U.S. college students fail civics test

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: UPI

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- Harvard, even though it scored the highest, was among elite U.S. colleges where students proved dismal in their knowledge of civics and history, a report said.

The non-profit Intercollegiate Studies Institute analyzed scores of a test given to 14,419 freshmen and seniors at 50 U.S. colleges last fall, USA Today reported Tuesday.

Overall, the freshmen tested averaged 50.4 percent on a civic literacy test, while the seniors tested averaged 54.2 percent.

Seniors tested at Harvard had the highest overall average at 69.6 percent, nearly 6 points higher than its freshmen but still a D-plus, said the ISI report.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/09/18/us_college_students_fail_civics_test/2883/

[Acadia Blue]

1. When I took American Government at UNO, the instructor did

not teach the class and let us play games and gave everyone an A. I had a great Civics class in High School, so I already knew the material, but most of the others did not. It was a right wing AH teacher's desire to keep the students ignorant.

[Mike Daniels]

4. I'd say your fellow classmates are just as much at fault

First, for apparently being more than content to let the teacher waste their time in class, and second, for not taking the initiative to learn the material on their own time.

But I guess it's always easier to blame someone else vs. turning the looking glass the other way.

[TroglodyteScholar]

110. Yea, I mean why should anyone expect a teacher...

...to teach?

[Occulus]

83. My high school government "teacher" was also the head football coach

Needless to say, the class was very very easy spoonfed memorization by rote with no actual depth. ALL the football players took it, and they made everyone else who was taking it as an elective miserable. The coach/"teacher", of course, did nothing about that.
players took the class because they knew that if their grade dropped below a certain level, they would be barred from playing football. The coach was installed as a teacher, I have no doubt, to give the star players an easy course to keep their grades up- because, let me tell you, most of those star players were dumber than the box the rocks came in. And I'm being nice.

They were, to a man, mean to boot- and easily got away with it in that class. "Government" was a very unfun class for me in high school, and I have learned far, far more on my own about government than I ever did in that "class".

That was the experience that taught me that active coaches should never under any circumstances teach courses. Period. Their favorites will take their course and the coach will actively try to keep their grades up if necessary to keep them eligible. I've seen it happen myself and was disgusted to the core.

[CRK7376]

101. I take offense to your statement.

Lots and lots of coaches are very good teachers, strict, disciplinarians etc....I coached Cross Country, and Track and Field for 13 years. I Taught Honors and AP US and European History and my classes were not easy. I've failed athletes that gave little or no effort and rewarded those that tried and still came up alittle short...When Student Athletes were in my class they had to work or suffer the consequences. Because I taught and coached too, I never had another teacher/coach try to get me to change grades on students that were not doing well...staying eligible....So let's be careful in your statement that "active coaches should never under any circumstances teach courses"....

[bigworld]

2. Here's the quiz, and a better article from USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-09-17-history-test_N.htm

[tnlurker]

7. I scored 60% on the sample quiz

I think they had the first answer wrong.
Q: The Federal Government's largest payout over the last twenty years has been for?

1. military
2. Social Security
3. Interest on the national debt
4. Education
5. Foreign debt


I picked Military...they said the correct answer was social security.

[bigworld]

9. SS is huge.

No, that's correct. The payout for social security is huge, but it is offset by a similarly huge contribution from us working stiffs. So it's not a pure outlay.

[Misskittycat]

19. I thought that was an ambiguous question also. n/t

[whistle]

23. It is social security, but SS is really a form of insurance which tax payers

...bought and paid into throughout their working careers. SS used to be seperate from the general fund and was known as the Social Security Trust Fund. The republicans chnaged that several decades ago.

<snip>
Social Security, in the United States, currently refers to the Federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program.

The original Social Security Act<1> and the current version of the Act, as amended<2> encompass several social welfare or social insurance programs. The larger and better known initiatives of the program are listed in the table below.

Title 42 Public Health & Welfare Chapter 7 Social Security<2>
o Federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance
o Unemployment Insurance
o Temporary Assistance to Needy Families
o Health Insurance for Aged and Disabled (Medicare)
o Grants to States for Medical Assistance Programs (Medicaid)
o State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)


Social Security in the United States is a social insurance program funded through dedicated payroll taxes called FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act). Tax deposits are formally entrusted to<3> Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, or Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund or the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund. The main part of the program is sometimes abbreviated (OASDI), in reference to its three beneficiaries (OA for retirement, S for widows and survivors income, D for the disabled, and I for insurance). When initially signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935, the term Social Security covered unemployment insurance as well. The term, in everyday speech, is used only to refer to the benefits for retirement, disability, survivorship, and death, which are the four main benefits provided by traditional private-sector pension plans. In 2004 the U.S. Social Security system paid out almost $500 billion in benefits.<4> By dollars paid, the U.S. Social Security program is the largest government program in the world.

