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In a recent report entitled "All Together Now: Collaboration and Innovation for Youth Engagement,": the Commission on Youth Voting & Civic Knowledge concluded that civic education is a shared responsibility of schools and other institutions. Data suggests, however, that more work is required to provide all young people with the knowledge, skills and dispositions they need to participate fully in the civic life of their communities. When looking for ways to improve civic education in public K-12 schools state policy makers typically consider two main interventions: new courses or new tests. CIRCLE's analysis of data collected in 2012 suggests that, in general, the testing and course mandates in force at that time did not affect what students had studied or learned. However, tests and courses can be designed in many ways, and three states, Florida, Hawaii, and Tennessee have recently undertaken novel approaches that have promise: (1) High Stakes Standardized Testing; (2) An "Action Civics" Course Mandate without Assessment; and (3) An Alternative Assessment. This study looks at the rationales and perceived advantages and drawbacks of each strategy with special attention to the challenges that confront the agencies and districts charged with implementing them. The goal is to inform other states' policymakers and advocates as they consider alternative strategies for strengthening civics. This report also serves as an introduction to a companion document, which describes how and why the legislation passed in each state based on the perspectives and experiences of individuals involved in passing and implementing these initiatives. This report provides an overview and basic information about each policy. [To access the working paper entitled "Civic Education Policy Change: Case Studies of Florida, Tennessee, and Hawaii. CIRCLE Working Paper #79," see ED574388.].
Preparing the next generation of Americans to engage in their communities civically and politically is a shared responsibility. Although civic education takes place every day in homes and community centers, our nation's K-12 schools are in a unique position to nurture and reinforce the civic development of all young people. States influence their K-12 schools by enacting and implementing policies that include standards, tests, credit and course requirements, teacher certification rules, and funding streams. This paper describes case studies of three states that have recently examined their civic education policies. The goal of this document is to inform other states' policymakers and advocates as they consider K-12 civic education policies. These three state examples (Florida, Tennessee, and Hawaii) were chosen because they represent strikingly different approaches to state policy: a high-stakes standardized exam, a project-based assessment, and an interactive course without any state assessment at all. The focus of this paper is on the efforts to influence policy: who was involved, how they worked, and what made the difference in the policy being passed or rejected. The paper also describes apparent keys to successful advocacy across the three states. Florida, Tennessee, and Hawaii exemplify three distinct strategies for improving civic education. No firm evidence exists yet about which approach will benefit students the most, but all have promise. This paper has suggested strategies for passing ambitious state policies, whether they involve tests or course mandates. The details vary in important ways, but all three states attribute success to a coalition of educators. In conjunction with the paper, a fact sheet has also been released that summarizes the main elements of each policy. [For the fact sheet, "Recent Civic Education Policy Changes. CIRCLE Fact Sheet,",see ED574358.].
The Federal government supports programs designed to encourage civic participation and increase civic knowledge. This fact sheet summarizes current federal legislation intended to mandate or encourage civic education and service programs for young people. In addition, it contains a list of relevant federally funded programs. (Contains 4 endnotes.) [This fact sheet was produced by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE).].
The power of civic education to elicit positive student outcomes has been empirically documented. However, the field is only now beginning to understand the causal processes that bring about these positive changes in young people. "The Civic Mission of Schools" report commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and CIRCLE (2003) lays out six "promising approaches" to civic education. These practices emphasize the need for instruction that is relevant to young people (i.e., links young people's interests to political contexts), provides opportunities for practice, and that moves beyond rote learning praxis. A growing body of evidence suggests that these approaches to civic education yield positive, lasting outcomes in young people. For example, research has found that deliberative classroom discussions are positively associated with interest in politics, political knowledge, and feelings of political efficacy. The goal of this project is to examine the association between activities regularly used in civic education courses (e.g., staging a mock election) and their impact on key student outcomes. By linking classroom praxis to outcomes, the authors intend to provide evidence supporting best practices in civic education. (Contains 5 figures and 7 tables.) [This working paper was produced by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement.].
Civics courses are a source of civic skill development, yet not all American students receive civics instruction. This fact sheet reports evidence on the effect of civic education on the civic skill levels of young people. It uses "average treatment effects" to report the effects of studying various civics topics on civic skills. Civic skills included in the study are: cognitive skills, communication skills, group discussion skills, and news monitoring skills. Findings indicate that studying civics topics increases the frequency that young people will discuss political topics with parents, peers, and teachers. Additionally, the author finds differing effects on civic skills for subgroups of young people when broken down by race and gender. (Contains 3 graphs and 8 endnotes.) [Research for this fact sheet comes from the author's Ph.D. Dissertation, "Civic Skills and Civic Education: An Empirical Assessment," University of Maryland School of Public Policy, 2005. The fact sheet was produced by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE).].
