Why did the colonists fight the British? Most Americans don’t know, according to a new survey.

When was the U.S. Constitution ratified? Which countries did the U.S. fight in World War II? Asked multiple-choice questions from the U.S. Citizenship Test, only 36 percent of Americans passed, according to a national survey by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Sixty percent is a passing score.

While 74 percent of those 65 and over passed, that fell to 19 percent for those under 45.

The survey also found that:

• • Seventy-two percent of respondents either incorrectly identified or were unsure of which states were part of the 13 original states;
  • Only 24 percent could correctly identify one thing Benjamin Franklin was famous for, with 37 percent believing he invented the lightbulb;
  • Only 24 percent knew the correct answer as to why the colonists fought the British.

Most knew the cause of the Cold War. Only 2 percent said “climate change.” And I’d bet most were kidding.

Some the questions are trivial. Does it matter if Americans know how many justices serve on the U.S. Supreme Court? But immigrants seeking naturalization manage to pass the exam.

What should every American know? Aspen’s Citizenship and American Identity program is asking. The video features four immigrants talking about America.

From CNN:

An immigration judge has granted asylum to a Connecticut high school student whose arrest sparked an outpouring of support from teachers and classmates…

After ICE arrested Aguilar in September, teachers sent him schoolwork so he wouldn’t fall behind and traveled to court hearings so he’d see a friendly face.

Students saved his seat, made “Free Mario” signs in the school’s print shop and rallied for his release…

Aguilar was born in Guatemala and came to the United States as an unaccompanied minor in 2018. His attorneys say he was fleeing persecution and seeking safety.

ICE deportation officers arrested him in September outside a Connecticut courthouse where he’d gone to face charges after a car accident, including driving under the influence, operating a motor vehicle without a license and failure to insure a private motor vehicle…

Grading students based on effort rather than achievement is spreading from P.E. class to academic classes in high schools, but in colleges, writes Adam Ellwanger on the Martin Center blog.

What’s known as “contract” or “labor-based” grading is “the latest front in a larger war on intellectual excellence, where the focus has now moved from lowering standards to eliminating them,” Ellwanger writes.

He teaches English at a university that serves many first-generation students who face significant barriers to success, including working long hours and speaking English as a second language. Failure rates in first-year English classes are high.

The university has tried increasing admission standards, providing more opportunities to remediate writing skills and working with local high schools to improve students’ readiness for college writing, he writes, but the problem remains.

Many faculty have changed their grading policies.

In the context of a writing course, it looks something like this: in the first week, each student elects a) how much writing they will do for the course, b) how much drafting and revision will be done for that writing, c) when the writing will be submitted, and d) how much “peer-review” of classmates’ writing he will do. Various choices on these bases correlate with different grades in the course. Assuming the student does the (work) promised, he will receive his preferred grade . . . regardless of the quality or competence of the writing.

“Trying is good,” writes Ellwanger. But he doubts that students will try very hard if there’s “no possibility of trying and nevertheless failing.”

Let’s imagine a hard-working student who does what’s asked yet ends the course unable to write a coherent sentence. Does handing out an “A” for effort serve that student’s needs or just make the school look better?

Elite colleges are doing fine, but the universities that serve the would-be upwardly mobile are losing students. Students and employers question the value of college. Does a degree signify higher education? Or is it a participation trophy?

California schools have begun to welcome Ukrainian refugee children, reports Carolyn Jones on EdSource. So far, it’s only a few students, but there are large Ukrainian communities in Sacramento, Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

Sacramento City Unified has greeted at least 12 new students from Ukraine since the war began. The district offers wide-ranging support for immigrant students, including a free immunization clinic, mental health counseling, English classes and services for families, such as help finding jobs and getting settled in the U.S. Afghan refugees arriving last fall found similar support in Sacramento, Elk Grove and other districts.

St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles is helping new arrivals, she writes. Many plan to return to Ukraine, but may not have homes to return to, said the Rev. Vasile Sauciur. “Teachers and classmates will have to be patient. But these children are very strong.”

Illia Puzhalina, 10, and his two sisters, Yeva, 9, and Virsaviia, 6, head off to their new school in Tacoma. Photo: Anastasiia Puzhalina

Families from Ukraine and Russia are crossing the Mexican border, reports Jo Napolitano on The 74.

Once refugees arrive at the camp in Tijuana, they’re “handed a water bottle and ice cream by dozens of Ukrainian and Russian-speaking volunteers, many of whom flew down from the U.S. to assist,” she writes. After a few days, “aid workers will drive them to their next stop: often San Diego International Airport.”

President Biden has pledged to welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, writes Napolitano. “Unite for Ukraine”, a streamlined immigration program, will let refugees fly here from Europe.  “They must have been in Ukraine as of Feb. 11; have a sponsor who can financially support them — this can be in individual or organization — complete vaccinations and other public health requirements and pass background checks.”

