Latino Student Lack Of Civics Knowledge Is Major Concern
Whenever he’d see a bad situation turned worse by incompetence or lack of caring a friend from my days in TV production would mutter, looking down and shaking his head slowly: Asi nunca vamos a ganar la guerra. We’ll never win the war that way.
This may not be a war in the conventional sense, but it is a challenge.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress, the largest continuous assessment of, in their own words, “what America’s students know and can do in various subject areas,” recently published their “Nation’s Report Card.” The specific subject that a report in the Washington Post focused on was civics. The sad finding was not unexpected:
Many high school seniors may be old enough to vote, but just one-quarter of them demonstrate at least a “proficient” level of civics knowledge and skills, based on the latest results from a prominent national exam.
Barely one out of four seniors in the US rank proficient or advanced in civics.
The good forecast is that the civics score for fourth graders increased: from 24 percent in 2006 to 27 percent in 2010. Not great, but better.
I’m a bit dismayed, because I think that the answer to the perennial question about how we get more Latinos to vote lies in example and civics education. I like this quote in the Washington Post report:
“Knowledge of our system of government is not handed down through the gene pool,” retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said in a statement. “The habits of citizenship must be learned. … But we have neglected civic education for the past several decades, and the results are predictably dismal,” said Justice O’Connor, who has been promoting civics instruction in the United States.
The Latino community is young; many of the Latino voting age population is younger than 29, the age at which voting participation increases. Few of those young eligible Latinos voters are registered to vote, and fewer still go to the polls. But if those young, potential Latino voters had a better understanding of how their vote matters, it could make a difference. This puts a huge onus on the public school systems, and they’re strapped for money and reeling from trying to bring up scores in reading, math and science.
And yet, there’s a sliver of a ray of hope:
One area of growth highlighted in the new report is the improvement over time for Hispanic students. At all three grade levels, the Hispanic test-takers had higher scores than in 1998, and scores have climbed for 8th graders since 2006 as well. In 1998, 44 percent of Hispanic 8th graders scored at “basic” or above, compared with 50 percent in 2006 and 56 percent in 2010.
That’s awesome! But still, only 11 percent of Latino 8th graders scored at proficient or better.
Dig a little deeper and there’s more reason for concern. Across the board, across all races and ethnicities, only 4 percent of high school seniors scored “advanced.” That’s the pool of the bulk of our future leaders. Five percent white, 2 percent Latino and 1 percent African-American students are at that level. Some would argue that the proportion is about right, that only a small scoop of the creme rises to leadership. But I don’t subscribe to that version of cynicism (I happily have my own version that makes room for what could be).
My premise remains: to get more Latinos to the polls we should make sure they understand why they’re voting, and that starts with civics education. Funds, time and curriculum are the tools. Asi si ganamos la guerra.
Follow Victor Landa on Twitter: @vlanda
[Photo by alamosbasement]
