Arizona passed a law Jan. 15 that requires a civics test be taken by high school students beginning  in 2017. Leaders from the Civics Education Initiative, which led the effort to pass the law, say they plan to begin lobbying California to require a civics test in the next couple of years. Therefore, Clark freshmen — and all California high school students — may need to take a civics test in order to graduate by the time they are seniors.

U.S. Government and AP U.S. History teacher Nancy Witt gave a civics test to her senior students on the first day of school this year. She said she wanted to set the tone of the class because she believes government is a class her students will use every day for the rest of their lives. Out of her 63 senior students, only six of them did not pass the practice test. However, she is unsure about this new test coming to California. “We test our kids way too much, so I worry about adding another test,” Witt said. “However, I feel like they need to know the information.  It might make them more engaged citizens and more likely to vote.”

Students in Arizona must pass the 100-question test with at least a sixty percent to graduate. The test includes simple questions about the U.S. government such as how a bill is passed and who leads the executive branch. The Joe Foss Institute, a non-profit educational organization, is lobbying to to make all 50 states have require high school students to take a civics test to graduate by 2017.

The LA Times has posted a 25-question practice test online to allow people to see if they would pass. According to the practice test given by the Times, 6,554 people completed the test with a score between 90% to 100%, 3,248 people completed with 80% to 89%, 495 people completed with 70% to 79%, 174 completed with 60% to 69%, and 40 people completed with less that 60%.

Senior Arsine Tahmasyan passed the practice test Witt gave on the first day of school and even gave the test to her parents, and they passed as well. She thought the test covered basic material that has been taught from kindergarten to twelfth grade. “I think they should make the test mandatory here as well because it’s a test to see how much one knows about America and, living in America,” she said. “I think we should all know these things.”