The Social Security Administration is headquartered in Woodlawn, Maryland just to the west of Baltimore. See Social Security Administration.

Largely because of solvency questions ranging from immediate crisis to large projected future shortfalls, reform of the Social Security system has been a major political issue for more than three decades during the presidencies of Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. (See Social Security debate (United States).)
<MORE>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States)

[bunkerbuster1]

27. I thought it was interest on the debt...

I was wrong... that's "only" 406 billion per year, according to...

http://www.federalbudget.com/

[argyl]

54. That's the one I got wrong.Picked military also. I still think my answer is correct.

Guess I'm just stubborn.

[DotGone]

85. Social Security is correct

Military is (ridiculously) second. Medicare may overtake both in the future.

Scored 92% on the quiz. Me so smart? Yay. LOL.

[bigworld]

8. I got an 81%. Guess I'd better bone up.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

13. I got 4/5.

I thought interest on the national debt was #1's answer instead of SS, though.

[Misskittycat]

20. I picked that answer also, but perhaps the "20 years" is the key here; the national debt repayment

has been most dramatic recently, I beleive.

[Toucano]

29. 83% - I missed many of the economic ones.

I really should learn more about capitalism. :)

[Massacure]

35. I scored 54/60 - 90%

I got 8, 19, 24, 34, 53 and 58 wrong.

[Sweet Pea]

38. 50 out of 60

Guess I'm smaht! That's 83.33 % and the average score for this quiz during September: 73.8%

[nadinbrzezinski]

45. 81.67

not bad, actually, my education was fairly good I guess

[LiberalFighter]

75. I posted 81.67 too

Too bad they didn't have political persuasion included with zip and education level.

And hopefully, those considering themselves to be Republican or conservative would test low.

[trof]

99. Same here, but many questions I considered to be 'History', not civics.

[Nikia]

108. That's what I got too

I guess that I am not too rusty on those subjects.

[mikelgb]

49. 68.33

I got some dumb ones wrong by second guessing myself

[Lisa]

59. wow! that was interesting -- thanks for posting. I got 83.33 % (educated in Canada)

I know I missed a lot of US history questions -- also economics (I didn't take any econ courses in college). But I did remember some of the political theory I studied 20 years ago, and that helped.

[Posteritatis]

60. 85% for this Canuck. (nt)

[Hosnon]

78. 52/60 = 86.67%

Pretty good quiz.

[UrbScotty]

81. 47/60 (nt)

[Lionel Mandrake]

84. 92%

and I'm not especially interested in these subjects or knowledgeable about them. The test didn't seem very hard.

[Exiled in America]

104. 83.33 % - however, question 55 is total bullshit.

55) Over the past forty years, real income among American households has:
A. remained the same when averaged over all households.
B. involved the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
C. involved the poor getting richer and the rich getting poorer.
D. decreased for the middle class and increased for the upper class.
E. increased for the lower and middle classes and increased most for the upper class.

Contrary to what they say the correct answer is - E - (though I knew that was the answer they were looking for)-- the CORRECT answer is B, backed up by data.

Answer "E" is the politically spun "nice" way to say things. Saying "increased for the lower and middle classes" is a large amount of spin. For the poor, income has been flatlined (with statistically insignificant increases or dips over time) or declined. Meanwhile, the increase in income among the upper class has been exponential.

[Mad_Dem_X]

105. I got 53% - better than I thought. n/t

[skids]

109. 68% but some of the correct answers are debatable.

I absolutely suck at history. So those were my own fault, and I WAGed on a lot of it and probably didn't even deserve a 68%. But look at some of these:


Question #50 - A. the price system utilizes more local knowledge of means and ends.

50) Free markets typically secure more economic prosperity than government\u2019s centralized planning because:
A. the price system utilizes more local knowledge of means and ends.
B. markets rely upon coercion, whereas government relies upon voluntary compliance with the law.
C. more tax revenue can be generated from free enterprise.
D. property rights and contracts are best enforced by the market system.
E. government planners are too cautious in spending taxpayers\u2019 money.

