Failing Grades on Civics Exam Called a Crisis Excerpt:
Fewer than half of American eighth graders knew the purpose of the Bill of Rights on the most recent national civics examination, and only one in 10 demonstrated acceptable knowledge of the checks and balances among the legislative, executive and judicial branches, according to test results released on Wednesday. At the same time, three-quarters of high school seniors who took the test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, were unable to demonstrate skills like identifying the effect of United States foreign policy on other nations or naming a power granted to Congress by the Constitution. Todays NAEP results confirm that we have a crisis on our hands when it comes to civics education, said Sandra Day OConnor, the former Supreme Court justice, who last year founded icivics.org, a nonprofit group that teaches students civics through Web-based games and other tools. Read more here: link<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/education/05civics.html?_r=1> Enlightened Citizenship: How Civic Knowledge Trumps a College Degree in Promoting Active Civic Excerpt: In the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama defeated John McCain in the popular vote roughly 53% to 46%. While there were many factors that contributed to President Obama's historic victory, a decisive one certainly had to be the turnout rate and voting behavior of the youth. Historically, the 18 to 29-year-old demographic has been a notoriously unreliable voting bloc, averaging between 30% and 40% turnout for presidential elections from 19522000. However, voter turnout for younger voters reached 51% in 2008, and their share of the total electorate reached 18%both historic highs. Furthermore, 18 to 29-year-olds voted overwhelmingly for President Obama, by a margin of 68% to 30%. When taken together, both the elevated turnout and Democratic character of the youth vote added a net increase of 7 percentage points to President Obama's overall margin of victory, which accounted for his entire electoral advantage over John McCain. We begin our discussion of collegiate civic engagement with the 2008 youth vote (knowing that not all younger voters attend college), because it provides a useful prism by which to evaluate not only college's impact on political participation, but also its impact on public opinion, partisanship, and civic knowledgethe focus of ISI's previous civic literacy reports. In 2008, ISI's survey of 2,508 adults discovered that college graduates on average not only failed our civic literacy exam, but that an expensive college degree actually adds less to a graduate's overall level of civic knowledge than certain examples of civic self-education when combined together, like frequently reading and discussing history and current events an average of fifteen hours per week. Read more here: link<http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/2011/major_findings_finding1.html> Take the knowledge test here: link<http://www.isi.org/quiz.aspx?q=9C43CB91-617F-498E-AE55-2E66BC97A0AB> Take the engagement test here: link<http://www.isi.org/quiz.aspx?q=B9D74017-5CD4-4534-B1CB-B1F8227BC43E> J - We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions. - Ronald Reagan If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions. - Thomas Jefferson - John ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:337561 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
