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Among the questions asked by the Goldwater survey were such puzzlers as “What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?” and “Who was the first president of the United States?” The full report will be released shortly, but here are ten of the questions asked, along with the percentage of students who answered them correctly. To pass, the students had only to correctly answer six of the ten questions, pulled at random from a pool of questions from the U.S. citizenship exam. Only 3.5% of the students, all from government schools, passed the test. That’s about 40 out of...

According to a recent study of civics literacy by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute:* Fewer than half of all Americans can name all three branches of government, a minimal requirement for understanding America's constitutional system. * Only 24% of college graduates know the First Amendment prohibits establishing an official religion for the United States. * Nearly a third of the respondents failed to name two of America's enemies in World War Two; 22% of college graduates did not answer that question successfully. * 54% of respondents (and only 44% of 18- to 34-year-olds) knew that Congress shares foreign policy power with...

by Gina L. DiorioAmericans’ lack of basic knowledge of their country’s history and political and economic structure is cause for concern – great concern. According to a new study by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), most Americans – including college graduates – are “civically illiterate.� Of more than 2,500 randomly-selected Americans given a basic 33-question “civic literacy� test, more than 1,700 failed, with 49 percent being the average score. And what’s worse – elected officials fared even more miserably than the general public, garnering an average score of only 44 percent.Lest one think the 33 questions were designed for constitutional scholars,...

Join us everyone at Freedom Radio, the show dedicated exclusively to our men and women in uniform at 8 pm est, tonight, Sunday Nov 30! http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedom Yes we are here and we are so at it again. This week we will talk about the lack of History and civics knowledge out there in Freedomland. Why and how has this happened? Why is Obama our President-elect and Murtha is back and up to his usual no good. Tune in and find out. Loki and I look forward to hearing from you!

Civics Quiz Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do better? Questions were drawn from past ISI surveys, as well as other nationally recognized exams.

Voters Fail the Test By Kathleen Parker Tuesday, November 25, 2008; 7:56 PM WASHINGTON -- So much for the wisdom of The People. A new report from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) on the nation's civic literacy finds that most Americans are too ignorant to vote. Out of 2,500 American quiz-takers, including college students, elected officials and other randomly selected citizens, nearly 1,800 flunked a 33-question test on basic civics. In fact, elected officials scored slightly lower than the general public with an average score of 44 percent compared to 49 percent. Only 0.8 percent of all test-takers scored an...

America fails a basic test on their history and basic institutions.

WE’RE NOT LED BY THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST: US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday. Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). “It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI’s civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned,” said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy...

US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday. Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). "It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned," said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI. "How can political leaders make informed...

November 21, 2008, 1:15 p.m. Americans Flunk Basic CivicsBut boy, do we know our American Idol. By Deroy Murdock However you regard the outcome of the November 4 election, it was heartening to watch 125 million Americans cast their ballots at precincts from coast to coast. Unfortunately, they and the many millions more who skipped the whole thing collectively know frightfully little about the government we just reaffirmed, the principles that undergird it, and the basic documents in which those ideas are enshrined. Thus, Americans slouch into the 21st century — a free and confident people blissfully unaware of...

However you regard the outcome of the November 4 election, it was heartening to watch 125 million Americans cast their ballots at precincts from coast to coast. Unfortunately, they and the many millions more who skipped the whole thing collectively know frightfully little about the government we just reaffirmed, the principles that undergird it, and the basic documents in which those ideas are enshrined. Thus, Americans slouch into the 21st Century -- a free and confident people blissfully unaware of how we got here or how we shall continue our 232-year-old tradition of limited self-government. Consider these staggering data: *Fully...

Some news audiences are more politically savvy than others, according to a new poll, with readers of The New Yorker and similar high-brow magazines being the most knowledgeable. The survey, conducted between April 30 and June 1 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, measured the political knowledge of 3,612 U.S. adults. Participants were asked to name the controlling party of the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. secretary of state and Great Britain's prime minister. Overall, just 18 percent of participants answered all three questions correctly. More than 50 percent of Americans knew that the...

American kids' mastery of the facts every citizen ought to know has never been impressive. You’ve probably heard statistics like this before: in a survey of 6,000 incoming freshmen at the nation’s top colleges, half didn’t know when the Civil War happened. Half couldn’t locate St. Louis on a map. Only six percent could name the original 13 colonies. And almost two-thirds — remember, this is among students going to top colleges — almost two-thirds got a famous 19th century author mixed up with a contemporary pop music icon. It’s a familiar story, and it’s been in the news again...

