DeSantis wants grade 12 civics test

Governor says state’s high school seniors lack ‘basic knowledge’

Florida high school seniors need to take a civics exam because too many lack “basic knowledge” about the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the country’s other founding documents, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday.

The governor said he’d directed the state to give 12th graders a civics test similar to the one taken by those seeking to become naturalized U.S. citizens.

DeSantis offered history lessons and praise of America’s founders as he announced his plans at an event in Naples. He quoted Benjamin Franklin’s famous line — “A republic, if you can keep it.” — to argue that to succeed, the country needed citizens who understood how

and why America’s government was created.

But he didn’t say whether the new high school exam would be a must-pass one required for graduation or part of a particular course. And he also didn’t say how soon the exam would be administered.

His office didn’t immediately respond to a request for more information on the proposal.

DeSantis campaigned for governor last year on a platform that touted improved civics education and said Tuesday he hoped a new test would further that goal.

“My hope is that we get to the point where the students are very proficient in civics, where this is something that is taken very seriously across the entire state and all of our school districts,” he said.

“It’s not something that you may immediately see a payoff for,” he added. “But if we do it right, and then we look back in 10 or 20 years, I think we’ll say, ‘Man it’s a good thing that Florida decided to really take civics, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence seriously.’”

Florida law, however, already requires middleschool students to take a civics course and a standardized civics exam. Most take it as seventh graders, and 71% statewide passed that test this year.

The state also requires high school students to take American history and U.S. government classes and gives a standardized exam for those in the history class — 69% passed the U.S. history end-ofcourse exam this year.

Since 2017, Florida also has also required college students to prove they have “civic literacy.” They can do that by passing certain courses in history or government or by passing a test that is a modified version of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ civics test — the same one DeSantis wants to now also give to high school seniors.

The University of Central Florida’s Lou Frey Institute, dedicated to civics education, helped revamp the 100-question citizenship test for use at Florida’s universities and supports DeSantis’ civics push.

But Stephen Masyada, the center’s interim director, said in an email that Florida’s middle school civics test “is actually a more rigorous measure of civic knowledge than the naturalization test is.”

The naturalization test is 100 questions, though each applicant typically must answer just 10. Many of the questions ask basic information, such as what are the first three words of the Constitution, what did the Declaration of Independence do or what is the name of one branch of government?

“Unlike that test, the middle school civics exam is more than straight factual recall and actually requires a deeper level of knowledge than the naturalization test does,” Masyada wrote.

The middle-school civics exam is about 55 multiple-choice questions and students have more than two hours to complete it. Sample questions show students might need to analyze diagrams and pamphlets, understand concepts such as separation of powers and know about the Magna Carta, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, according to the Florida Department of Education.

The governor’s announcement was shown live on Facebook. One woman who watched the announcement questioned adding another required exam to the state’s testing portfolio.

“You realize, this is another test that teachers must prepare students for, and we already over-test our students,” she wrote.

Soon after he took office, DeSantis directed Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran to “identify opportunities” to boost civics knowledge among the state’s public school students.

On Tuesday, DeSantis said he’d told Corcoran to have 12th graders take a civics exam.

“This is just one part of our overall effort,” he said. “This will at least let us know how far behind we are.”