To honor National Constitution Day on Sept. 17, the Cheraw High School Social Studies Department (Department Head Gail Ingram, Carrie Allen, Quinn Alford, Celia English, Shannon Johnson, Carla Reid, and Tom Veasey) gave all of their students a 30-item version of the new Citizenship Test. This new civics test, which all immigrants going through the naturalization process must pass, went into effect on Oct. 1. In addition to passing a reading and writing test of English proficiency, immigrants must pass an exam that some say is much harder than the one it replaced. Immigrants must answer six out of ten questions correctly. The questions are selected from a list of 100 and the test is given orally. Immigrants have two chances to pass. The 100 questions attempt to summarize the basic concepts of American democracy.

Cheraw High School had 567 students to take the Citizenship Test. The top-scoring students were:

Eleventh Grade: John Gathings, who made a perfect score of 30, Trey Dordal and Nikki Walters, who made 26 and tenth grade students, Joshuah Campbell, Jacob Crouse, and Graham Kiser (who all scored 27); 9th Grade: Jonathan Chavis, Chris Dixon, Billy Dang, and Donovan Rouseau (who all scored 25). No seniors took the test.

The questions on the Cheraw High School version of the test included:

What is the supreme law of the land?

Who is one of your state’s U.S. Senators?

How old do citizens have to be to vote for President?

Where is the Statue of Liberty?

Why does the flag have 50 stars?

A daily question from the new Citizenship Test now appears on the announcements sheet for Cheraw High School. Teachers are asked to read aloud the question to see if their students know the answer. If the students and the teachers do not know the answers, they are asked to consult a member of the Social Studies Department. After all 100 questions appear in the daily announcements; another version of the Citizenship Test will be administered in mid-March in the social studies classes.

Photo: (left to right) Donavan Rouseau, Jonathan Chavis, John Gathings (perfect scorer), Billy Dang, Graham Kiser, Jacob Crouse, Joshuah Campbell, and Niki Walters (Not pictured: Trey Dordal, and Chris Dixon).