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Civics Central
Research
(What Others Have Found)
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During the course of
our two-year study, we found other organizations and institutions that
have researched Civics education in the United States. Below are links to pages that explain what they found.
Every year the Department of Education focuses on a
different discipline in its
Nation's Report Card series.
The most recent Civics assessment was conducted in 2006.
For an explanation of what the Civics report card
measures, see
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/civics/whatmeasure.asp
Recent reports are also available for
History and
Economics
This 12 page report was published in 2002 by
Edsource,
"an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization whose mission is
to clarify complex education issues and to promote thoughtful policy
decisions about public school improvement." Further information about
Edsource can be found at
http://www.edsource.org/abo.cfm
Young Voter Strategies is a nonpartisan project of
The Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington
University, with support from The Pew Charitable Trusts. Young Voter
Strategies provides the public, parties, candidates, consultants and
non-profits with data on the youth vote and tools to effectively
mobilize this electorate. In August 2007, Young Voter Strategies merged
with
Rock the Vote.
On September 18, 2006, the John S. and James L.
Knight Foundation released this follow-up to its 2004 study on high
school students and the First Amendment. In a nutshell, the
researchers conclude, "more students today think the First Amendment,
as a whole, goes too far in the rights it guarantees. A gap is widening
between those who support this fundamental law and those who don’t. And
teachers, while themselves increasing their appreciation of the First
Amendment, don’t think schools are doing a great job of teaching it."
On September 26, 2006, the University of
Connecticut's Department of Public Policy and the Intercollegiate
Studies Institute released the results of their survey of over 14,000
college freshmen and seniors. The report title (The Coming
Crisis in Citizenship: Higher Education's Failure to Teach America's
History and Institutions) is not encouraging. Their report
summary is available at:
http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/report/summary.html
The report has generated some controversy,
especially regarding the nature of the questions asked and other aspects
of its methodology. San Francisco Public Radio station KQED-FM
devoted an hour to it on October 3, 2006. Those wanting to
download the broadcast as an MP3 file, or listen to it online, may do so
via links at:
http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R610030900
For a liberal take on the validity of the report,
have a look at John Seery's Civics Education or Else!! at
HuffingtonPost.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-seery/civic-educationor-else_b_32339.html
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