CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement)
conducts research on the civic and political engagement of young Americans.
The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement

Working Papers

In-depth analysis on a particular issue in the field of civic engagement can be found in CIRCLE’s working papers.

RSSWorking Papers

Do States Require Students Learn about Political Parties & Ideology?

Only eight states’ civic education standards explicitly require that students learn about the ideological underpinnings of the two major political parties, according to a new working paper from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and published by CIRCLE. In “State Standards Scratch the Surface of Learning about Political Parties and Ideology,” Paula McAvoy (UW-Madison), Rebecca Fine Read More >

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September 15th, 2016
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Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Neville – Portraits of American Teens’ Leisure Time Use

Today we are releasing CIRCLE Working Paper #80: “Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Neville – Portraits of American Teenagers’ Extracurricular Involvement, and Implications for Educational Interventions.” The ways American teenagers use their leisure time have evolved dramatically in the past few decades. These changes are not all good or bad for civic education, but they fundamentally Read More >

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March 31st, 2014
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Reforming Civic Education: Three Case Studies

Today, we release a short fact sheet that describes three recent civic education policy changes. We also release a longer paper that takes an initial look at the process behind each proposal and some of the issues faced by the educators tasked with implementing them.

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March 17th, 2014
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Building the Case for Action Civics

Today, CIRCLE released Working Paper #78, “Building an Evidence-Based Practice of Action Civics: The Current State of Assessments and Recommendations for the Future” by Jessica Gingold, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Gingold assembles evidence for “action civics” as a field and describes the organizations that engage youth in (or assess) action civics programs. She examines Read More >

August 14th, 2013
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Civics, digital badges and alternative assessment: Preparing students to be engaged citizens

With support from the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, CIRCLE has released a working paper that explores digital badges and alternative assessments for civic skills, knowledge, and dispositions. This working paper, entitled “New and Alternative Assessments, Digital Badges, and Civics: An Overview of Emerging Themes and Promising Directions,considers digital badges as well as ePortfolios, rubrics, Read More >

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March 27th, 2013
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iCivics’ Drafting Board Module Boosts Students’ Writing Skills

iCivics is an online civic education platform founded in 2009 by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to prepare “young Americans to become knowledgeable, engaged 21st century citizens by creating free and innovative educational materials.” iCivics has already produced 16 educational video games and numerous teaching materials that have been implemented successfully throughout the United States. With Read More >

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December 19th, 2012
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FEATURED: The Engaged Citizen Index: Examining the Racial and Ethnic Civic and Political Engagement Gaps of Young Adults

By Rebecca Jacobsen and Tamara Wilder Linkow February 2012 In CIRCLE Working Paper 74, Rebecca Jacobsen and Tamara Wilder Linkow construct a composite index of engaged citizenship indicators for young adults that incorporates 40 variables weighted according to the input of a panel of experts. The resulting Engaged Citizen Index reveals significant racial and ethnic Read More >

February 23rd, 2012
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FEATURED: Extracurricular Activities May Increase Likelihood of Voting

CIRCLE Working Paper #73 finds that participation in extracurricular activities, in general, promotes voting, though some activities (notably, some sports) decrease it.

September 8th, 2010
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FEATURED: The Classroom-Kitchen Table Connection: The Effects of Political Discussion on Youth Knowledge and Efficacy

CIRCLE Working Paper #72 addresses whether efforts to systematically incorporate media into school curricula increases several elements of civic engagement, including students’ media use, political knowledge or their sense of being able to understand and influence politics (internal political efficacy)

September 8th, 2010
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FEATURED: Youth Attitudes Toward Civility in Politics

In a recent report entitled, Nastiness, Name-calling & Negativity: The Allegheny College Survey of Civility and Compromise in American Politics, the authors found that average citizens are upset about incivility, although they differ by ideology, gender, and media use. “CIRCLE Working Paper #71″ focuses on the newest generation of voters,

