American Civics Test
http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx
Got this test/posting idea from franciscanorder.
You answered 30 out of 33 correctly - 90.91 %
Average score for this quiz during November: 77.6%
Average score: 77.6%
You can take the quiz as often as you like, however, your score will only count once toward the monthly average.
If you have any comments or questions about the quiz, please email americancivicliteracy@isi.org.
You can consult the following table to see how citizens and elected officials scored on each question.
Where to from here?
Answers to Your Missed Questions:
Question #9 - A. Make treaties
Question #29 - B. a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it
Question #33 - D. tax per person equals government spending per person
From Deroy Murdock on National Review-
-Fully 71 percent of Americans flunked a 33-question civic-literacy survey conducted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. Among 2,508 respondents ISI randomly selected, 1,791 failed this test of U.S. historical, political, and economic basics. The average score was just 49 out of 100 - a solid F. While just 2.6 percent scored Bs on this quiz, only 0.8 percent earned As.
-Just 49 percent of rank-and-file Americans can identify the legislature, executive, and judiciary as our three branches of government.
-Forty percent of college graduates have no idea that corporate profits equal revenues minus expenses. (Thus, congressional demagoguery about “windfall profits” falls on sympathetic ears.) Only 24 percent of college grads realize that the First Amendment forbids the establishment of an official U.S. religion.
-Amazingly enough, this sample’s 164 self-identified elected officials know even less than laymen. They averaged only 44 - the blind leading the bland. Among office holders, 30 percent did not know that the Declaration of Independence heralds “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
-However, We the People closely follow popular culture here in the United States of American Idol. Only 21 percent of respondents correctly identified Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address as the source of the words “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” But 56 percent properly named Paula Abdul as a judge on the karaoke sensation American Idol.
If you read all the statistics in this test, Moderates (51- avg score) are slightly smarter than conservatives(48) and liberals (49), but Republicans and Independents average a score of 52%, while Democrats average a score of 45%. It would be interesting to see what would happen if people had to take a test like this before registering to vote.
Clearly, our education system, even our colleges aren't doing a good enough job of teaching people civics. These are basic questions that anyone should know, yet more than half of the country doesn't know these questions. Our public officials don't even know the answers to some of these questions and actually score lower than the average American.
Here is an aritcle about it on Yahoo... http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081120/od_afp/ushistoryeducationoffbeat
Got this test/posting idea from franciscanorder.
You answered 30 out of 33 correctly - 90.91 %
Average score for this quiz during November: 77.6%
Average score: 77.6%
You can take the quiz as often as you like, however, your score will only count once toward the monthly average.
If you have any comments or questions about the quiz, please email americancivicliteracy@isi.org.
You can consult the following table to see how citizens and elected officials scored on each question.
Where to from here?
Answers to Your Missed Questions:
Question #9 - A. Make treaties
Question #29 - B. a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it
Question #33 - D. tax per person equals government spending per person
From Deroy Murdock on National Review-
-Fully 71 percent of Americans flunked a 33-question civic-literacy survey conducted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. Among 2,508 respondents ISI randomly selected, 1,791 failed this test of U.S. historical, political, and economic basics. The average score was just 49 out of 100 - a solid F. While just 2.6 percent scored Bs on this quiz, only 0.8 percent earned As.
-Just 49 percent of rank-and-file Americans can identify the legislature, executive, and judiciary as our three branches of government.
-Forty percent of college graduates have no idea that corporate profits equal revenues minus expenses. (Thus, congressional demagoguery about “windfall profits” falls on sympathetic ears.) Only 24 percent of college grads realize that the First Amendment forbids the establishment of an official U.S. religion.
-Amazingly enough, this sample’s 164 self-identified elected officials know even less than laymen. They averaged only 44 - the blind leading the bland. Among office holders, 30 percent did not know that the Declaration of Independence heralds “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
-However, We the People closely follow popular culture here in the United States of American Idol. Only 21 percent of respondents correctly identified Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address as the source of the words “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” But 56 percent properly named Paula Abdul as a judge on the karaoke sensation American Idol.
If you read all the statistics in this test, Moderates (51- avg score) are slightly smarter than conservatives(48) and liberals (49), but Republicans and Independents average a score of 52%, while Democrats average a score of 45%. It would be interesting to see what would happen if people had to take a test like this before registering to vote.
Clearly, our education system, even our colleges aren't doing a good enough job of teaching people civics. These are basic questions that anyone should know, yet more than half of the country doesn't know these questions. Our public officials don't even know the answers to some of these questions and actually score lower than the average American.
Here is an aritcle about it on Yahoo... http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081120/od_afp/ushistoryeducationoffbeat