Historical Progress? by: Bethany Stotts, July 18, 2008 Despite what Americans have been hearing about the nation’s poor civics literacy, renowned education reformer Diane Ravitch suggests that, on historical subjects at least, civics education may have made “some headway.” She writes in the summer edition of Hoover Digest, “Yet compare [the results of two 1986 and 2007 surveys] I did, and it appears to me that those interviewed in the [Common Core] telephone sample of 2007 were somewhat better informed than their parent’s generation of 1986...On most questions of a factual nature, the proportion who answered correctly was either higher...

Pop Quiz by: Bethany Stotts, July 15, 2008 How much do American high-schoolers know about their literary heritage? A non-profit group called Common Core surveyed 12,000 17-year-olds this year in order to answer just that question. Barely over half (52%) of the surveyed teenagers knew that 1984 was about “a dictatorship in which every citizen was watched in order to stamp out all individuality,” reports Frederick Hess, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Hess authored the Common Core study. Far more prevalent was knowledge of civil-rights-related literature such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Uncle Tom’s Cabin,...

I'm a Chinese and live in Beijing. You may heard about a massive earthquake stroke Sichuan province last month. In this natural disaster, one my fellow people, exactly a teacher, ran before his students and declared his view of personal liberty and freedom regardless his teacher indentity. His allegation has triggered a extensive discussion on humanity and teacher, as a publice servant,responsibility. I know that personal liberty is well developed and protected in US. But, and the same time, US is a country regarding public responsibility especially for those paid by the taxpayers to do their civil job. I came...

Online civics test at the link for any interested.

Don't know much about history By: SUNANA BATRA - For the North County Times Sunday's piece on MiraCosta College offering a citizenship program (Jan. 27, "MiraCosta honors 69 new Americans") allowed me to wax nostalgic about my own experience becoming a naturalized American. But while we insist would-be citizens have the ability to speak, read and write in simple English and also pass an exam in which they must demonstrate a basic understanding of U.S. history and government, we don't require the same from graduating California students. State Sen. Mark Wyland (R-Carlsbad) plans to introduce legislation to ensure California high...

The Constitution of the United States established what form of government? Which wall was President Reagan referring to when he said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall"? These questions were part of a 60-question test of civic literacy administered to college freshmen and seniors at 50 American colleges and universities. The test (available at www.isi.org) covered American history, government, international relations and economics. The results were disheartening. Freshman overall scored an average 50.4 percent, while seniors improved only to 54.2 percent. Eight of the 50 colleges were left to explain how four years at their institution could actually diminish students'...

Prestigious Universities Flunk Civic Studies by: Nirmala Punnusami, September 19, 2007 The National Civic Literacy Board of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute has just announced the shocking results of its second collegiate study: “Some of America’s most prestigious universities, Yale, Harvard, Cornell, UVA, Brown and Duke, have all flunked basic civic studies.” These results were analyzed at the National Press Club on Tuesday, September 18, 2007. Present at that discussion, was none other than the President of the ISI, himself, Mr. T. Kenneth Cribb Jr. Also present was the distinguished chairman of ISI’s National Civic Literacy Board, Lt. General Josiah Bunting,...

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...

America’s Founders were convinced American freedom could survive only if each generation understood its founding principles and the sacrifices made to maintain it. Failing Our Students, Failing America: Holding Colleges Accountable for Teaching America’s History and Institutions asks: Is American higher education doing its duty to prepare the next generation to maintain our legacy of liberty? In fall 2005, researchers at the University of Connecticut’s Department of Public Policy (UConnDPP), commissioned by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s (ISI) National Civic Literacy Board, conducted a survey of some 14,000 freshmen and seniors at 50 colleges and universities. Students were asked 60 multiple-choice...

Seniors at UC Berkeley, the nation's premier public university, got an F in their basic knowledge of American history, government and politics in a new national survey, and students at Stanford University didn't do much better, getting a D. Out of 50 schools surveyed, Cal ranked 49th and Stanford 31st in how well they are increasing student knowledge about American history and civics between the freshman and senior years. And they're not alone among major universities in being fitted for a civics dunce cap. Other poor performers in the study were Yale, Duke, Brown and Cornell universities. Johns Hopkins University...