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August 30th, 2010
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FEATURED: Schoolwide Civic Intervention May Help to Increase Community Service Participation Among Students of All Backgrounds

By Hugh McIntosh, Sheldon Berman, and James Youniss March 2010 “CIRCLE Working Paper #70” describes a five-year evaluation of a high school program designed to encourage schoolwide democratic deliberation.  The intervention involved, in part, organizing the school into clusters of 100 to 150 students that met for one hour each week to discuss governance and Read More >

March 16th, 2010
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FEATURED: Predicting Civic Engagement in Urban High School Students

by Hugh McIntosh & Marco A. Muñoz December 2009  In Working Paper #69, the authors examine the civic engagement outcomes that Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) in  Louisville, KY, has chosen to promote in its students. Using a large sample in an urban school district, the study finds that the most important predictors of youth Read More >

December 2nd, 2009
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FEATURED: Spiral of Rebellion: Conflict Seeking of Democratic Adolescents in Republican Counties

by Michael McDevitt November 2009 A study of adolescents living in red and blue counties during the 2006 midterm elections shows a striking pattern of Democratic youth thriving in political expression and debate when exposed to Republican ideological climates.  Democratic adolescents were more likely to talk with parents and friends about politics, disagree openly, test Read More >

November 9th, 2009
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FEATURED: Civic Engagement and Educational Progress in Young Adulthood

by Andrea Finlay and Connie Flanagan September 2009 In CIRCLE working paper (#67) and factsheet “Civic Engagement and Educational Progress in Young Adulthood”, the authors find that young adults (those between the ages of 16 and 30 at baseline) who make academic progress over a four-year period are also more likely to participate in civic Read More >

September 21st, 2009
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FEATURED: New CIRCLE working paper shows college students respond strongly to an in-person drive; choose to vote “back home” in swing states.

By Kim Castle, Janice Levy, and Michael Peshkin October 2009 In CIRCLE working paper (#66), authors Kim Castle, Janice Levy and Michael Peshkin assess the outcomes of an in-person campus drive in which students were offered a choice of college-state voting in Illinois, or home-state voting by absentee ballot. The study found that the great Read More >

September 20th, 2009
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FEATURED: New CIRCLE Working Paper on K12 Civic Education

by Myiah J. Hutchens & William P. Eveland, Jr. August 2009 In CIRCLE Working Paper #65, the authors examine the effects of exposure to various elements of a civics curriculum on civic participation, two forms of political knowledge, internal political efficacy, political cynicism, news elaboration, discussion elaboration and various forms of interpersonal and mediated political Read More >

August 26th, 2009
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FEATURED: New CIRCLE Working Paper on K12 Civic Education

by Britt Wilkenfeld June 2009 CIRCLE releases a new working paper (#64) “Does Context Matter? How the Family, Peer, School, and Neighborhood  Contexts Relate to Adolescents’ Civic Engagement” Report Summary: A new CIRCLE Working Paper (#64) by Britt Wilkenfeld examines the effects of several systems of influence (schools, families, neighborhoods, etc) on civic outcomes.  The Read More >

June 1st, 2009
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New CIRCLE Working Papers on Underrepresented Groups in Volunteer Service

December 2008 CIRCLE releases two new working papers on underrepresented groups in volunteer service. The papers were commissioned by the Corporation for National and Community Service. Click on the paper titles below to download. A summary of the research follows. * CIRCLE Working Paper 62 “Do Race, Ethnicity, Citizenship and Socio-economic Status Determine Civic-Engagement?” * Read More >

December 17th, 2008
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CIRCLE Releases New Working Paper on How Adolescents Develop Trust

by Connie Flanagan and Leslie Gallay September 2008 CIRCLE releases a new working paper (#61) “Adolescent Development of Trust.”Below is a summary of the paper. Click here to download the report. Report Summary: Trust is often found to correlate with civic engagement. While there is a general belief that the foundations for trust develop prior Read More >

