to demonstrate the kind of rock-bottom grasp of civics and history that these questions imply, and which would-be citizens handle with ease. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds recently announced a bill that would require high school students to pass the citizenship test to graduate; if it passes, Iowa will become the 14th state to adopt such a measure.
But if 17-year-olds are cramming basic facts as a last-minute requirement to graduate, we've already missed the boat. My recommendation for Iowa and other states that want to raise their students' civics IQ is to start much earlier. The knowledge demands of the U.S. Citizenship Test should be well within the grasp of children attending an elementary school committed to a knowledge-rich curriculum — with handsome dividends for literacy in addition to civics and citizenship.
To demonstrate how basic the knowledge needed to pass really is, I uploaded the 100 questions on the U.S. citizenship exam and the Core Knowledge Sequence — a pre-K-8 curriculum designed to build a strong foundation in history, civics, science, literature and the arts — to ChatGPT for a side-by-side comparison. Rooted in the idea that knowledge is essential for literacy, and literacy for engaged citizenship, the Sequence seeks to ensure that schools are prepared to arm students with the background information necessary to comprehend complex texts and participate meaningfully in democratic life.
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Comparing the two documents shows that many of the topics needed to pass the test are recommended in the Sequence for first graders, with 75% included by fifth grade:
I. Principles of American Democracy (questions 1-12 on the test): Core Knowledge introduces concepts such as the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and democratic principles by Grade 2. By Grade 5, students have a firm grasp of self-government, checks and balances, and individual rights, aligning closely with questions on the test.
II. System of Government (questions 13-47): By Grade 3, students learn about the three branches of government, the legislative process and the role of the president. More advanced topics like federal versus state power, Supreme Court justices and election processes appear in Grades 4-6.
III. Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens (questions 48-57): Core Knowledge covers the First Amendment, voting rights and responsibilities of citizenship in Grade 3, reinforcing them throughout middle school. This aligns directly with questions regarding freedoms, voting and civic duties on the test.
IV. American History: Colonial Period and Independence (questions 58-70): Students study early American history starting in Grade 1, with more depth added in Grades 4-5. The Revolutionary War, Declaration of Independence and founding of the U.S. government are covered extensively, preparing students to answer citizenship test questions on these topics.
V. The 1800s and the Civil War (questions 71-80): Core Knowledge introduces the Civil War and Reconstruction in Grade 5, covering key events like the abolition of slavery, the role of Abraham Lincoln and the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation.
VI. Recent American History and Other Important Historical Information (questions 81-100): 20th Century history, including both World Wars, the Cold War and Civil Rights Movement, is introduced in Grades 6-8, aligning well with the later questions on the test.
By the end of elementary school, students in a Core Knowledge school will have encountered nearly all concepts necessary to succeed on the test. Though there are some missing pieces, such as certain government officials, Selective Service registration and various geographic details, elementary school students using the Sequence would likely be able to answer 75% to 85% of the test's 100 questions correctly. Considering that the actual exam requires answering only six of 10 randomly selected questions correctly, a Core Knowledge student would almost certainly pass with ease.
Academics and scholars who study and advocate for civic education tend to reject making the citizenship test a graduation requirement, viewing it as a meaningless exercise in rote memorization or a distraction from meatier curricular fare. But if a student reaches the end of 12th grade without a command of these basic facts, something has gone awry. The knowledge accumulated over years of systematic instruction should serve as an effective preparation, making the test less an obstacle and more an affirmation of what has already been learned.
This is not the case at present. Naturalized citizens consistently outperform native-born Americans on the test. The disparity underscores a deep failure in civics education in U.S. schools, where fundamental knowledge about democracy, governance and history is clearly neglected.
A few years ago, recognizing this gap, Arizona's Joe Foss Institute pushed more than a dozen states to make passing the U.S. Citizenship Test a high school graduation requirement. In some states, students are supposed to achieve a minimum score; in others, simply taking the test is enough. Either way, making high school students scramble to learn what they should have been taught in elementary school is a remediation effort, not an indicator of educational success.
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If states see value in students taking and passing the U.S. Citizenship Test, it should be administered in fifth grade, or eighth at the very latest — when there's still time to send a powerful signal that every student-citizen should know, share and value the basic principles of our system of government and every school show a minimal commitment to civic education. Moving the test to elementary school would also demonstrate a renewed commitment to what should have been there all along — a coherent, content-rich K-5 curriculum.
Let's give kids the knowledge they need when they need it — early, often and unapologetically. The dividends will be measured not just in civics scores, but in literacy, citizenship and the long-term health of the republic.
For a closer look at how the U.S. Citizenship Test's 100 questions and the Core Knowledge Sequence sync up at various grade levels, click here.