The Lawrence Journal-World reported that state Representative Pat Colloton (R-Leawood) “...would like to see the state pass laws requiring home schools to supply proof that they’re providing a well-rounded education, complete with citizenship training.� Sometimes you don’t need to pass a new law to find proof. In 2002, Dr. Brian D. Ray studied the civic involvement of homeschoolers. He found that among students who had completed high school in a homeschool setting: 16% more wrote or telephoned an editor or public official, or signed a petition than others. 30% more attended a public meeting.

When one third of Democratic voters say that they believe President Bush knew in advance of 9/11, and a majority of Democrats either believe this nonsense or aren’t sure about it, we are obviously in deep trouble. How has our society and our educational system failed so badly? How can so many people ignore crystal clear facts and reach conclusions of such lunatic proportions?

Seniors at UC Berkeley, the nation's premier public university, got an F in their basic knowledge of American history, government and politics in a new national survey, while students at Stanford University didn't do much better, getting a D. Out of 50 schools surveyed, Cal ranked 49th and Stanford 31st in how well they are increasing student knowledge about American history and civics between the freshman and senior years. And they're not alone among major universities in being fitted for a civics dunce cap. Other poor performers in the study were Yale, Duke, Brown and Cornell universities. Johns Hopkins University...

In a time of war and conflict, when this country must face challenges and opposition, Americans can often be spotted proudly displaying the slogan 'United We Stand' in an attempt to flaunt their patriotism for our country and for our cause. But to David Jackson, founder of Partnerships for Global Education, that jingoistic statement simply is not enough. "I don't want 'United We Stand' just to be a cliché," Jackson explained. "I want it to have real meaning." To that end, Jackson formed his company as a means of providing greater support to the educational institutions across the nation, in...

High school civics courses and even college-level political science classes on the separation of powers can sometimes differ radically from the actual practice. In a time when corruption runs rampant throughout Congress, and the legislative branch consistently succumbs to the executive branch’s agenda, change within the government is necessary, say Thomas Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, co-authors of The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track. Both Mann and Ornstein spoke about their book at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday, July 12 as part of a panel discussion with former Speakers...

Flag Day 2006 was also the fifty-second anniversary of President Eisenhower signing “Joint Resolution 243,” which added the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. At the Upper Senate Park, organizations like Concerned Women For America (CWA), The Religious Freedom Coalition, Eagle Forum, Ask For America, and The Traditional Values Coalition held a press conference alongside Representative Trent Franks (R-AZ), Representative Todd Akin (R-MO), Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Senator John Kyl (R-AZ) to urge Congress to pass the Pledge Protection Act. Representative Akin and Senator Kyl are sponsoring the bills in their respective houses that would protect the...

Stop saying “HAPPY Memorial Day” By Jeff Seeber I hope I live long enough to be able to get through the month of May just once without some moron sending me a HAPPY Memorial Day e-mail or hearing some idiot wishing people a HAPPY Memorial Day. It’s bad enough I’m reminded every May and every November that very few Americans know the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day, but expecting me to remain silent about the growing trend to turn Memorial Day into some sort of celebration is asking too much. I usually chagrin and bear it, but I’m...

Military Salute, a 34-minute Windows-XP video honoring America’s Armed Forces, past and present, is available online. Visit the Military Salute home page at http://condocat.home.att.net for contents and other information. Individuals, non-profit groups, and organizations with DSL or cable access can view or download the video at no charge from http://www.soldiergifts.com/Military-Salute.html or http://www.rollingsportsman.com/Military-Salute.html. Five disabled Vietnam-era Veterans distribute Military Salute, providing it to active-duty Military units, Veterans groups, family support groups, public safety organizations, church groups, school districts, and students working on patriotic projects. The group, known as The Minnesota Platoon, also participates in fundraising projects that benefit America’s Veterans and...

Big Blue Civics Wal-Mart As students settle in for a new school year across the non-Katrina ravaged country, Wal-Mart is offering American schoolchildren a lesson in Big Blue Civics. The at-heart red-state discount retailer has long been a punching bag for political demagogues. Where I am in New York, there is no nearby Wal-Mart. New York City won't have it. We're way too sophisticated for the Big Blue. The anti-Wal-Mart rhetoric tends to verge on the insane. One Ohio congressman running for president warned ominously that if George Bush's America and his Wal-Mart friends weren't stopped, the store might someday...