September 21st, 2008
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FEATURED: CIRCLE Working Paper 60: The Informed Political Participation of Young Canadians and Americans

by Henry Milner May 2008 Political knowledge is an important precondition of voting and other forms of political participation. Both knowledge and participation have declined among young people in many industrialized democracies. Comparative analysis is important for understanding the causes of these declines and proposing reforms. This paper is based on the results of CIRCLE’s Read More >

May 28th, 2008
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CIRCLE Working Paper 59: Democracy for Some–The Civic Opportunity Gap in High School

by Joseph Kahne and Ellen Middaugh February 2008 In our study of high school civic opportunities, we found that a student’s race and academic track, and a school’s average socioeconomic status (SES) determines the availability of the school-based civic learning opportunities that promote voting and broader forms of civic engagement. High school students attending higher Read More >

February 27th, 2008
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CIRCLE Working Paper 58: An Interim Report of the Evaluation of a Comprehensive High School Civic Engagement Intervention in Hudson, MA

by Hugh McIntosh, Sheldon H. Berman, & James Youniss August 2007 In September 2003, Hudson High School in Hudson, MA, launched two new civic development efforts –- clustering and school-wide governance. This new teaching strategy provided an opportunity to study the influence of school-wide democratic deliberation on students’ civic knowledge and participation. The intervention involved, Read More >

August 28th, 2007
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CIRCLE Working Paper 57: Best Practices in Civic Education: Changes in Students’ Civic Outcomes

by Amy K. Syvertsen, Constance A. Flanagan, & Michael D. Stout August 2007 CIRCLE Working Paper #57 examines the association between activities regularly used in high school civic education courses (e.g., staging a mock election) and their impact on key student outcomes. The authors looked at a range of usual practices used by social studies Read More >

August 23rd, 2007
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CIRCLE Working Paper 56: Schools, Education and the Future of the First Amendment

by Mark Hugo Lopez, Peter Levine, Kenneth Dautrich, David Yalof July 2007 New CIRCLE research uses multivariate analysis of data from the Knight Foundation 2005 Future of the First Amendment Survey and other sources. The authors investigate the effects of courses, state educational policies, school media, and other variables on students’ attitudes toward media, attention Read More >

July 18th, 2007
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Working Paper 55: Civic Measurement Models: Tapping Adolescents’ Civic Engagement

by Constance A. Flanagan, Amy K. Syversten, and Michael D. Stout May 2007 “The goal of this project was to produce a set of civic measures with good psychometric properties that are appropriate for use with young people ages 12-18. These measures tap aspects of adolescents civic behaviors, opinions, knowledge, and dispositions. These measures are Read More >

May 29th, 2007
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Working Paper 54: Improving Textbooks as a Way to Foster Civic Understanding and Engagement

by Marilyn Chambliss, Wendy Richardson, Judith Torney-Purta, and Britt Wilkenfeld April 2007 “In this paper we describe a recent study in which tenth graders who had parent permission were randomly assigned to read one of three types of passages about direct and representative democracy. After reading, all students responded to the same tasks to measure Read More >

April 2nd, 2007
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Working Paper 53: Do Gender and Ethnicity Affect Civic Engagement and Academic Progress?

[Part II of An Assessment of Civic Engagement and High School Academic Progress] by Alberto Davila and Marie T. Mora January 2007 “Using panel data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS), we first analyze how civic engagement (measured in terms of community service and participation in student government) undertaken at the high Read More >

January 31st, 2007
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Working Paper 52: Civic Engagement and High School Academic Progress: An Analysis Using NELS Data

[Part I of An Assessment of Civic Engagement and High School Academic Progress] by Alberto Davila and Marie T. Mora January 2007 “Using panel data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS), this study empirically analyzes the relationship between two forms of civic engagement—student government and community service—and educational progress made after the Read More >

January 21st, 2007
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Working Paper 51: The Civic Achievement Gap

by Meira Levinson January 2007 “This paper, drawn from a book in progress, summarizes evidence of a civic achievement gap between non-white, poor, and/or immigrant youth, on the one hand, and white, wealthier, and/or native-born youth, on the other. Young people (and adults) in the former group demonstrate consistently lower levels of civic and political Read More >

