New [citizen] Test Asks: What Does ‘American’ Mean?

[rodeodance]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/washington/28citizen.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

September 28, 2007
New Test Asks: What Does ‘American’ Mean?
By JULIA PRESTON

Patrick Henry and Francis Scott Key are out, but Susan B. Anthony and Nancy Pelosi are in. The White House was cut, but New York and Sept. 11 made the list.

Federal immigration authorities yesterday unveiled 100 new questions immigrants will have to study to pass a civics test to become naturalized American citizens.

The redesign of the test, the first since it was created in 1986 as a standardized examination, follows years of criticism in which conservatives said the test was too easy and immigrant advocates said it was too hard.

The new questions did little to quell that debate among many immigrant groups, who complained that the citizenship test would become even more daunting. Conservatives seemed to be more satisfied. .......

[rodeodance]

1. In the new test, the pilgrims have been replaced by “colonists,” and they

In the pilot runs of the revised test, Mr. Aguilar said, the pass rates improved over the current tests, with 92 percent of participants passing on the first try, as opposed to 84 percent now. At least 15 questions were eliminated as a result of the pilot because they proved too difficult. For example, a question about the minimum wage was dropped because test takers were confused between federal and state rates, Mr. Aguilar said.

In the new test, the pilgrims have been replaced by “colonists,” and they are the subject of fewer questions, while slavery and the civil rights movement are the subject of more. A question was added asking what “major event” happened on Sept. 11, 2001.

The new test drops questions about the 49th and 50th states, but adds one about the political affiliation of the president. There are no questions about the White House. Instead, one question asks where the Statue of Liberty is.

In a statement today, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, one of the groups consulted in shaping the new test, denounced it as “the final brick in the second wall.” The group said the test included “more abstract and irrelevant questions” that tended to stump hard-working immigrants who had little time to study.

[jdlh8894]

2. one question asks where the Statue of Liberty is

From the way things are going, IMHO, she was hit on 09/11/2001.

[Igel]

3. The last test was pretty much a joke.

The immigrants I knew that took it ridiculed it. They'd memorized the answers; I had to explain to a new citizen what one of her answers meant, she didn't understand the words when she'd memorized it, she simply didn't know enough grammar or vocabulary.

They were proud of their citizenship papers because of the benefits and security they conferred, dismissive of the process (their homeland, they said, would never make it so easy--they were proud that it had standards), and joked about gaming the system--and thanked those that helped them game the system.

Sad, really.