First of all, this question is nothing short of a push poll, inserting the supposition that "free markets" do in fact "secure more economic prosperity" -- for who exactly? Why for everyone if you want to believe the premise, of course. Plus it infers all government is necessarily centralized. In fact I answered B, because it is far more accurate. Our free market, and a lot of others, is prosperous because of our corporations ruthlessly wielded coercive efforts in developing nations. Government markets have obviously been tried and shown that while it may be possible to reign in free markets in some areas, government is not always able to do so without subversion by the privateers (as we see coming to a forth right now) and in other cases (drug prohibition) it fails miserably to gain compliance with the law not for lack of trying, but for sheer lack of ability. Anyone mature enough to actually look at both sides of an issue knows we need government to referee and keep the playing field well maintained but not to attempt to regulate where it is not competent to do so.

Question #53 - B. a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it.

53) National defense is considered a public good because:
A. a majority of citizens value it.
B. a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it.
C. military contracts increase employment opportunities.
D. a majority of citizens support the military during war.
E. airport security personnel are members of the Federal civil service.

I answered A. In what world do these people live that we don't "directly pay" for national defense? If they were getting at a technical definition of the term "public good" then they got that wrong as well -- nothing in the two essential terms defined in the wikipedia entry for the term says anything about who pays, and the wikipedia page seems well sourced.

Question #55 - E. increased for the lower and middle classes and increased most for the upper class.

55) Over the past forty years, real income among American households has:
A. remained the same when averaged over all households.
B. involved the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
C. involved the poor getting richer and the rich getting poorer.
D. decreased for the middle class and increased for the upper class.
E. increased for the lower and middle classes and increased most for the upper class.

...as it makes no sense whatsoever to track household income without factoring in inflation, and whose inflation numbers you use can determine whether you see an increase for the lower 3 quintiles or just a flat line, and we have higher poverty levels if we use old standards instead of letting each administration sweep that under the carpet with new improved statistics, well the most accurate answer is B


Question #60 - B. social security.

60) The Federal government\u2019s largest pay out over the past twenty years has been for:
A. military.
B. social security.
C. interest on the national debt.
D. education.
E. foreign aid.

...whether programs taxed separately and which should be self-contained should qualify as "federal government" payouts for the purpose of this question is debatable, despite the tendency of the feds to borrow against it, which they really should not be doing, and they fail to account for the money allocated to other programs that is actually destined for secret military/espionage slush funds. Nor did they account for money moved by the feds through illegal drug/arms trade off the books. Not that they could be expected to, but since they did not bundle medicare/medicaid/etc with SS, the margin is thin enough that this is debatable given the unknown variables. But then again, if we were to likewise account for funds destined for corrupt congresscritters and their cronies, we might have a new winner.


And finally, I got the sense there were disproportionately many references to the 60s, considering how old the country is and the fact that much of civics predates us. Obviously this survey was put together but boomers. :hide: Actually no I'm just teasing.

[YankeyMCC]

111. You answered 52 out of 60 correctly — 86.67 %

[Nevernose]

112. This test is absolute TRIPE.

No, I'm still not done taking it, because I wanted to record my initial reactions first.

The questions are often irrelevant. Does it really make a difference if Jamestown was founded in 1609 or 1599? Wording the question centuries apart would have made a difference, but these guys did it with a decade.

Does it matter what the name of Tom Paine's pamphlet was? Really? Why? ("Common Sense," I know, I'm a political junkie posting at this site, too, remember?)

The YEAR that the UN was organized is important? When all the possible answers are within 15 years, then including the year is just a confusion task. Ask what you want to know: why was the UN formed?

The major powers at odds with each other in the “Cold War” were the United States and:
A. Germany.
B. Iran.
C. Vietnam.
D. the Soviet Union.
E. Poland.

What could possibly be the answer you're looking for?

Germany? We didn't shoot at them after 1945, but we still have bases there. And what about East Germany's role in the Cold War?

Iran? If it wasn't involved in the Cold War, tell it to the Shah. Twice -- once in 54 and once in 79.

Vietnam? A hot war by anyone's definition. But if the hot war is also a war by proxy, then is it cold or hot?

The USSR? Definitely cold.

Poland? Not that they were ever the greatest threat to the US, but we'll lump them in the "cold" category.

Again, not really a fair question.

Anyway, y'all hopefully get the point.

(on edit: many of the questions are actually favorable to liberals, like 49, it's just that most of them aren't well written)

[valerief]

3. It's Bush's Leave All Citizens Behind program. nt

[distantearlywarning]

5. U.S. college students fail to find their ass with a map

Unfortunately, this describes about 90% of the undergrads I interact with on a daily basis.