January 20th, 2007
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Working Paper 50: Civil Rights Activists in the Information Age: The Development of Math Literacy Workers

by Roderick J. Watts and Omar Guessous October 2006 “This is the final report of an evaluation research projects completed with and on the Young People’s Project in Chicago. The mission of the Young People’s Project (YPP) is to “organize young people to work to radically change their education, and the way they relate to Read More >

October 31st, 2006
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Working Paper 49: Experiments in Political Socialization: Kids Voting USA as a Model for Civic Education Reform

by Michael McDevitt and Spiro Kiousis August 2006 “This report describes how an innovative curriculum promoted the civic development of high school students along with parents by stimulating news media attention and discussion in families. Evidence is based on a three-year evaluation of Kids Voting USA, an interactive, election-based curriculum. Political communication in the home Read More >

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August 31st, 2006
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Working Paper 48: Assessing School Citizenship Education Climate: Implications for the Social Studies

by Gary Homana, Carolyn Barber, and Judith Torney-Purta June 2006 “This paper presents the School Citizenship Education Climate Assessment and examines its implications for the social studies. The assessment tool was developed from a variety of research fields and disciplines related to school and classroom climate and educational practices including civic education, educational psychology and Read More >

July 19th, 2006
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Working Paper 47: Developing Indicators and Measures of Civic Outcomes for Elementary School Students

by Bernadette Chi, JoAnn Jastrzab, and Alan Melchior June 2006 “The product from this project is a set of tested, reliable measures of civic knowledge, civic thinking skills, civic participation skills and civic dispositions that are referenced to recent efforts to provide frameworks of competencies in civic education. Two sets of instruments were developed using Read More >

June 1st, 2006
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Working Paper 46: College Students and Politics: A Literature Review

by Nicholas V. Longo and Ross P. Meyer May 2006 “In this review, we hope to provide a deeper understanding of current college students’ conceptions of and participation in politics through a review of the scholarly literature. We hope that this review will help us refine our research questions and ultimately lead to a larger Read More >

May 31st, 2006
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Working Paper 45: Youth Civic Engagement: An Institutional Turn

by Peter Levine and James Youniss February 2006 “The papers in this collection were written by an interdisciplinary group to address two main questions: What conditions deter young people’s involvement in politics and civic life? What reforms could enhance youth engagement? Most of the contributors met face-to-face in Washington, DC in March 2005 to discuss Read More >

March 19th, 2006
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Working Paper 44: Sports, Youth and Character: A Critical Survey

by Robert K. Fullinwider February 2006 A Literature Review. Download here (PDF).

February 18th, 2006
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Working Paper 43: Measuring Volunteering: A Behavioral Approach

by Chris Toppe December 2005 “This article presents the results of studying two different forms of probing about volunteering. One is the standard perceptual approach used by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in which respondents are asked if they volunteer. The other is an experimental approach that uses behavioral prompts in which respondents Read More >

December 31st, 2005
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Working Paper 42: Young Voters and the Web of Politics 2004: The Youth Political Web Sphere Comes of Age

by Lance Bennett and Michael Xenos October 2005 “This project involves a network-analysis of nonpartisan youth electoral engagement websites, plus some analysis of sites created by campaigns and parties. With regard to the nonpartisan sites, three trends stood out as the most promising. First, the size of the youth engagement web sphere has grown dramatically.” Read More >

October 31st, 2005
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Working Paper 41: Gender and Civic Engagement: Secondary Analysis of Survey Data

by Krista Jenkins June 2005 “The NCES represents the best survey in recent years to examine rates and types of activism among both young women and men. It is rich with questions about a variety of ways people can influence politics and their communities. These range from activities designed to influence the formal political process, Read More >

