Most Americans Get Failing Grade in Civics

OK, pop quiz, people. An organization called the Intercollegiate Studies Institute gave this civics test to 2,508 Americans of all ages, income, education, and political affiliation. The test is “33 questions designed to measure knowledge of America’s founding principles, political history, international relations, and market economy. While the questions vary in difficulty, most test basic knowledge. Six are borrowed from U.S. government naturalization exams that test knowledge expected of all new American citizens. Nine are taken from the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests that the U.S. Department of Education uses to assess high school seniors. Three are drawn from an “American History 101” exam posted online by www.InfoPlease.com. Two were developed especially for this survey and the rest were drawn from ISI’s previous civic literacy tests.”

The results? Unfortunately, Americans did terribly, with over 70% failing (59.9% or below). The overall average score was 49%. And if you think that’s pathetic, less than 1% of Americans got 90% or better). It made very little difference how much schooling one had. And, most depressingly, Conservatives/Republicans—supposedly the gung-ho “my country, love it or leave it” party—did only slightly better than liberals/Democrats.

Incidentally, your humble blogger took the test on-line and answered 25 out of 33 correctly — 75.76%. Not fantastic, but considerably higher than the average score. Not bad consideringly the last time I took an American history or government course was junior year of high school.

Here is an abridged version of the conclusions gathered from the test scores, but a warning: If you plan on trying the test yourself, take it now before reading on, as there are some spoilers below.

Americans Fail the Test of Civic Literacy

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.

• Liberals score 49%; conservatives score 48%. Republicans score 52%; Democrats score 45%. [I'm crying.]

• Fewer than half of all Americans can name all three branches of government, a minimal requirement for understanding America’s constitutional system.

• 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. [This one I got wrong; I thought the president had the authority to declare war, but Congress’ power was only limited to funding it.]

• 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. [No surprise. That’s probably what John Kerry thinks too.]

• 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. [This is the least surprising statistic, but still depressing. I have heard extremely intelligent, well-educated adults say that separation of church and state is in the Constitution.]

College Adds Little to Civic Knowledge

Earning a college degree does little to increase knowledge of America’s history, key texts, and institutions. The average score among those who ended their formal education with a bachelor’s degree is 57%, or an “F.” That is only 13 percentage points higher than the average score among those who ended their formal education with a high school diploma.

• Only 24% of college graduates know the First Amendment prohibits establishing an official religion for the United States.

The average score on the American civic literacy exam for those who ended their formal education with a bachelor’s degree is 57%, or an “F.” That is only 13 percentage points higher than the average score earned by those who hold high school, but not college, diplomas.

College graduates in all age brackets—except Baby Boomers (ages 45 to 64)—typically earn an “F” on the exam. Baby Boomers who ended their formal education with a bachelor’s degree score an average of 61%, or a “D-.”

On average, Americans who ended their formal education when they graduated from high school correctly answer 14.4 of the 33 questions on the exam. Those who ended their formal education when they graduated from college typically answer 18.9 of the questions correctly. An American with a four-year college degree, in other words, typically gains only about one correct answer for each year in college.

Only one in five college graduates earns a “C” or better on the exam, and only 42% of those with graduate degrees earn a “C” or better. Thirty-two percent of those with graduate degrees fail.

Television—Including TV News—Dumbs America Down

ISI examined whether other factors add to or subtract from civic literacy and how they compare with the impact of college. The survey revealed that in today’s technological age, all else remaining equal, a person’s test score drops in proportion to the time he or she spends using certain types of passive electronic media. Talking on the phone, watching owned or rented movies, and monitoring TV news broadcasts and documentaries diminish a respondent’s civic literacy.

In contrast to these negative influences, the civic knowledge gained from the inexpensive combination of engaging in frequent conversations about public affairs, reading about current events and history, and participating in more involved civic activities is greater than the gain from an expensive bachelor’s degree alone.

• Over twice as many people knew [Paula Abdul] was a judge on American Idol as know that the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people” comes from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. [56% to 21%]

What College Graduates Don’t Know About America

By the time an American earns a bachelor’s degree, it is highly unlikely that he or she will have a solid command of the founding and Civil War eras, core constitutional principles, and market economics. Pre-college education tends to increase knowledge of themes from twentieth-century American history at the expense of economics and pre-twentieth-century themes that tend to be the foundation of much subsequent political discourse. Colleges begin to reverse this trend, but not enough to close significant gaps in these crucial categories of civic knowledge.

• Only 54% can correctly identify a basic description of the free enterprise system, in which all Americans participate.

ADDITIONAL FINDING: Elected Officials Score Lower than the General Public

Officeholders typically have less civic knowledge than the general public. On average, they score 44%, five percentage points lower than non-officeholders.

Thirty percent of elected officials do not know that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are the inalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence.

Among the 2,508 respondents, 164 say they have been elected to a government office at least once. This sub-sample of officeholders yields a startling result: elected officials score lower than the general public. Those who have held elective office earn an average score of 44% on the civic literacy test, which is five percentage points lower than the average score of 49% for those who have never been elected. It would be most interesting to explore whether this statistically significant result is maintained across larger samples of elected officials.

The elected officeholders come from the ranks of Democrats (40%), Republicans (31%), Independents (21%), and those who say they belong to no party or indicate no affiliation (8%). None were asked to specify what office they held, so the proportion in which they held local, state, or federal positions is unknown.

In each of the following areas, for example, officeholders do more poorly than non-officeholders:

• Seventy-nine percent of those who have been elected to government office do not know the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits establishing an official religion for the U.S.

• Thirty percent do not know that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are the inalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence.

• Twenty-seven percent cannot name even one right or freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment.

• Forty-three percent do not know what the Electoral College does. One in five thinks it either “trains those aspiring for higher political office” or “was established to supervise the first televised presidential debates.”

• Fifty-four percent do not know the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. Thirty-nine percent think that power belongs to the president, and 10% think it belongs to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

• Only 32% can properly define the free enterprise system, and only 41% can identify business profit as “revenue minus expenses.”

Rush Limbaugh occasionally says that America’s most expensive commodity is ignorance. And when it comes to basic civics, we seem to have a surplus of it.

P.S. My stepdad just took it and got 27 out of 33 (81.82%)

Comments

[EricTheRed]

Thanks for those points, "kerrjac." A test by phone is definitely harder and could have adversely affected the results.

In terms of the question whether the educational system has moved being rote memorization. Probably not much.

[kerrjac]

The ISI's study results need to be taken with a grain of salt. First of all, you took the test on the computer. Most of the participants in the study took it over the phone with a live interviewer, who presumably had to recite the multiple choices aloud. Secondly the website didn't really give a good description of the results. They throw out a lot of means, but they don't give anything else to help describe the data. For instance, it might be that most people did OK on the test, & then a few people with really low scores dragged down the overall mean. But you can't tell as there are no histograms, or even basic stats like variances, ranges, or medians. Individual means for different group of people are relatively useless in light of standard stat tests for group differences, which look at all the variance.

More importantly though, do we really want to send the message that we're going to call the nation ignorant based - not on their knowledge - but on their recall-ability tested over the phone? Hasn't the education system moved beyond rote memorization? And aren't we overlooking new generation's strengths like fluid thinking and technological "literacy", which - surprise surprise - might be qualitatively different from past generations'?