Just in time for the 2016 general election, ACTA released a survey that shows that many Americans lack the basic knowledge they need to participate in the most important civic sacrament—37% of those surveyed didn’t know when Election Day is held every four years. The survey also reveals startling economic illiteracy among college graduates. The economy is one of the most important issues to voters, yet many fail to understand the role of the Federal Reserve System and other institutions in the U.S. economy. This is one in a series of surveys examining civic literacy.
A new survey commissioned by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni sheds a bright light on our nation’s civic knowledge crisis. Colleges and universities significantly contribute to the problem by chipping away at their core requirements in essential areas of knowledge; students graduate unprepared for informed citizenship and the workforce. U.S. history is often […]
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) today released a survey that shows how little college graduates and the general public know about the Constitution. According to the study, nearly 10% of college graduates think Judith Sheindlin—commonly known as Judge Judy—is on the Supreme Court; one-third of college graduates can’t identify the Bill of […]
In time for the 150th anniversary of the tragic night when John Wilkes Booth slipped into Ford’s Theater and shot President Abraham Lincoln, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni released a survey that reveals another tragedy: Lincoln—and much of his legacy—is being lost to the ages. According to the survey, only half of the American […]
There is a crisis of civic education in America today. For the last 20 years, study after study has shown that most Americans lack a basic understanding of the country’s history and political institutions. America’s Knowledge Crisis: A Survey of Civic Literacy, shows that college-educated Americans do only slightly better than those without a four-year […]
In a bit of good news for this Thanksgiving, it appears that many would-be shapers of education policy are plugging for the return of civics to the curricula of schools and colleges. The bad news is that many of the prime movers and shakers behind a “new civics” still cling to the old progressive hostility […]
A new nationwide poll says a big chunk of people don’t even know when Election Day is. The poll from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni and conducted by polling firm GfK said 37 percent of those asked could not correctly identify when Election Day is held. Another 22 percent of college graduates could not […]
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