September 3rd, 2005
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Working Paper 40: The Changing Lifeworld of Young People: Risk, Resume-Padding, and Civic Engagement

by Lewis A. Friedland and Shauna Morimoto September 2005 “Young people become engaged in civic life for many different reasons, and via multiple paths. Much research on the reasons for youth civic engagement has been cross-sectional, searching for antecedents to a range of “pro-civic” attitudes or behaviors. This research assumes a relatively stable lifeworld for Read More >

September 2nd, 2005
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Working Paper 39: Modern Universities, Absent Citizenship? Historical Perspectives

by William Talcott September 2005 “The historical study of university campuses can tell us much about the changing character and presuppositions of citizenship. Likewise, the study of citizenship can shed considerable light on the nature of universities.” Download here (PDF).

September 1st, 2005
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Working Paper 38: Giving Back to the Community: African American Inner City Teens and Civic Engagement

by Michelle M. Charles August 2005 “I conducted my study from April, 2003 to September, 2004. The entire project was intended to serve as a baseline case study for consideration by the national civic engagement activist community. My target population was Philadelphia African American teens ages 15 to 19 years old living in the most Read More >

August 31st, 2005
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Working Paper 37: The Political Participation of College Students, Working Students and Working Youth

by Sharon E. Jarvis, Lisa Montoya, and Emily Mulvoy August 2005 “Education has long been a powerful predictor in understanding political participation and yet the paths toward earning a college degree have changed considerably in recent years. As tuition costs increase and as schooling option burgeon, today’s youth are taking longer to finish their academic Read More >

August 4th, 2005
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Working Paper 36: The Political Participation of Working Youth and College Students

by Sharon E. Jarvis, Lisa Montoya, and Emily Mulvoy August 2005 “Unprecedented attention has gone to researching young voters, and yet one segment of this age group has been largely ignored: non-college (or “working”) youth. Because very little is known about them, the following paper advances three fundamental concerns: What types of political activities do Read More >

August 3rd, 2005
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Working Paper 35: The Youth Vote 2004, With a Historical Look at Youth Voting Patterns, 1972-2004

by Mark Hugo Lopez, Emily Kirby, Jared Sagoff, and Chris Herbst July 2005 “This report presents trends in voter participation among young people from multiple data sources and discusses the different methods that are used to generate these statistics. The report shows that there are several reasonable estimates of youth turnout for any particular year; Read More >

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July 31st, 2005
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Working Paper 34: Survey of Civic Learning Opportunities for Out-of-School Youth in the Adult Education and Literacy System

by Melanie Daniels and Marilyn Gillespie June 2005 “For many young people, adult education offers a “second chance” to obtain a high school credential, to develop literacy skills, or to succeed in a new country and a new language. With more support, it can also represent a second chance for youth to develop civic knowledge Read More >

June 19th, 2005
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Working Paper 33: The Impact of Participation in Service-Learning on High School Students’ Civic Engagement

by Shelley Billig, Sue Root, and Dan Jesse May 2005 “This study compared more than 1,000 high school students who participated in service-learning programs with those who did not participate in schools matched for similar demographics and student achievement profiles. The intention was to estimate the effects of service-learning compared to more traditional ways of Read More >

May 31st, 2005
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Working Paper 32: Social Representation in the U.S. Military Services

by Mark Adamshick May 2005 “Is there a correlation between race and an individual’s proclivity to enlist in the military? Clearly, the 25th Annual DoD report verifies the imbalance. Despite the data, is it just a matter of race? Is there a relationship between a person’s willingness to join the military and other measures of Read More >

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April 15th, 2005
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Working Paper 31: Youth Civic Engagement: Systems Change and Culture Change in Hampton, Virginia

by Carmen Sirianni April 2005 “Hampton provides the most ambitious case to date to institutionalize youth civic engagement across the city in ways that have much in common with these other models. None, of course, is without its problems, and much needs to be done in the coming years to make these systems more robust. Read More >

