Dialogue, listening, and compromise are essential elements of living in a democracy. In a highly partisan time, is it possible to reestablish common ground when it comes to how best to educate our children in and for democracy? Authors Brendan Sheran, Ashley Carey, Jack Schneider, Rebecca Woodland, and Kathryn McDermott, who are affiliated with…

Pundits, politicians, and academics have long worried about potentially low rates of civic participation among STEM-oriented students. Does studying STEM actually decrease the odds that young people will be actively involved in democracy? To answer this question, we created a dataset of over 23 million students in the United States, matched to…

Every year on January 16, Washington public schools participate in Temperance and Good Citizenship Day (TAGCD) in accordance with Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 28A.230.150. On this day, Washington social studies teachers must provide instructional time for high school seniors to register to vote. The Office of Superintendent of Public…

This article outlines a series of lessons the author led to help students understand gerrymandering, which is the practice of drawing district boundaries to favor a particular group or party and which undermines the fairness of a representative democracy. These lessons were developed to capture student interest and engagement by linking…

Youth voter turnout remains stubbornly low and unresponsive to civic education. Rigorous evaluations of the effects of adopting civics tests for high school graduation by some states on youth voter turnout remain limited. We estimate the impact of a recent, state-mandated civics test policy--the Civics Education Initiative (CEI)--on youth voter…

This study examines the effectiveness of the Center for Civic Education's Project Citizen teacher professional development program and curriculum intervention in producing positive student learning outcomes that support civic engagement. Through Project Citizen, students identify and research a problem in their community, explore solutions,…

For decades, pundits, politicians, college administrators, and academics have lamented the dismal rates of civic engagement among students who enroll in courses and eventually major in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (i.e., STEM) fields. However, the research supporting this conclusion has faced distinct challenges in terms of…

Background: Public schools are among the first civic institution with which many individuals have prolonged, meaningful social interaction. Lessons about the authority, power, and fairness of civic institutions, conveyed through disciplinary and social control practices, may be part of the "hidden curriculum," that teaches students about…

Youth voter turnout remains stubbornly low and unresponsive to civic education. Rigorous evaluations of the adoption of civic tests for high school graduation by some states on youth voter turnout remain limited. We estimate the impact of a recent, state-mandated civics test policy--the Civics Education Initiative (CEI)--on youth voter turnout by…

The current study examined sociodemographic characteristics and political discussion as correlates of adolescents' qualitative understanding of three civic behaviors. Participants were 743 adolescents (M[subscript age] = 15.87, range = 13-20; 55.6% female; 89.9% White) from a midsized city and a small rural town in an Appalachian state. Open-ended…

Building on a growing literature showing that early college high schools substantially improve educational outcomes, we investigate possible spillover impacts of this intervention on civic outcomes in North Carolina, which houses an early college in most of its counties. We present both lottery and observational impacts on voting and criminal…

The "Annual Disability Statistics Compendium" and its complement, the "Annual Disability Statistics Supplement" (ED628631), are summaries of statistics about people with disabilities and about the government programs which serve them. The Compendium, presents key overall statistics on topics including the prevalence of…

Focusing on youth attitudes during a time of political upheaval in Catalonia, we study 1,438 high school students, aged 15 to 16, nested within 30 high schools. Using multilevel analyses, we examine their perceptions of the importance of voting across different election types (independence referendum, local, subnational, national, supernational)…

This paper examines the "subjectification" function of political education in democracy, considering the present situation of political education in Japan. In particular, from the point of view of political science, it focuses on the relationship between democratic theories and political education and considers whether the possibility of…

This paper explores how PurpleState, a political simulation designed to foster skills and knowledge for informed civic participation, develops students' abilities to counter or resist the effects of political polarization and partisanship. Throughout the simulation, which has been implemented in Virginia and Wisconsin, students are asked to…