PHOENIX — Like high school civics students around the country, the juniors and seniors in Darcy White’s government class here will have to take a final exam. But these students — and all others in Arizona — will soon face an extra hurdle: To graduate, they will have to pass the test that is given to immigrants who want to become United States citizens, a multiple-choice exam that includes such questions as “What do we call the first 10 amendments to the Constitution?” and “What did Susan B. Anthony do?”
Ms. White, for one, has reservations about the test. She already loses several days of instruction time to standardized testing, she said, and this new requirement is another intrusion. “Every teacher will tell you a test is not a measure of what a kid knows,” said Ms. White, who has taught for 17 years, adding, “Just because I think it’s easy and I think my kids will do well is no guarantee.”
This month, Arizona became the first state to pass a law requiring its high school students to pass the citizenship exam, stipulating that they must answer at least 60 of 100 questions correctly to receive a diploma. (Immigrants are given 10 of the 100 questions and must correctly answer six to pass.) Other states may follow suit: North Dakota’s House of Representatives has passed a comparable bill, and its Senate approved it Tuesday; legislators in Indiana, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and seven other states have recently introduced similar initiatives.
“I would argue that our secondary schools have no greater mission than to prepare our young people to be informed, engaged citizens,” said Frank Riggs, a former congressman who is president of the Joe Foss Institute, a nonprofit group that drafted a model bill and is urging state legislators across the country to pass it. “So it seemed a simple, common sense yet important idea that our high school graduates across the country be able to demonstrate a rudimentary knowledge of civics education as they are graduating high school.”
–
Mr. Price said he thought the test represented more than a simple regurgitation of facts. “The concepts in this are just more of an understanding of America and our culture, showing that understanding of who we are and our past,” he said.
Rick Rojas reported from Phoenix, and Motoko Rich from New York.
A version of this article appears in print on January 28, 2015, on page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: States Move to Make Citizenship Exams a Classroom Aid. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