Citizens can improve their communities, the government, and the nation through active civic engagement and collaboration. To do so requires skills. Educational programs and other government-supported initiatives have been shown to enhance Americans' civic skills and their levels of engagement. But these programs and other opportunities are scarce and unequal, often provided to people who are already the most likely to be engaged. A lack of civic learning opportunities not only inhibits Americans' civic participation, but also has harmful consequences for their academic and economic progress. Skill gaps in Organizing Activities by Demographic Groups (Source: ANES 2008-2009) are appended. (Contains 1 table, 5 figures and 9 notes.).
This book chronicles the progression of civic education advocacy since the early 2000s. It identifies the main actors that called for civic education reform, describes their motivations and policy platforms, and documents the path taken to capture state policy agendas. It argues that No Child Left Behind incentivized civic education advocates to mobilize a “call to action” to restore emphasis on civics that materialized into national policy reform proposals that successfully captured the agendas of state legislatures and bureaucracies. This book analyzes the implementation and sustainability of these civic education policy reforms by undertaking a comparative case study analysis of school districts in Utah and Connecticut. Through the voices of teachers and district administrators, the book tells the story of what happened when these state policy reforms inspired by national initiatives hit the local level where the rubber meets the road. As ideological debates about schools and democracy unfold across the country, as civic education advocates and proposals proliferate, this book treats civic education not as panacea but as a concrete policy area to be analyzed and understood. It contextualizes the current debate and offers a critical assessment of the most recent, comprehensive state-level civic education policy reform. It argues that while questions linger about what type of civic-inspired educational interventions remains most effective for whom, where, and why, the implementation of such interventions are profoundly impacted by local actors and local politics and that future initiatives should take this dimension into consideration.
In a recent survey sponsored jointly by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement and the Council for Excellence in Government, several questions regarding young people's attitudes towards civic education and community service requirements were asked. These included questions asking if students were favorable or unfavorable towards: (1) requiring all graduating high school students to complete a certain amount of community service to receive their diploma; (2) making classes on civics and government a requirement for high school graduation; (3) offering every young person a chance to do a full year of national or community service and earn money towards college or advanced training; and (4) making classes on civics and government a requirement for middle school. Young people are not in support of requiring high school students to complete some community service. However, they do support requiring civics and government classes for high school graduation, offering students a chance to do community service to earn money for college, and requiring civics and government courses in middle school. (Contains 17 graphs and 3 notes.) [This fact sheet was produced by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).].
We need young people to be civically engaged in order to define and address public problems. Their participation is important for democracy, for institutions such as schools, and for young people themselves, who are more likely to succeed in life if they are engaged in their communities. In The Future of Democracy, Peter Levine, scholar and practitioner, sounds the alarm: in recent years, young Americans have become dangerously less engaged. They are tolerant, patriotic, and idealistic, and some have invented such novel and impressive forms of civic engagement, as blogs, "buycott" movements, and transnational youth networks. But most lack the skills and opportunities they need to participate in politics or address public problems. Levine's timely manifesto clearly explains the causes, symptoms, and repercussions of this damaging trend, and, most importantly, the means whereby America can confront and reverse it. Levine demonstrates how to change young people's civic attitudes, skills, and knowledge and, equally importantly, to reform our institutions so that civic engagement is rewarding and effective. We must both prepare citizens for politics and improve politics for citizens.
Sound democratic decisions rely on a citizenry with at least a partial mastery of the rules and workings of democratic government. American high schools, where students learn the basics of citizenship, thus ought to play a critical role in the success of democracy. Yet studies examining the impact of high school government and civics courses on political knowledge over the past quarter-century have generally shown that these courses have little or no effect. In this important book, Richard G. Niemi and Jane Junn take a fresh look at what America's high school seniors know about government and politics and how they learn it. The authors argue convincingly that secondary school civics courses do indeed enhance students' civic knowledge. This book is based on the most extensive assessment to date of civic knowledge among American youth--the 1988 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) Civics Assessment. The authors develop and test a theoretical model to explain the cognitive process by which students learn about politics and they conclude by suggesting specific changes in the style and emphasis of civics teaching.