On Monday Feb. 3, Governor Kim Reynolds introduced a bill that would require all Iowa high school seniors to score 60% or higher on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Naturalization Test to graduate from high school.
The governor claims the implementation of the test would improve civics education for high school students and prepare them for a life of responsible citizenship. While the governor has not put forth a legitimate point of making students take and pass the test, other than citizenship, she is hinging students’ graduation eligibility on the test.
With President Trump’s recent push for mass deportation of illegal immigrants, it can be inferred that the bill may relate to “taking pride” or understanding the significance of being an American citizen.
The test would most likely be taken during students’ senior year of high school, and for some, could be just another task added to their already full plate of college and scholarship applications, college decisions and a plethora of other commitments. “As seniors there is already such a loaded plate of things to do, having to study for a test that determines your ability to graduate would just be an added stressor,” senior Addi Ohda said.
In the US, only 17 states already have this law or one similar in place, leaving the majority of 33 without any requirement. Many of the states that have yet to enact any requirement have held back because of the questions of what benefits the test provides and a lack of clarity on what the test would improve or solve for schools and students across the country. “A lot of the aspects that the test is about are already taught to us throughout our junior high and high school social studies curriculum, making it a graduation requirement seems like a waste of time and yet another hoop to jump through,” Ohda said.
The test itself consists of ten questions randomly drawn from a list of 100 questions. Six questions must be correctly answered in order to pass. “I definitely had to study for the test due to the magnitude of questions that could have been asked, but the test itself was not highly rigorous. Overall it was definitely necessary to study, and was really just time consuming,” Pakistani immigrant and now US citizen Aadam Malik said.
Ultimately, the bill will reach the floor in the coming weeks, and it will be determined whether Iowa students will need to pass the test to receive their high school diploma. The bill may run into the same trouble it has in other states due to a lack of understanding of the purpose of the requirement.
