U.S. college students fail civics test

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- Harvard, even though it scored the highest, was among elite U.S. colleges where students proved dismal in their knowledge of civics and history, a report said.

The non-profit Intercollegiate Studies Institute analyzed scores of a test given to 14,419 freshmen and seniors at 50 U.S. colleges last fall, USA Today reported Tuesday.

Overall, the freshmen tested averaged 50.4 percent on a civic literacy test, while the seniors tested averaged 54.2 percent.

Seniors tested at Harvard had the highest overall average at 69.6 percent, nearly 6 points higher than its freshmen but still a D-plus, said the ISI report.

A Harvard senior was the only student among the 14,419 tested to get 100 percent correct.

Yale had the highest scoring freshman at 68.94 percent with freshmen at Princeton, Duke and Cornell also out scoring seniors who took the test, the report said.

William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told USA Today students have fewer civics requirements because the value of higher education more often is defined by knowledge of economics.