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…

A major aim of education in the state of New York is to prepare its students for a productive and meaningful life as citizens in local, state, national, and international settings. The "Participation in Government" core curriculum is designed to be a culminating course of study that focuses on Social Studies Learning Standard 5--Civics,…

The Working Paper begins with a brief discussion of why the civic education received by America's youth compels the nation's attention, and then moves on to a review of the previous literature on civic education, including an emphasis on the contributions offered by this analysis. Next, the paper describes the IEA Civic Education Study in detail,…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 Civics Assessment measured student knowledge, intellectual and participatory skills, and civic dispositions at the fourth grade level. This publication describes fourth graders' performance based on 30 questions from the fourth-grade assessment. Twenty-three of the thirty questions were…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 Civics Assessment measured students' knowledge, their intellectual and participatory skills, and their civic dispositions at the 12th-grade level. This publication describes 12th graders performance on 38 questions from the 12th-grade assessment. Thirty-one of the thirty-eight questions…

This ERIC resource is a guide to the array of law-related education (LRE) resources available to teachers. The annotated bibliography offers resources for essential knowledge of the law, innovative teaching methods, and guides to national LRE programs. Included in this collection are abstracts of LRE documents and journal articles, arranged…

The Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) concluded that teaching is a cultural activity. But do claims about teaching based largely in comparisons of math teachers also apply to teaching in disciplines with less well-defined problems, like civics? What is gained and what is lost when the cultural aspect of teaching becomes the focus?…

In the elections of 2000, one-half of U.S. citizens did not vote, or vote effectively. This reflects a marked decline in civic participation. Before these serious civic issues could be addressed, a second national civics lesson suddenly upstaged the first when international terrorists hijacked and crashed commercial airliners into the World Trade…

This series of independent lessons draws from examples of real legal issues and encourages students to refer to Constitutional interpretations and precedent cases to arrive at judgments. The lessons include: (1) "Affirmative Action: How Level is the Playing Field?"; (2) "We Are a Nation of Immigrants"; (3) "Should Elected…

Popular education is "political education for everyday people." It is"people coming together to discuss problems of injustice and inequality and learning how to confront these problems collectively." To be effective in movement building, this guide calls for people who can act in concert to fundamentally change the world. It…

Civic writing is an intellectual skill that is needed for effective and responsible participation in civil society and government. This Digest examines the concept of civic writing, identifies its purposes in democratic citizenship, and discusses how to teach it. Civic writing includes formal legal writing (speeches, petitions, resolutions),…

The distinguishing characteristics, content and processes, and the variations of essential elements that are exemplified by projects in the United States and abroad in education for democratic citizenship are presented in this book. The volume addresses how international partnerships involving the United States and several post-communist countries…

This document is a mostly multiple choice test for content given to Maryland high school students enrolled in a government course. The test is divided into 2 sessions, with 25 questions in session 1 and 56 questions in session 2. The multiple choice questions are designated as selected response questions. Other constructed response questions…

Intended for teachers, this booklet explains that the social studies Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) is aligned to the content standards and benchmarks for social studies contained in the Michigan Curriculum Framework. The booklet poses and answers eight questions dealing with a concept list (where it came from, how it is divided,…

Research in law-related education (LRE) and related fields is reviewed in this report. For the past two decades, researchers consistently have reported that law-related curricula and instruction make a positive impact on youth when compared to traditional approaches to teaching and learning law, civics, and government. The overall conclusion is…