WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has decided to revamp the civics test that hundreds of thousands of prospective citizens each year must pass to become Americans, and is developing a new exam, officials said Thursday.
President Bush alluded to the effort in his speech last week on immigration reform, and this week the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services convened a two-day conference of more than 100 immigrant advocates and academics at a hotel here to discuss the principles for change and its implications.
The current test has long been criticized as a random collection of unrelated details that conveys little of the significance of citizenship. But efforts to change it elicit concern from immigrant advocates, who fear a new test could become a barrier to citizenship.
Some questions, like one about the colors of the flag, are so simple they seem to belong on the civics equivalent of a driver's permit test. Others, such as naming the constitutional amendments that address voting rights, require study.
"I don't want to make the test harder, and I don't want to make it easier. I want to make it more meaningful," said Eduardo Aguirre Jr., director of the citizenship agency, one of three new Homeland Security divisions that were part of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service.
A question on the current test asks, "What are the first 10 amendments to the Constitution called?" A hypothetical question on the new test might be, "What does the Bill of Rights mean for you?" said another official.
Aguirre said he also wants to move toward a more standardized test. The current test is an oral exam in which an examiner picks about 10 civics questions from a list of 100 included in a study guide. The examiner's discretion can result in lack of uniformity. Two people being tested by the same examiner on the same day may be asked questions that differ in difficulty.
The government plans to develop a new civics test this year, try it out next year and complete the switch in 2006, a USCIS official said. In a related move, the agency is already experimenting with changes to the English-language test that prospective citizens must also pass.
In his speech, Bush said the United States should set "high expectations for what new citizens should know."
