As our social science for teachers major is being phased out, it looks like we won't need an assessment exam in the social sciences. Still, I'd like to get a sense of where your students stand in disciplines other than history. In 2008, More than 14,000 college students took a "Civil Literacy" test sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. According to ISI, students didn't do so well. The average college freshman got about 50% of the questions right. Seniors did only a bit better, averaging 54% on the quiz. Harvard seniors were the nation's best, averaging 69% on the survey. Can you do better? Take the quiz at the link below and find out! Did you do better than the average freshman? Better than the average senior? Better than the average Harvard student? Better than Harry the talking hand? (Harry got 58/60 right, as did Professor Jon Schaff). What do you think of the quiz? Is this stuff students should really know, or does it seem like trivial pursuit? You can post your score here along with your comments on the exam or you can e-mail me you score separately.
http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx
You answered 29 out of 33 correctly — 87.88 %
ReplyDeleteYou can consult the following table to see how citizens and elected officials scored on each question.
I thought the quiz was definitely college level. I know Had I taken the quiz a couple years ago, before I became a social science major, I wouldn't have done so well. Found it funny that only 4 questions did the knowledge gap tip in favor of the elected officials. 4 of the lowest answered correctly by either group, I might add, 2 questions involved Lincoln.