What are the three branches of the U.S. federal government?

What are the first three words of the U.S. Constitution?

Who is one of your state’s U.S. senators right now?

How many members are in the U.S. House of Representatives?

Who is the current chief justice of the United States Supreme Court?

The data tell us it’s a safe bet you don’t have the answers to many of these questions — which are part of the U.S. Citizenship Exam — off the top of your head. And some states are trying to do something about that.

In 2015, Arizona became the first state to pass a law requiring high school students to pass the exam to graduate high school. Other states have followed suit, and now the issue is alive in Pennsylvania with House Bill 1858, which would impose the requirement — getting at least 60 of the test’s 100 questions correct — starting with the 2020-21 school year.

The thinking — and we use that term “thinking” generously — is that requiring students to learn and test on this information will result in more “good citizenship” and civic engagement.

Of course, every state already requires some component of civics education. But it’s not up for debate that students in this country need a better education in American government and politics. The data are actually embarrassing.

A 2014 study by the University of Pennsylvania found that just 36 percent of adults could name all three branches of government (for those of you following along in your textbooks, that’s legislative, executive and judicial). About the same percentage couldn’t name any at all. One in four adults actually didn’t know that the country declared independence from England.

What is very much up for debate is how to change those numbers. And it’s fairly offensive to argue that creating good citizens is as simple as requiring high schoolers to regurgitate American Fast Facts for a multiple choice test.

That’s why this bill is an empty, symbolic effort that’s only notable for the depth of its laziness.

Consider that just months ago Pennsylvania again delayed making its annual Keystone exams a graduation requirement for students, saying the standardized tests — once sold as a silver bullet to the state’s educational woes — are actually flawed and failing to produce adequate results.

Now educational attainment is again an issue, and a standardized test is again somehow the answer? What a bunch of baloney.

Memorizing and reciting facts makes you a good test-taker, not a good citizen. If you want students to graduate high school with a better understanding of and engagement in American government and politics — and yes, we do — then engage them.

Have them participate in mock debates; include the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights as texts in their Lit Comp courses; take them on a field trip to the Butler County Courthouse or state Capitol; give them academic credit for working as a summer intern in the local office of a state legislator and keeping a journal of their experiences.

Of course, that would mean carving out time away from the avalanche of core competency work and standardized testing in math, science and literature that is already burying students and teachers and taking time away from high school civics and government courses in the meantime.