[HereSince1628]

6. That's nothing. I gave my freshman biology sections the GED for BIOLOGY

The average score was 46.8%

And on really basic skills of living among other organisms its pretty apparent to me that the average American can't recognize, even by common name, the first 10 trees, birds, or insects he/she sees in a day and cannot name 4 species of grass, or the 5 most common fish within their state.

Its my experience that most Americans can't tell the difference between a sweet potato and a yam, or tell apart a Jalepeno from a Serrano pepper. Nor can they tell the difference between cilantro and parsley.

My point is our ignorance is vast, and may only be exceeded by our characterizing arrogance--that things we do not know are not important.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

11. Your point is an excellent one.

You've summed up one of our greatest failings in one sentence.

[Ilsa]

14. Gee, I'd settle for people being able to make change without use of a machine.

I wish people understood some basics, though, like how to write a proper check, measure items, add and subtract in their heads, etc.

[barb162]

34. Does it make you ask how people are getting diplomas

even from grammar school? A lot of the kids can't do any basic math in their heads or write simple sentences without mistakes. Why are teachers passing these kids through to the next grade level?

[HereSince1628]

39. My current students are mostly from Milwaukee inner-city schools

They are better at math than biology. I gave them questions from both Math and Biology Practice GEDs because HS Biology and Math proficiency are requisites for enrollment in Intro Biol. It seems to me that NCLB is working better for arithmetic than biology.

[Ilsa]

65. Why? Because the kids have fuller mustaches in the 8th grade

than their 30 year old teachers. Seriously, though, there tends to be a pile up of older students that are held back. I think they have to just rind of them, eventually, even if they don't get a diploma.

[Warpy]

15. If the market has flat parsley next to the cilantro,

I have to sniff it to tell the difference. Most home cooks in this country use the terms "sweet potato" and "yam" interchangeably. Those aren't really all that reliable as indicators of stupidity. Telling jalapenos from serranos comes easily enough if you've ever tried to substitute one for the other. Those are culinary questions, not biology questions.

However, yes, most folks can't tell buffalo grass from Bermuda grass, live trout from catfish, sparrows from swallows. That is sad.

[HereSince1628]

25. Produce is plants, plants are really biotic, as is produce.

What I am intimating is not only are contemporary American's ignorant of biotic entities in nature, something that might be deemed defensible for people surrounded by concrete and plasterboard, but Americans are ignorant and by and large down right uninterested in recognizing biotic entities even when they walk past them 52 times a year in the markets they shop in.

Several years ago I was often driving Hwy 2 between Duluth and Bemidji MN. A wonderful drive along which could be seen Bald Eagles, Ravens, etc etc.
My BIOLOGY (!!!) chairman thought the drive was the most boring stretch of road in the state as there was "nothing interesting to see." As most Americans cannot tell the difference between Biology and Medicine it is not at all surprising to me that even biologists cannot read the story of life in the landscapes they drive through. Most of them currently need a DNA sequencer in order to make any of it interesting.

As I wrote in my previous reply, it is sad to me that rather than admitting to not knowing, American's first inclination is to defend their not knowing by saying that what they do not know, and thereby what is outside of their realm of inclusion in their thinking, is therefore not important.

That's sad. There is a whole world full of things which one American could spend multiple life-times in awe of while learning about if one American only had the humility and interest to notice.

[Heywood J]

42. Yeah, but as an undergrad in the sciences,

I don't need to know the difference between cilantro and parsley, or sweet potatoes and yams. I don't cook with them, and I've interacted with them a handful of times in my life. It has no bearing on my chosen profession. You might as well ask a biology grad to explain right ascension and declination or an art grad to derive Young's modulus for a given material.


I do, however, find the statistic on the GED test sobering. That's the basis of their chosen field, they should damn well know better. I can only imagine how many classrooms are now rubber stamps.

[HereSince1628]

47. Yes, I understand, you choose to make your own point of my point

by doing EXACTLY what I said Americans do when something is not within the realm of their knowing--Deny that it has any importance to you.

As a biologist, as an educator, and as a somewhat curious person, I find it absolutely fucking tragic that Americans want to only consider the things in their narrow parochial experiences as the only thing that can possibly be informative and enriching to the incredibly brief opportunity that human lifespans offer afford to appreciate a view of the universe around them.

[Enrique]

53. I thought that yams and sweet potatoes are the same

I find it interesting to learn that they are different (via Google), but I have to confess I don't find it very important.

[MUSTANG_2004]

67. They are the same

In the US, the terms are interchangeable. But it is probably useful to know that in foreign countries yams refer to something different.