April 2nd, 2005
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Working Paper 30: Recognizing the Role of Community in Civic Education: Lessons from Hull House, Highlander Folk School, and the Neighborhood Learning Community

by Nicholas V. Longo April 2005 “Throughout our nation’s history, education has been linked to the promise of democracy. Yet over the past century this connection has too often been narrowed to the school as its sole vessel. This is harmful to education—it puts too much pressure on a single institution. It is also harmful Read More >

April 1st, 2005
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Working Paper 29: News for A New Generation: Can it Be Fun and Functional?

by Susan Sherr March 2005 “Considerable time and financial resources have been dedicated to increasing the numbers of young people who vote in the United States. Voting is certainly a vital component of political and civic engagement. However, there are other important political behaviors in which young people have been participating in decreasing numbers and Read More >

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March 31st, 2005
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Working Paper 28: Voice in the Classroom: How an Open Classroom Environment Facilitates Adolescents’ Civic Development

by David E. Campbell February 2005 “The paper proceeds as follows. It begins with a brief discussion of why the civic education received by America’s youth compels our 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 Read More >

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February 20th, 2005
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Working Paper 27: From the Horse’s Mouth: A Dialogue Between Politicians and College Students

by Christoper Beem January 2005 “In January 2004, college students from postsecondary institutions across Wisconsin were invited to join U.S. Representatives Tammy Baldwin and Mark Green at The Johnson Foundation’s Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, Wisconsin. The purpose of the discussion was to engage students’ attitudes regarding politics, and their understanding of connections between community Read More >

January 31st, 2005
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Working Paper 26: Civic Engagement and the Canvass

by Dana R. Fisher January 2005 “First, the study explores what sections of the population are drawn to participate in political and service-oriented work such as the summer canvass, focusing on who canvasses and why. This section also discusses how these young people became involved in the canvass and briefly describes the work. Second, we Read More >

January 15th, 2005
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Working Paper 25: Civic Views of Young Adult Minorities: Exploring the Influences of Kinship Communities and Youth Mentoring Communities on Prosocial Civic Behaviors

by Diann Cameron Kelly December 2004 “However, for many minority youth, being engaged with society is a more comprehensive, cultural issue than merely voting, joining mainstream member organizations or volunteering through traditional service groups (Flanagan, Bowes, Jonsson, Csapo, & Sheblanova, 1998; Schlozman, Verba & Brady, 1999; Torney-Purta, et al., 2003; Yates & Youniss, 1998; Watts, Read More >

December 31st, 2004
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Working Paper 24: Technology and Politics: Incentives for Youth Participation

by Shanto Iyengar and Simon Jackman December 2004 “The question of potential “treatments” for the problem of politically disengaged youth has attracted considerable attention. Much of the literature focuses on civic education and efforts to make the curricula more “hands-on.” The most recent nationwide evidence suggests that civics courses do impart information and foster development Read More >

November 1st, 2004
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Working Paper 23: A Comparative Analysis of Community Youth Development Strategies

by Michell Alberti Gambone, Hanh Cao Yu, Heather Lewis-Charp, Cynthia L. Sipe, and Johanna Lacoe October 2004 “Many youth-serving organizations are engaging young people in youth organizing and/or in interventions to support specific identity development in response to a need for meaningful opportunities for older and diverse youth to be civically involved in their communities. Read More >

October 31st, 2004
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Working Paper 22: Education for Deliberative Democracy: The Long-term Influence of Kids Voting USA

by Michael McDevitt and Spiro Kiousis September 2004 “This progress report provides evidence for persistent influence of Kids Voting USA, an interactive civic curriculum taught during election campaigns. The entire research project consists of multiple waves of student and parent interviews, covering a three-year period. Respondents were recruited from families in Arizona, Colorado, and Florida. Read More >

September 3rd, 2004
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Working Paper 21: The Effects of an Election Day Voter Mobilization Campaign Targeting Young Voters

by Donald P. Green September 2004 “A field experiment was conducted in order to gauge the effects of Election Day voter mobilization efforts directed at registered voters 18-25 years of age. Prior to New Jersey’s November 2003 state legislative elections, volunteers contacted 2,817 registered voters through a combination of phone calls and doorto- door canvassing. Read More >

