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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Arizona House Approves Bill Requiring Civics Tests For Middle Schoolers

The Yuma (AZ) Sun (4/7, Roller, Fischer) reports that "legislation approved Monday by" Arizona's House Education Committee "would require students get a passing grade on a test composed of questions from the same examination that the US government requires before someone can become a citizen." The requirement "would take effect next school year," according to state Sen. John Huppenthal (R). Huppenthal acknowledged that the timing is "probably...too soon to actually hold anyone back," but added that "it is his intent that [the requirement] eventually become a barrier that students need to hurdle to get to high school." Under SB 1404, schools would choose 20 questions from the federal government's "list of 100 questions...used as the basis for citizenship exams." Students would be "required to obtain a passing score to advance to the next school year."


 

Florida Lawmakers Consider Requiring Middle School Civics Test. The St. Petersburg Times (4/7, Sampson) reports, "Hoping to educate students to not look foolish if quizzed by a talk show host, Florida lawmakers are poised to enact a law that would force kids to pass a middle school civics test in order to get to high school." Bill sponsor, state Sen. Nancy Detert (R), calls it "the anti-Jay Leno bill" -- in reference to "the host's Jaywalking segment" -- because, she said, "I'm not amused by the fact that nobody knows anything about their government -- although they all have an opinion." Current state law requires that middle school students "take social studies courses, including civics, but does not require them to pass a test to be promoted." The proposed legislation would make the test up to "30 percent of a child's final grade in the 2013 school year; by 2014-15, a student would have to pass the test in order to complete the course and move on."

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