Most Arizona HS Students probably wouldn't pass the Citizenship Exam

Photo used under Creative Commons from The Master Shake Signal.

A recent survey by the Goldwater Institute indicates that it "gave each student 10 items from the USCIS [United States Citizenship and Immigration Service] item bank. We grouped results according to the type of school students attend—public, charter, or private. Questions included (1) Who was the first president of the United States? (2) Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? and (3) What ocean is located on the East Coast of the United States? All three groups of Arizona high school students scored alarmingly low on the test. Only 3.5 percent of Arizona high school students attending public schools passed the citizenship test. The passing rate for charter school students was about twice as high [about 7%] as for public school students. Private school students passed at a rate almost four times higher [about 14%] than public school students."

The USCIS has many free materials online to help immigrants study for the exam. Perhaps, we should direct some of our high school students to them as well.