The seniors who’ve just started their final year at a public or private high school in Iowa are the first graduating class required to pass a civics test in order to get their diploma.
Governor Kim Reynolds, who proposed the requirement in 2025, said civics education prepares students to be responsible citizens. “We all realize how important it is,” Reynolds said, “and it’s just not been highlighted or really, I think, given the spotlight that it should.”
Students will be required to correctly answer at least 12 of 20 questions from the U.S. Citizenship Test. “At first, you know, with the legislature, they were only wanting them to pass, like, 10 and I’m like: ‘No!’ If you set the expectation here, they will meet it,” Reynolds said. “It’s the right thing to do. It’s a good thing to do.”
Students who don’t reach that 60% threshold will be allowed to take the test again until they pass. In 2015, Arizona was the first state to require high school graduates to pass a civics test modeled after the federal exam for naturalized citizens. There are now 14 states, including Iowa, that have adopted the requirement. According to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, 31% of 8th graders cannot describe the basic structure of the U.S. government.