[HereSince1628]

94. You make my point you don't even know they are in different families of plants

A brief inspection of the chromosome number should settle this even if you
think that botanists don't know how to recognize different taxa of flowering plants.

...................Sweetpotato....................... Yam

Scientific Name...Ipomoea batatas.............. Dioscorea Species

Plant family ....Morningglory(Convolvulaceae)..Yam (Dioscoreaceae)

Chromosome number. 2n=90 (hexaploid)........ 2n=20

[MUSTANG_2004]

98. No, you miss my point

In the US, it is perfectly acceptable to use the terms interchangeably. Scientists are supposed to know that scientific and common names don't have a one-to-one correspondence.

[Toots]

97. The difference between yams and sweet potatos in the store is about fifty cents a pound

Sweet potatos are quite a bit more expensive and have much more orange meat..The tase is a bit different as well.

[woo me with science]

88. I love the irony here. People at DU always argue that teachers should teach

"higher level thinking" rather than making children learn facts and figures....yet everyone is outraged when kids graduate from school not knowing any facts.

The notion that you can teach "higher level thinking" without a solid foundation of basic knowledge is just wrong. There is plenty of evidence in cognitive psychology that children need both kinds of teaching. It is impossible to think and reason at higher levels if you don't have a solid foundation of facts from which to make those higher-level connections. Involving kids in abstract discussions when they have no real knowledge base from which to develop their opinions results in indoctrination rather than genuine critical thought.

[Critters2]

10. How does this constitute "news"?

Let alone "latest" or "breaking".

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. I just took the quiz and scored 90%

Some of the questions were tricky, but others should have been grade school level.

[Warpy]

16. Yeah, that's what I got, too

which was dumber than I hoped I was, but still I guess we lefties do know what we're talking about more often than not.

[Jankyn]

17. Couple of things...

First, the "quiz" was put together by ISI (Intercollegiate Studies Institute), the academic think-tank affiliated with the National Review.

Second, I just took the quiz (earning a respectable "A," which we'd expect from someone with graduate degrees and a history minor). It's strongly biased toward a traditional Western view of the world and stresses capitalist, free-market ideals.

Not that it's bad. It's just that there's a strong bias toward a traditional capitalist world-view. For example, one of the questions asks students to indicate the general trend for "real income" in the U.S. in the last several decades. The "correct" answer is: Income has increased for the lower and middle classes and for most of the upper class.

Now, I have a lot to argue with about that as a "correct" answer, and I suspect there are others here (equally well-educated and well-read) who would as well.

So, as always, investigate the source.

That said, as a professional in a writing-intensive politically-aware workplace who supervises college interns, I'm continually disappointed in how little these otherwise bright kids seem to know.

Jankyn

[Misskittycat]

21. I got that one wrong also, because I disagreed with the premise.

[Toucano]

31. Bingo! Thank you

I noticed that bias.

I don't remember studying a lot of economic in civics. Tax issues were about it, iirc. Economics was a separate course which I didn't do well in.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

32. I dispute that I got that question wrong also

Perhaps bias is part of the problem with our youths educations?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

46. The political bias of the quiz was clear.

[scipan]

64. slight factual correction

The correct answer was "increased for the lower and middle classes and increased most for the upper class". It does change the meaning. I got it wrong also -- I thought real income has been basically flat for the lower & middle classes, and increased for the upper class. Although, come to think of it, the 90's were good for anyone who was rich enough to invest.

I got 85%. I would not have thought I would do much better than Harvard seniors -- what are they teaching these days, anyway?

[fujiyama]

86. Good catch

I noticed the bias creeping in there as well.

[RamboLiberal]

107. In defense of the question in last 40 years it is most likely true

It was with the election of Reagan that this began to be reversed where the lower and middle classes became stagnant. Plus the Clinton era would temporarily hold or reverse this trend for the lower and middle classes. Of course Chimpy managed to reverse any of that gain.

I had problems with that question as well but figured out the answer they were looking for when I considered the 40 average.

[Hissyspit]

18. No surprise there. I just asked my college freshmen how many of them knew what happened in Tiananmen

Square in 1989 and only one out of 25 raised a hand.

Three recognized the iconic "guy stopping the tanks" image.

Everyone had an opinion on whether Britney is "fat" or not, though.

[Igel]

36. Recent events are hard to cover.

It's hard to get everybody on the same page as to what's important, what's more important than what was already in the textbooks, and (sometimes) on the interpretation. So kids are likely to know what they've been around to pay attention to, and stuff that's traditionally in the textbooks, but stuff from when they were born ... nah.

(My high school ignored everything from JFK's assassination onward ... I graduated in '77.)

