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PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota education officials agree improving civics knowledge among high school students is important, but they don't think a mandatory test is the way to do it.
The Senate Education Committee unanimously approved a resolution Thursday to help ensure South Dakota students are learning the content "reflected in" the U.S. citizenship exam. It's part of a national effort to improve civics knowledge among high school students, but doesn't go as far as North Dakota, which became the second state in the nation last month to require the same test that immigrants must pass to become a U.S. citizen to get a high school diploma.
"We need to do it in a methodology that works for South Dakota," said Republican Sen. Deb Soholt, who is sponsoring the resolution. "We were not for tying one test to successful graduation."
South Dakota Secretary of Education Melody Schopp said the state's graduation requirements, which include a half-year U.S. government course, already entail students learning the content. New social studies standards that are under review also contain the same information that's part of the test, she said.
Schopp said the resolution serves as a way to highlight the importance of civic engagement and to focus efforts on civically minded projects.
The law in North Dakota requires students to correctly answer 60 percent of the 100 questions on the U.S. citizenship test to graduate high school or earn a GED diploma starting in the 2016-2017 school year; a 70 percent passing grade will take effect in subsequent years.
The measure is backed by the Arizona-based nonprofit Joe Foss Institute, which has a goal of enacting similar laws in all U.S. states by 2017, when the Constitution turns 230 years old. Foss is a former South Dakota governor who died in 2003.
Georgia Hanson, South Dakota coordinator for the Civics Education Initiative, a Joe Foss affiliate, said it's critical that students have an appreciation of the country's history.
"We want the youngsters and the students to be informed, we want them to be engaged," Hanson said. "We really want to focus on it a little bit more."
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