Rachel Lucas talked about this quiz.

I’ll wait here, while you link over and take the quiz.

(on hold music playing:  Girl From Ipenema)

How’d you score?  I got an 88% (ok, ok, 87.88%). missing 4.  One was a lack of attention to the question, but I will fess up to ignorance on the other three.

Now, the really interesting data is in the breakdown of how our fellow citizens fared:

Of the 2,508 Americans taking ISI’s civic literacy test, 71% fail. Nationwide, the average score on the test is only 49%.

The results reveal that Americans are alarmingly uninformed about our Constitution, the basic functions of our government, the key texts of our national history, and economic principles.

• Less than half can name all three branches of the government.
• Only 21% know that the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people” comes from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
• Although Congress has voted twice in the last eight years to approve foreign wars, only 53% know that the power to declare war belongs to Congress. Almost 40% incorrectly believe it belongs to the president.
• Only 55% know that Congress shares authority over U.S. foreign policy with the president. Almost a quarter incorrectly believe Congress shares this power with the United Nations.
• Only 27% know the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits establishing an official religion for the United States.
• Less than one in five know that the phrase “a wall of separation” between church and state comes from a letter by Thomas Jefferson. Almost half incorrectly believe it can be found in the Constitution.

Kind of scary, isn’t it…

Some more points:

The Couch Potato Phenomenon:

This Table shows the change in a respondent’s test score associated with six selected behaviors in his or her life.

Behavior Change in Civic Knowledge Positive Influence of Active Learning:

• Frequently discussing current events and public affairs (Daily or weekly as opposed to monthly, rarely, or never) +5.5%
• Participating in more involved or advanced politics (Nine items ranging from signing a petition to contacting a public official) +1.7 per action
• Reading history or current events in books, newspapers, or magazines +0.1 per hour per week

Negative Influence of Passive Electronic Medium  

• Watching movies you own or rent -0.14 per hour per week
• Visiting on the telephone -0.10 per hour per week
• Watching television news or documentaries -0.08 per hour per week

So, reading Political blogs is good for your civic knowledge, watching TV News is bad.  I think we all knew that already, but it’s nice to have some hard data for the supposition.

Of the 2,508 People surveyed, 164 say they have held an elected government office at least once in their life. Their average score on the civic literacy test is 44%, compared to 49% for those who have not held an elected office. Officeholders are less likely than other respondents to correctly answer 29 of the 33 test questions.

Particularly disturbing is the lack of knowledge of elected officials on some key items:

Question and Knowedge Gap % between Elected Officials and Citizens:

• Declaration of Independence

  -13.31

• Definition of Free Enterprise

  -9.37

• Electoral College

  -8.57

• Power to Declare War

  -7.78

• Business Profit

  -7.73

• International Trade

  30.45

  -7.02

• Federal Branches and Foreign Policy

  -6.32

• First Amendment Freedoms

  -6.26

• Taxes and Government Spending

  -5.58

• Free Markets vs. Centralized Planning

  -5.54

• Action Prohibited by the Bill of Rights

  -5.17

Which only reconfirms my stand that today’s politicians are just D-list actors, and bureaucratic hacks, not statesmen.

The conclusions of the report on the survey are that Colleges and Universities need to do a better job in teachings Civics.  This ignores the rest of the US citizenry.  My own take is that Civics in general, and American History in specific needs to be remphasized in 7-12 education (mid/high school), as well.

How can we expect Citizens to make informed choices, when 71% score less than 60% on a quiz like this?

Does explain the results of the last election, though.

Tags: Citizenship