State ranked 48th on citizenship test

Only three-in-10 Arkansans would pass a U.S. citizenship test, according to the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

The Princeton, N.J.-based organization surveyed Americans in all 50 states. Arkansas ranked 48th, just ahead of Kentucky and Louisiana and just behind Mississippi and Alabama.

Woodrow Wilson, the nation’s 28th president, served from 1913-21. Before winning the White House, he served as president of Princeton University.

Nationwide, failing citizenship grades are the norm. On average, four-in-10 Americans scored a D or better. Even in Vermont, the best-scoring state, only 53 percent of those surveyed received a passing score.

The findings were based on a survey of 41,000 people. The margin of error for the national sample was plus or minus 1 percentage point.

“Americans don’t possess the history knowledge they need to be informed and engaged citizens,” said Arthur Levine, the foundation’s president.

While American history is taught in the nation’s schools, the information quickly fades from memory, the survey suggested.

Planning to visit the nation’s capital? Know something happening in Washington, D.C.? Please contact Frank Lockwood at (202) 662-7690 or flockwood@arkansasonline.com. Want the latest from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Washington bureau? It’s available on Twitter, @LockwoodFrank.