CHICAGO -- How well do you know your civics? A survey by a lawyers group suggests many Americans could use a refresher. The American Bar Association poll finds many adults struggle to identify the branches of government -- legislative, executive and judicial -- and have trouble explaining separation of powers. One in five incorrectly said the three branches were Republican, Democrat and independent. Sixteen percent thought the three were local, state and federal. While eight in 10 people said separation of powers is important, fewer than half, when given four choices, correctly picked that "Congress, the president and the federal...

  How many Americans know that one K-12 civics textbook is directly subsidized by our tax dollars? Because of the government subsidy, schools can buy this textbook (high school version) for $10 a copy—about one-fifth the cost of competitor's textbooks. The book is called We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution and is written and published by the Center for Civic Education (CCE). There are three different editions—grade school, middle school and high school. This book was first funded in 1994 by HR6, the spending bill that was part of the Goals 2000, School-to-Work package. This textbook was re-authorized and...

Just wondering, does anyone know IF there was some kind of policy regarding the display of the picture of the President of the United States in classrooms? As a kid, I seem to remember each school having one in each classroom...maybe I'm wrong. Does anyone else have such recollections? I think part of the problem we are currently facing relative to the lack of respect towards the office of the presidency is that we don't honor the office as we once did...feedback?

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 - A Supreme Court argument on Wednesday posed a civics question with practical implications: Is a political party's primary election basically the business of the party, or of the state? Oklahoma was appealing a federal court decision that would have allowed political parties to open their nominating process to nonmembers. Along with 23 other states, Oklahoma does not permit voters registered in one party to vote in another party's primary. Independent voters in Oklahoma may choose a party primary in which to vote, but those enrolled in a party may not cross party lines unless they "disaffiliate"...

The purpose of this lesson is to satisfy the California State Language Arts Standards for use of electronic and internet sources, reading comprehension, writing, and analysis of public debate; and Social Science Standards for democracy in action, the American political process, and participation in public debate.

Used to be we could look forward to election day as the day when we got together to decide who was going to represent us. Starting to look like election day this year is going to be only the day when we fire the opening salvo in the battle of the lawyers over who is going to get to represent them. Somehow, I don't think this is what the Founding Fathers had in mind... Just like needing a supermajority in the Senate to get a judge confirmed, we're going to need a lawyer-proof supermajority on Tuesday, followed by genuine electoral...

To:       Interested PartiesFrom:   Bush-Cheney '04 CommunicationsDate:    10/14/04Re:       Civics 101: John Kerry's Thin             Senate Record Last night, President Bush said John Kerry "introduced 300 some bills and he's passed five," meaning just five of Kerry's bills became law.  Kerry responded by claiming, "I've actually passed 56 individual bills that I've personally written."  Nineteen years is long enough for most senators to learn how a bill becomes a law, but John Kerry and his campaign seem to need a civics lesson.  A bill does not become a law until it passes the Senate, passes the House, is reconciled by a conference committee, passes...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. An increasing number of Americans no longer participate in the democratic process PHOENIX - They used to gather in a cavernous hotel ballroom, tables packed with bankers and shopkeepers rubbing elbows with politicians. Those were the days when downtown Phoenix was booming, and the Downtown Lions Club boomed right along with it. In the 1970s, it wasn't unusual for 150 members to show up at the weekly lunch meetings to catch up with colleagues and friends. Nor was it unusual for a boss to pay his employee's dues, since the club...

Renewed Civic Vision Nancy Salvato January 13, 2004 It has been expressed by many of us in education, as well as private citizens and public officials that civic education is not being taught effectively in our schools. Perhaps this is because there are ideological disagreements over the meaning of civic virtue and democracy. A conservative idea of civics would emphasize a moral education in traditional values and practices. Conservatives believe mutual respect, honesty, fairness, and hard work has been overshadowed by the pursuit of self and instant gratification. They believe our public schools have neglected the importance of public morality....

Hill forum promotes hands-on civics Mandatory political activism for all US secondary school students? "Creating Academically Proficient and Civically Engaged Students," with the subheading, "Implementation of NCLB [No Child Left Behind]: What role for Civic Development?" was the topic of a conference at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC, in January of 2004. The event was sponsored by the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF), in conjunction with the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). Notwithstanding the longstanding Republican (and therefore, supposedly, conservative) majority on the House side (and in whose principal office building this affair took place),...