[enlightenment]

37. Are you teaching my classes, Hissyspit??

Mine got incensed yesterday because I wouldn't allow a discussion of indenture to digress into a discussion of OJ.

sigh.

[fujiyama]

87. I'm reminded of my "world after '45" course

a couple years ago. I absolutely loved the course, mainly because I was an engineering major and every non Math/Science course I had could be considered a breather.

But I distinctly remember the professor asking the class who Donald Rumsfeld is and people were clueless. A few other times he asked about Kissinger and he got the same clueless response.

[Misskittycat]

22. It was definitely a college-level exam; it was quite challenging.

I got 90%, and I was a political science major, took a lot of history courses, and also have a law degree.

[133724]

24. 87% for me...

[Hissyspit]

44. 87% for me, too. Although, on one question I clicked the wrong button

and on another I completely misread it, so maybe it should be a bit higher (or maybe I'm rationalizing.)

[bunkerbuster1]

26. 81.67% for me

And I'm disappointed I didn't do better. (& I totally read the question about Andrew Johnson as being about Andrew Jackson).

Still, that's better than the average Hahvahd student.

[MLFerrell]

28. Wow... Seniors AVERAGED 54.2%.

That's just fucking dismal. Utterly pathetic.

Is there any other Western nation whose youth are so oblivious to their history and the mechanism of their system of governance?

I doubt it... And I strongly suspect that the vast majority of the parents of these students would do no better.




You answered 60 out of 60 correctly — 100.00 %
Average score for this quiz during September: 74.0%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 74.0%

You can take the quiz as often as you like, however, your score will only count once toward the monthly average.




If our education system was anywhere near effective, the average score would be in the upper 80s or lower 90s.

[Irishonly]

30. I took the test

I scored 89%.:blush:

[abq e streeter]

33. 85%

missed # 1 for just not thinking, almost everything else I missed was economics. I'm also disturbed as are many of you at the lack of awareness and knowledge of history and civics even among bright and privileged young people.

[kirby]

40. Are you smarter than a Harvard grad?

Should be the next big game show. I scored 79%, mainly because I got questions about dates incorrect. Harvard grads scored highest at 69%. So yes, I'm smarter than a Harvard grad. Ted Stevens (Harvard grad) can host it.

[LiberalFighter]

76. Guess who else "graduated" from Harvard

[KillCapitalism]

92. Yeah, I only scored a 71 and felt bad about it.

Then I saw that Harvard grads only scored 69 on average, so that made me feel a bit better again considering I only went to a state university.

[InkAddict]

100. Scored a 75%

so I guess that's above average compared to the Harvard grads. Never formally studied philosophy, economics, law, or advanced business classes, so actually I feel pretty good with that score. If I had taken those, I expect I'd have done much better.

[McCamy Taylor]

41. These kids took government (honors level) LAST YEAR

if they are freshmen at Harvard. And they took honors level American History TWO YEARS ago. They should be able to get a 90 on this test.

I am almost 50. The last time I took a class in anything that had anything to do with any of these topics was the 1970s, and I got an 81. That means I know more from reading the newspapers and books and watching documentaries on TV, than these kids learned in school in the last two years. Or than the seniors learned in college.

Now, the freshmen can get by with the excuse that their high schools may have had coaches teaching their social studies classes (the way that mine did) in which case they learned nothing. However, colleges have real professors. That means that they did not take any social studies courses in college--unless they are majoring in a social studies field.

In the US, the powers that be want us to be ignorant of how our government works so that we will let the oligarchy run things. In school, they have coaches make government and history as boring and dumb as possible, while math and science is emphasized along with English. They even make people learn a foreign language and computer skills. In college, everyone is expected to take English and math and science but social studies is blown off.

They are training kids to be worker drones who will do what they are told but not question the system, not vote, certainly not attempt to take control of their own government, because they do not understand the government.

People fear that which they do not understand. Americans fear their government. It is time to demand that social studies become a real education program in our high schools and not just a way that coaches can pad their salaries.

[Heywood J]

43. I got 81%.

I'm not American by birth. I never saw half of this stuff in school, never took economics, never took an American history class, nor an American civics class. My information comes from senior-level political science classes in another country.

And I still beat out Harvard seniors.

[BrotherBuzz]

48. Answered 48 out of 60 correctly — 80.00 %

I know squat about Plato, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Edmund Burke, yet I'm hip to Adam Smith and John Locke. I'm familiar with Eisenhower's Farewell Address and didn't know President Washington even gave one. Damn, that quiz is really hard and I'm glad it wasn't timed. I think I'll just go sit in the corner and shut up.