A “Support Ukraine” rally in Indianapolis on April 9.

Children still come for after-school classes in math, science and chess, but the “Russian School of Indiana” has changed its name in response to the invasion of Ukraine, writes Rashika Jaipuriar in the Indianapolis Star.

The Heritage School/Multicultural Education Center, which teaches in Russian and English, has added classes in Ukrainian and will host free English classes for Ukrainian refugees this summer.

The school, founded by Jewish refugees from Russia, Ukraine and Moldova, is collecting money and medical supplies through a nonprofit called Indiana Supports Ukraine, said Natalia Rekhter, the director.

Her family is Russian, but her parents were born and raised in Ukraine. “Russia is not Putin,” Rekhter said. “It’s an old country with an old history and an old culture.”

Omar, who had little schooling in rural Afghanistan, is learning English at Chicago’s Sullivan High School. Photo: Taylor Glascock/WBEZ

My mother’s old high school in Chicago (class of ’44), Sullivan High, has become “Refugee” High School, reports Elly Fishman for WBEZ. An influx of Afghan students — some of whom have very little schooling in any language — poses educational and cultural challenges.

Social worker Josh Zepeda specializes in helping immigrant students, who make up a majority of Sullivan’s enrollees.

 The rapid influx of teenagers who speak little to no English, have endured severe trauma and have fled their homes with nearly nothing has been jarring. And that’s for a school which, in the past, has welcomed waves of teenagers fleeing from Syria, Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

By June, administrators predicted, one in seven students at Sullivan will be an Afghan refugee.

The Afghan refugees come from a variety of ethnic groups, speak different languages and practice different traditions, writes Fishman. Some from rural areas, others from cities.

Omar, the first to enroll, worked as a tailor before fleeing the country alone.

Aziz comes from an upper-middle-class family, but he and his brother were separated from their parents and sibling in the chaos at Kabul airport. The rest of the family didn’t make it out, and is now in hiding from the Taliban. He and his brother survive with help from resettlement agencies and his new job at Taco Bell.

Annmarie Handley teaches a class of 30 English Language Learners. At the start of the year she had eight students, four from Mexico and Central America.

Though learning English grammar is new for Omar, he’s had some exposure to written Pashto. Not every student in Handley’s class is in such a position.

Sitting across from Omar are three hijabi. They are soft-spoken and spend much of the class huddled together puzzling their way through the lesson. The young women are among a group of around ten Afghan refugees who came to Sullivan unable to read or write, including in Arabic.

In the fall, Sullivan High expects Ukrainian refugees to add to the mix.

Sixty-two Afghan refugee students enrolled in Las Cruces, New Mexico schools for spring semester, reports Miranda Cyr. A pre-k teacher from Iran is helping with the transition.

I guess refugees go where the resettlement agencies put them.

Ukrainian refugees are getting a warmer welcome than Afghans, according to a group of refugee advocates and Democratic senators, writes Ilya Somin in Reason.

Ukrainian refugees crossing into Poland. Photo: Wikipedia

The Biden administration’s Uniting for Ukraine (U4U) program “offered Ukrainians a limited form of private refugee sponsorship” not available to Afghans, writes Somin, a law professor at George Mason University.

While Ukrainian refugees are fast-tracked, Afghans must apply through the  humanitarian parole program, which requires them to prove they are being targeted as an individual for persecution. The fee is $575 per applicant.

Immigrant adults are taking summer jobs once done by U.S. teenagers, writes Paul Bedard in the Washington Examiner.

“Immigrants — legal and illegal — are crowding out U.S.-born teenagers in the labor market,” according to  Center of Immigration Studies report by Steven A. Camarota and Karen Zeigler.

Credit: JooHee Yoon/New York Times

The son of tiger parents, lawyer Ryan Park wants to raise his daughters to be “happy, confident, and kind,” he writes in the New York Times. They don’t have to be academic superstars.

His parents pushed him to achieve — or else. After graduating from Harvard Law, he clerked for two U.S. Supreme Court justices. His wife, also Asian-American, is a physician.

. . .  like many second-generation immigrant overachievers, I’ve spent decades struggling with the paradox of my upbringing. Were the same childhood experiences that long evoked my resentment also responsible for my academic and professional achievements? And if so, was the trade-off between happiness and success worth it?

Immigrants’ children tend to be driven to succeed, writes Park. But that zeal fades by the third generation.

When he became a parent, he decided that his children “will feel valued and supported. They will know home as a place of joy and fun. They will never wonder whether their father’s love is conditioned on an unblemished report card.”

Most second-generation Asian-Americans parents aren’t tiger parents, writes Park. “Rather, studies show that we’re largely abandoning traditional Asian parenting styles in favor of a modern, Western approach focused on developing open and warm relationships with our children.”

That may mean “fewer virtuoso violinists and neurosurgeons” in the next generation, he concedes.