New US Citizenship Exam

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December 1, 2006

New Citizens Will Need Deeper Knowledge

By HOLLI
CHMELA


WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 ­ The federal government rolled out a new citizenship
test Thursday to replace an exam that critics say has encouraged
prospective Americans simply to memorize facts, rather than fully
understand the principles of a democracy.


The exam will be assessed in a pilot program in 10 cities beginning early
next year.


Gone are these questions: “How many stripes are there in the flag?”;
“What color are the stripes on the flag?”; “What do the stripes on the
flag represent?”; and the obvious, “What are the colors of our flag?” The
new exam rephrases the questions to focus on what the stripes represent,
asking, “Why do we have 13 stripes on the flag?” or “Why does the flag
have 13 stripes?” (The answer: Because the stripes represent the original
13 colonies).


“Our goal is to inspire immigrants to learn about the civic values of
this nation so that after they take the oath of citizenship they will
participate fully in our great democracy,” said Emilio Gonzalez, director
of the Citizenship and

Immigration Services, which has been working since 2000 to develop a
new test.


The result is 144 questions on civics and history, including 57 rephrased
questions from the current exam. (All the questions are available on the
agency’s Web site, www.uscis.gov).



The exam will be administered in the same way, with an applicant asked to
answer orally 10 questions chosen by the examiner. Six correct answers
are required to pass. According to the citizenship agency, about 600,000
immigrants pass the test and are naturalized each year.


The revised test will be introduced in a pilot program in 10 cities
chosen for their geographic range and high percentage of immigrants.
Applicants will be asked to volunteer to take the pilot exam and will
have the option of taking the current exam if they fail the new
one.


Officials say the goal of the pilot program is to assess the
effectiveness of the exam and refine the exam’s questions or answers.
Before the new test is implemented nationwide in 2008, it will be pared
down to the current number of 100 questions.


The exam will be tested in Albany; Boston; Charleston, S.C.; Denver; El
Paso; Kansas City, Mo.; Miami; San Antonio; Tucson; and Yakima,
Wash.


In developing the revised exam, the agency worked with test development
contractors, history and government scholars and experts in English as a
second language to improve ways to focus on an analytical understanding
of the acceptable answers.


“The current exam did not elicit enough civics knowledge and values we as
Americans hold true,” said Chris Rhatigan, a spokeswoman for the
citizenship agency. “At the end of the test, there was no demonstrable
knowledge that the new citizens were ready to participate in our
government on the federal, state or community level.”


Ellen Mercer, a senior program officer at the U.S. Committee for Refugees
and Immigrants, an advocacy organization that was part of a focus group
about the revisions, said, “The purpose of redesigning the test is to
make it more meaningful ­ and also to update it ­ for the people applying
for U.S. citizenship.”


The current exam has not been changed since 1986. Before that, no
official test existed.


Besides the oral questions, the revised exam, like the 1986 version,
gives applicants three chances to read and write a sentence correctly in
English. But the sentences focus exclusively on civics and history rather
than on a range of topics, and to prepare for the test, applicants will
be given study materials and a civics-based vocabulary list.


Another way the two exams differ is that the new questions will be
weighed by level of difficulty to ensure that each exam tests equivalent
knowledge. How the questions will be weighted will be determined by the
results of the pilot program. Part of the pilot program includes training
test administrators to make the process fairer and more consistent
nationwide.


The

Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Citizenship “has done
everything imaginable to make the test more meaningful, but not more
difficult,” Ms. Mercer said.


Several advocacy organizations are reviewing the exam to determine
whether the level of English is appropriate and whether the civics
questions are understandable.


“We all want to look at the questions carefully to ensure fairness and
compliance of the law,” said Rosalind Gold, a senior director at the
National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.


Ms. Gold added that while the citizenship agency had made progress in
ensuring that the exam was administered fairly, “there needs to be
continued improvement in training examiners so they don’t abuse the
discretion they’re given to administer exams.”