[ladywnch]

50. I got a 75. Missed more of the economy questions than anything

else. I too thought national debt had a higher payout. I misread the Andrew Johnson as Andrew Jackson like someone else did. Some of the economic questions are worded rather strange.....I thought.

[NightHawk63]

51. I scored 76.7% .

Not too bad, considering its been over 30 years since I've had a civics lesson.

[ryanmuegge]

52. This is really no surprise.

Powerful interests have incentives to obscure and subvert democracy. They've spent a lot of money making sure that main actors in the two-party system are merely factions of the same party, rather than two distinct, opposing parties.

There's a very conscious information war being waged on the part of the powerful to blame the big, bad government for everything, rather than the real interests corrupting the system. It's no wonder that no one cares to vote or learn about their theoretical roles as citizens in a "democracy."

[TheWatcher]

55. The Headline should just read U.S. College Students Fail

and leave it at that.

Or perhaps U.S. Fails.

Because we have. In almost every conceivable way.

[Flarney]

56. 74% ... Can anyone recommend a good civics book? n/t

[AnneD]

57. Judging by...

the lack of concern by the majority of the population during this administration..... I am so not suprised. :eyes:

We will spend the rest of our lives trying to unscamble this egg.

[Alexander]

58. 53/60 - 88.33%.

I did better than most Harvard grads, and I went to a party school.

[Progressive_In_NC]

61. wow 83%

And I messed up the answer to one question that i knew


====================================================

You answered 50 out of 60 correctly — 83.33 %
Average score for this quiz during September: 73.1%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 73.1%

You can take the quiz as often as you like, however, your score will only count once toward the monthly average.
=====================================================

[0rganism]

62. I question their use of a 'flat grading scale'

They observe the average student knows about half of what they asked, with modest improvements over the course of undergraduate study. There's no reason to get all pissy and judgmental about the result by assigning letter grades as they do, especially when the content and criteria reflect bias and arbitrary cutoffs on the part of the ISI staff who made the survey.

Should college students know and learn more than they do about civics? Probably. Should Americans generally know more about our history and guiding principles? Let's have the ISI run the same study in a cross-section of sports bars, and see what the average is. Try it on some corporate execs. Run it by the state legislatures and US congress, see how they do. I'm not nearly as concerned by the mediocre performance of college students on a civics survey compared to the blatant widescale disregard of constitutional and historical guides by the current regime and its willing enablers.

It doesn't surprise me in the least that those of us posting here, and most of the self-selectors who take the quiz on the usatoday website, would score much higher than an average undergraduate. Those with a topical interest in politics and American history will naturally flock to such an undertaking, and are sure to be overrepresented on politically-oriented websites.

edit: so you know I'm not just making an excuse,
You answered 52 out of 60 correctly — 86.67 %
Average score for this quiz during September: 73.1%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 73.1%

This isn't atypical for the posters here who self-select to take the quiz online. Results speak more to the general interest level of college students than a failure to present American history to those who are interested.

[dsc]

63. 58 out of 60

I missed the question about Jamestown and that was just stupid. I missed the one about what happens when the Federal Reserve buys bonds. I tried to reason it out and just didn't make the cut. On the plus side I had some lucky guesses. I wasn't totally sure about Burke and Toquville but got those questions right.

[Lisa]

66. I'd love to see the medians, std deviations, and frequency distributions

Without knowing the data structure, it's hard to interpret the averages (can't assume that half the students are scoring above or below that number).

[mitchum]

68. 87% and I gave the "correct" answers for the obvious political and economic bias of the thing

[Orsino]

69. Those who fail history are condemned to repeat it. n/t

[goodgd_yall]

70. Richardson in his speech at the Steak Fry Sunday

He spoke about those subjects that needed to be emphasized in the educational curriculum and he mentioned civics, along with math, English, the arts. I was glad to hear this, because in a democratic society, knowledge of history and the way government works should be as important as math, English,, and science skills.

[dkofos]

71. Just took the test and got 76%

[Systematic Chaos]

72. So even I of all people outscored the average Harvard senior? (71%)

I'm ashamed to post that result, but I'm an honest guy. It blows my mind that I haven't been near a classroom since 1988 and yet almost 20 years later I have more common sense than some people about to graduate fucking Harvard. :eyes:

[ellisonz]

73. 51/60 - 85%.