Fascinating and thought-provoking article that highlights an overlooked problem around the world. Conservatives understand that democracy has prerequisites, and Amy Chua's work draws our attention to some situations where promoting free-market deregulation and democracy at the same time can literally be a recipe for ethnic persecution and even genocide. As Chua notes, similar dynamics exist in some parts of the USA - she uses the American-Koreans in black neighbourhoods of L.A. as an example of this dynamic where a "market dominant" minority becomes a target for racial demagogues, leading to violence (and in the end, more poverty as investment leaves)....

It's a dream. Professors at an elite university sitting around a table talking unself-consciously about American heroes. And yet, there they were. Emory University professors mostly, seated around a table, nodding affirmatively as Bruce Cole, a Renaissance art scholar who serves as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, talks about American heroes and the need to tell their stories. "Ignorance of American history and civics weakens our sense of citizenship," President Bush said a year ago in a Rose Garden ceremony announcing the cause Cole is now championing, We the People. Continued Bush: "To be an American is...

In Massachusetts, high school students will square off against senior citizens. In Denver, ex-U.S. senators will exchange verbal jabs. All over the country, people are sharpening their rhetorical skills as they prepare to join in an ambitious plan to get Americans talking about the nation's role in the world. An unlikely collection of liberal and conservative groups are working together on "The People Speak" -- which is aiming to spur a nationwide, town-by-town debate on foreign policy and the United Nations. The groups have helped organize more than 1,000 debates in 49 states starting Monday and playing out over the...

My opinion of the current political situation in Washington, D.C.? There are pluses. The war on terrorism is generally going well. The Bush tax cut package. The return of common sense and sound science to environmental issues. Still, the federal government keeps growing in size and reach. Count me among those who thought, with Republicans controlling both Congress and the White House, the GOP would grab the reins of runaway government growth and spending and yell, "Whoa." Cato Institute's Ed Crane tells Human Events that at this time in President Reagan's first term, "the total increase in government spending was...

The Founders Constitution Introduction. This is an anthology of reasons and of the political arguments that thoughtful men and women drew from, and used to support, those reasons. We believe that those reasons and political arguments have enduring interest and significance for anyone who purports to think about constitutional government in general and the Constitution of the United States in particular. For those who know in advance that thought is at bottom reducible to interest, or who regard political argument as synonymous with ideology, such a belief is at best naive. Yet we venture to assert that that belief...

A toweringly great gift idea for the Holidays regardless of your religious views, this little paperback (about 137 pages of content) collects one-page lessons from the past, ranging from civics lessons to "penmanship, proper respect for authority, cleanliness, the dangers of delinquency", diet, cheerfulness, and neighborly manners. I'm sure a lot of civics minded freepers would like it... I picked up 5 to give as gifts myself. You can read reviews and see great samples of the 50's style artwork on Amazon.com. The ISBN is 0811830667, $12.95 a copy and worth every penny. It's funny that these notions are considered...

America Must Choose:Open Borders Or Civil Liberties Oct. 30, 2002 "They are coming after us, they want to execute attacks. ... The threat environment today is as bad as it was the summer before Sept. 11." In his appearance before the congressional joint intelligence committees, CIA Director George J. Tenet asserted that prior to 9/11 he was convinced that Osama bin Laden was planning to kill Americans, "and we reported these threats urgently." But to whom did he report these alerts? Apparently, not to the agencies that were admitting undesirable aliens by the planeload, boatload and truckload: the Immigration...

Maple River Education Coalition PAC (MREdCoPAC)mapleriv@prairie.lakes.com1402 Concordia AvenueSt. Paul, MN 55104651-646-0646 August 2002FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Want to know more about Small Learning Communities? •Small Learning Communities: The New Face of School-to-WorkCIVICS ED IS THE NEWEST HOT ITEMBook on Civics Ed to be released in August. Civics Ed is not what you think it is. At a recent presentation by the CEO of the federal Corporation for National and Community Service, Dr. Les Lenkowsky pushed Civics Ed as a way to build a new generation of patriots. "Patriots are not born," Lenkowsky declared, "they are made," and, presumably the new federal...