Civics Anyone?

Filed in Delaware by on November 22, 2008

Take this quiz – no cheating – and see where you rank.  Personally, I think DL readers will easily out perform the National average.  Share your results, and thoughts on the quiz, in the comments section.

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A stay-at-home mom with an obsession for National politics.

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  1. From Pine View Farm » Take the Test | November 23, 2008
  1. Graniaclewbay says:

    22 out of 33. Oh well, that was before cawfee.

  2. liberalgeek says:

    93.94% No kidding.

    got “Government of the people, for the people, by the people” and “If taxes equal government spending” wrong.

  3. Unstable Isotope says:

    ***SPOILER ALERT***

    I did pretty well, 93.94%. I actually missed the Roe v. Wade question (I had it narrowed down to 2 – one was the right answer d’oh!) and the topic of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

    For the Roe v. Wade I answered “legal in most states in the 1960s.” That was a tricksy question, I know it was legal in some states. Now I’m kicking myself for missing it.

    I thought the quiz was quite tough. There were a few economics questions – is that considered civics?

  4. Unstable Isotope says:

    LG and I got the same score, but missed different questions!

  5. pandora says:

    Well, you beat me, LG. I scored an 85% – missed 5 questions!

    Mr. Pandora scored 100%, and is now acting all superior and obnoxious. What a nerd! 🙂

  6. pandora says:

    Nice going, UI!

    How much you guys want to bet that Cassandra aces this test?

  7. liberalgeek says:

    She will. That’s why we love her. I am anxious to hear how DHSV does.

  8. cassandra_m says:

    Woo Hoo!

    I got 100%!

    So now it is me and Mr. Pandora acting all superior and obnoxious — give him a high five from me, Pandora!

    So whatever happened to Civics classes in school, anyway?

  9. Benjamin says:

    I got 90.91% which is pretty damm good for someone who didn’t go to school in the US.

    I also got the Roe question wrong if only because I assumed this was going to be a trick question. LOL

    I got the “For the people, by the people” question wrong although in hindsight I knew.

    And I got the Puritan question wrong because quite frankly American religions still puzzle me.

    But I am proud !

  10. Mat Marshall says:

    Ditto, Geek.

  11. yeoman says:

    100%. Teaching Middle School Civics helps. What I’m astonished and disturbed by is the findings of the ISI, especially how our elected officials did on the survey. Spend some time checking out their study

    …the horror.

  12. yeoman says:

    PS – thanks for the find, Pandora. I’m going to use this in class!

  13. pandora says:

    No problem, yeoman! I love quizzes!

    Just gave the test to my 14 year old 9th grader – He scored 70%. I’m very proud.

    And now my 11 year old weighed in with 17 correct answers.

  14. Geezer says:

    100%, despite the conservative bias in some of the questions.

    I object to some of those economics questions being lumped into a “civics” test. Oh well, what can we expect from ISI?

  15. Rebecca says:

    I missed three – 90.3%

    I went at this with a very cautious attitude because ISI is a right-wing-nut think tank over on Centreville Rd. I thought the a few of the economic questions were sorta “push poll-ish” and didn’t like any of the choices.

  16. Unstable Isotope says:

    Yeah, Rebecca and Geezer I thought some of the economics questions were ideological, especially the one about free trade leading to increased productivity.

  17. mike says:

    93.94 %

    Messed up the taxes question and one other (but I have forgotten which and was foolish enough to take the test in the same tab as this thread….).

  18. Unstable Isotope says:

    My husband got 85% and he’s not even American!

  19. Free Radical says:

    28/33 (85%), but I’m not a U.S. citizen so cut me some slack 😀

  20. Free Radical says:

    BTW the quiz struck me as a way to sneak economic ideology in the back door. Googling the institute for dirt.

  21. Free Radical says:

    Yup, score one for the paleoconservtives, if Wikipedia is right:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercollegiate_Studies_Institute

  22. Progressive Mom says:

    Got a 90% with three wrong: I think the Aquinas-Aristotle question gave away the very conservative bias of the test creators even before anyone got to the economic questions. I also got a chuckle when I realized that the test creators wanted to ask about the New Deal (the answer to that question was so transparently not hidden 2-3 questions down) only so they could inform you that the Supreme Court shot parts of it down….
    This wasn’t so much a civics test as it was a speech…

  23. Rebecca says:

    Got that right Prog. Mom.

    Remember the ISI is the place where Christine ODonnel worked/studied and eventually sued for discrimination. When an organization is so far gone that O’Donnel sues them for discrimination ya know you are looking at one of the wing-nut capitols of the world.

  24. cassandra_m says:

    I think that you are right in that some of the questions have a conservative bias — but when you look at the answers, there aren’t other choices that make sense.

    But I do think that some basic familiarity with political economics is in order — especially when you need to evaluate an elected government’s financial performance based upon the policy derived from some of these thinkers.

  25. crap says:

    88.7. Got three of the economics questions wrong, plus one other.

    Kind of felt like I was filling out an employment application for a seat on the Wall Street Journal editorial board.

  26. Mike Protack says:

    30/33 . Good quiz.

  27. truth teller says:

    27out of 33 correct 82% not bad for a high school drop out.

  28. jason330 says:

    I answered 30 out of 33 correctly — 90.91 %

    I agree with Rebecca. Some of the economics questions were doctrinaire.

  29. David says:

    Here is mine. “You answered 33 out of 33 correctly — 100.00 %”

  30. nemski says:

    I missed four questions, damn. Do I still get to vote in the next election?

  31. Dana Garrett says:

    I missed one question, the last one. Still don’t know why choice “A” was the wrong answer for that question.

  32. jen says:

    Answer to question–do they still teach civics? In the current social studies curriculum in the state, there are four strands to be taught at every grade level: history, geography, economics, and civics. Social studies is the poor step child to reading, math, and science. It does not get the attention it deserves and kids do not do very well on the testing for social studies. It is high time that Delaware paid attention to soc.

  33. edisonkitty says:

    93.94% or 31 of 33 correct.

  34. anonone says:

    32 out of 33.

  35. pandora says:

    Slanted or not… DL readers rock!

  36. MikeM says:

    I missed one – question 33, an economics question about which I disagree. Conservative slant to it threw me off – I was trained by Keynsians. I suppose that’s still good enough to be a social studies teacher though ;-).

  37. yeoman says:

    Pandora – congrats on having two civic-minded kids!

    As for the conservative slant to the survey: meh. I’m not that riled about it…

    It seems to me that given such startling ignorance regarding the 80% of the test that is patently apolitical, we would be more worried about the fact that people don’t know which branch has the authority to declare war, or that the Constitution forbids the government from promoting religion … you know, since neither of those things has been important during the Bush Presidency.

    I’m all for critical thinking and liberal deconstructionism, but only when it doesn’t distract from something more important.

  38. yeoman says:

    Speaking of which, how can we make social studies education BETTER? I’m a social studies teacher with a lot of leeway to develop my own curriculum…what would you want to make sure every 8th grader knows?

  39. John Tobin says:

    I agree with Rebecca and Jason that some of the questions were right-wing “push poll” questions.
    I attempted to submit with a couple unanswered and it would not review my answers until I answered all questions, so I had to answer a couple even though I was not sure any of the answers were “correct” since they seemed subjective based on point of view–not clearly right or wrong.
    I got 31 of 33 overall,but got two wrong when I was forced to agree with right wing economists,no matter what answer I picked.

  40. Frank says:

    31 out of 33, 93.94%.

    And a some of the questions would not have passed muster from someone trained in writing multiple-guess tests.

  41. gotta love the “free market” bullshit question in there…

    what a load of shit