Question #24 - D. A political system where state and national governments share power.
Question #27 - D. Man trusts his ability to know in order to reject his ability to know.
Question #31 - A. Edmund Burke argued that society consists of a union of past, present, and future generations.
Question #36 - D. The authority of a legitimate sovereign.
Question #50 - A. the price system utilizes more local knowledge of means and ends.
Question #53 - B. a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it.
Question #55 - E. increased for the lower and middle classes and increased most for the upper class.
Question #58 - B. An increase in the volume of commercial bank loans.
Question #60 - B. social security.

24. Except for when the Federal government overrules and coerces the states.
27. Freeper philosophy.
31. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations#Of_the_Division_of_Labour
36. See Iraq War 2.
50. Where's the Marx?
53. Nuts?
55. "real income"
58. Meh.
60. Damn Ponzi scheme.

Senior history major, liberal arts college.

This test taught me that conservative intellectuals dis-value the individual while claiming that reconfiguration of their own philosophy is for "the good" of the bourgeoisies.

[Realityhack]

74. I would like to see individual question stats

IMO some of the questions are more important and more relevent than others.

[okasha]

77. Got 55 right.

91.67%--Thank you, Sister Gerard!

[TheCentepedeShoes]

79. 50/60 - 83.33%

Good at the dates, not so good on the writings

[mainer]

80. Wow -- only 78.3% for me. You DUers are smart.

But we're all smarter than Harvard seniors. I messed up on the economics questions. And I really didn't know anything about Locke and DeTocqueville. But then, what do you expect? I was an Anthropology major.

[UrbScotty]

82. ISI is a conservative organization, IIRC. Just a heads-up.

That said, when even a conservative group knows that there's something wrong with 'edjimication' in this country, that tells you something.

[fujiyama]

89. An interesting quiz

I scored 86.67%. Like many, I goofed up on some econ questions. I found the econ courses I had in undergrad (macro and micro) a bit dry, but I should brush up on the concepts again one of these days. I also made a few mistakes on theoretical questions about the "balance of powers" and "just wars". I also noticed the subtle conservative bias in some of their questions so it did not surprise me it was a conservative organization affiliated with the National Review.

I'll admit that I didn't find it an "easy" quiz, and I find it understandable that many freshman would not score extraordinarily well on it. But it's incredible that there is not that much improvement among seniors. One thing to keep in mind is that those whose interests gravitate towards history and politics will do well in this exam.

Ultimately, if these are the results from arguably the most prestigious university in the nation, I can only imagine what the results would be from a large state university (like where I graduated from). I do recall a history course with clueless stares when the professor asked who Donald Rumsfeld was. Keep in mind, this was during the '04 election season.

General education is a huge problem and as we've seen, there is a lot of ignorance. The best indicator is given by the answer by the question "Did Saddam play a role in 9/11?"

[tomhayes]

90. 73% from a G.E.D'er

Plus, I think at least 5 of the ones I missed were more conservative political philosophy than fact.

[Superman Returns]

91. 88

The economics questions got me.

[MilesColtrane]

93. I only scored 76.67%.

In my defense, during college and high school I was too busy trying to learn how to play "Giant Steps" and to get laid.

[PaganPreacher]

95. 90%. Not bad for first thing in the morning.

You answered 54 out of 60 correctly — 90.00 %
Average score for this quiz during September: 72.4%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 72.4%


Not basd for first thing in the morning. If I'd had my coffee, I would have picked up two more.

The Pagan Preacher
Coffee IV in place.

[Maeve]

96. 95%--so I guess I have learned a thing or two along the way!

But then, I have been out of college longer than those kids have been alive...

[Xithras]

102. 85%

Question #1 - D. 1601-1700
Question #5 - D. Yorktown
Question #10 - E. slavery and its expansion.
Question #11 - C. 1851-1875
Question #19 - C. philosopher kings.
Question #26 - D. John Locke.
Question #35 - A. discouraged new colonies in the Western hemisphere.
Question #54 - D. can be reversed by government spending more than it taxes.
Question #58 - B. An increase in the volume of commercial bank loans.


Thank god I teach compsci and logic. I'll leave economics and history to those who know the subjects better.

[Kelvin Mace]

103. 88.3%, which was disappointing

since I expected to break 90%

[RamboLiberal]

106. I didn't consider this a real civics test

Kind of a potpourri of questions, some more related to history. Still I'm happy to have scored an 88.33% and that I only screwed up 1 question on business I should've known and probably didn't read the answers closely enough. And there's one on the Bill of Rights I need to smacke myself upside the head for - at least the correct answer was my 2nd choice. And I've come to the conclusion it would be good to go back and read some more on the early periods of our history and focus more on the thoughts and motives of our founders and those following them and the history of what inspired them.