Civics requirement nothing to stress over

KELLOGG — A change in Idaho education legislation, that took place in 2016, now requires high school seniors to pass a civics test in order to graduate.

As a result, school districts in our area such as the Kellogg School District, have changed their rules to reflect the new requirement.

In a post on their Facebook page, Kellogg High School acknowledged the change on Sept. 18.

“Based on an update provided by the State Dept of Education,” the post read, “the KHS Student Handbook has been amended. Passing the Civics Test has been added as a graduation requirement.”

The test, which was first administered last year, was something of an unknown entity and was not part of the Kellogg High School student handbook's graduation requirements- which had some parents upset by the test staying as a requirement.

However, the test is not something students should be terribly concerned about according to KHS government teacher Wayne Pfeifer, who was able to detail the specifics of the test to the News-Press.

“The test is a combination of 100 questions dealing with American Government and United States History,” Pfeifer said. “The state has left it up to each individual school district to create its own test, but it must include questions from a bank of questions the state included for us to use.”

The state also left it up to each school district to decide what the percentage for passing the test is.

Students are allowed to take the test as many times as needed until they pass the test.

The paper test is very basic according to Pfeifer, who administers the test for students at KHS.

“There is no determination for when the test is given. It is left up to the person that is administering the test,” Pfeifer said. “It is not a difficult test. I had about 15 students last year that had to retake it and all passed the test the second time.” Unlike other required tests like the ISATs, ACT, or SAT, there is no study guide, but Pfeifer does cover a lot of the questions in his government classes during his lectures.

However, seniors taking the test may want to revisit notes from their sophomore and junior years for the questions pertaining to US history.

For more information on the Idaho State Legislation that pertains to this topic visit legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title33/T33CH16/SECT33-1602/ or contact your local school to get the details on their specific test.