By Alexis Dominguez | Cronkite News
A 16-year-old has developed a free app to help students pass the Arizona civics test, which soon will be required for students to graduate.
Riley Danler, a student at Primavera Online High School, created the Arizona High School Citizen app after his grandmother, Kevin Ruegg, executive director of the Arizona Bar Foundation’s legal and education program, expressed a need to help Arizona students pass the Arizona civics test.
Danler, shy and modest, is passionate about his journey from the concept of an idea inspired by his grandmother to an app in which McDonald’s has become a partner.
He said he had zero experience with building an app but did have experience with programming from a class he took in high school. His father also is a programmer.
“The questions are from the actual citizenship test and I edited them to make them multiple-choice questions,” Danler said.
Arizona is the first state to require students to pass a civics test to graduate from high school, according to azcentral. Students will have to pass 60 of 100 civics questions on the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization test starting in 2017, the article said.
Advocacy group Law for Kids and the state bar association’s Arizona Foundation for Legal and Education Services, or AZBarFDN developed a lesson plan for Arizona teachers to introduce the app to 8th grade through 12th grade students.