September 2nd, 2004
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Working Paper 20: Young Voters and the Web of Politics: Pathways to Participation in the Youth Engagement and Electoral Campaign Web Spheres

by W. Lance Bennett and Mike Xenos August 2004 “This study examines the ways in which youth engagement sites (such as Rock the Vote) and election campaign sites (for house, senate and governor) appeal to young voters and offer them pathways for involvement in the electoral process. We examined archival web records of candidate and Read More >

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August 31st, 2004
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Working Paper 19: Getting Out the Vote among Asian American Young People and Adults in Los Angeles County: A Field Experiment

by Janelle S. Wong August 2004 “This study examines the effects of mobilization on political participation among Asian Americans. It focuses on whether telephone and mail canvassing increases voter turnout among Asian Americans who live in high-density Asian American areas in Los Angeles County. Prior to the November 5, 2002 elections, a randomized voter mobilization Read More >

August 3rd, 2004
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Working Paper 18: Politics: The Missing Link of Responsible Civic Education

by Kenneth S. Stroupe, Jr. and Larry J. Sabato August 2004 “This paper reports the result of a particular experiment conducted to study the effects of an ongoing national youth civic engagement program sponsored by the UVA Center for Politics called the National Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI).” Download here (PDF).

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August 2nd, 2004
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Working Paper 17: Trust in Government-Related Institutions and Civic Engagement among Adolescents: Analysis of Five Countries from the IEA Civic Education Study

by Judith Torney-Purta, Wendy Klandl Richardson, and Carolyn Henry Barber August 2004 “The purpose of this paper is to examine different facets of trust in the political system or civic realm and how they are correlated to the expected civic or political engagement of young people. The nature and effects of trust in social and Read More >

August 1st, 2004
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Working Paper 16: News for a New Generation. Report 1: Content Analysis, Interviews, and Focus Groups

by Susan Sherr July 2004 “The following report represents the findings from the qualitative portion of the News for a New Generation project. These data provide information about what kinds of news are available for young people, why producers create youth-oriented news the way they do, and what young people say they really want in Read More >

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July 31st, 2004
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Working Paper 15: How Postregistration Laws Affect the Turnout of Registrants

by Raymond E. Wolfinger, Benjamin Highton, and Megan Mullin June 2004 “Some American states try to make it easy for their registered citizens to go to the polls on Election Day. They mail a sample ballot to each registrant as well, perhaps, as information about the location of his or her polling place. Polls may Read More >

June 29th, 2004
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Working Paper 14: The Relationship between Secondary Education and Civic Development: Results from Two Field Experiments with Inner City Minorities

by John Anthony Philiips May 2004 “This study is additionally novel in the measures it uses to gauge civic engagement. Many scholars have characterized minority students as possessing less political knowledge and participating less in civic organizations than their white counterparts (Hodgkinson and Weitzman 1997, Niemi and Junn 1998, Lake et al. 2002). These findings Read More >

May 31st, 2004
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Working Paper 13: Throwing a Better Party: Local Mobilizing Institutions and the Youth Vote

by Daniel M. Shea April 2004 “Political parties seem alive and well in the 21st century—at least at the state and national levels. But are they also vibrant at the local level? Perhaps more important, are local parties doing anything to connect with young voters—anything to bring them into the electoral process in meaningful ways? Read More >

April 3rd, 2004
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Working Paper 12: Civic Education Through National Service: Lessons from American History

by Melissa Bass March 2004 “This paper explores the relationship between national service and civic education through a study of two civilian national service programs – the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) (1933-42) and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) (1965-93, when it was incorporated into AmeriCorps), to see what lessons we might learn and apply Read More >

March 31st, 2004
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Working Paper 11: National Service in America: Policy (Dis)Connections Over Time

by Melissa Bass October 2003 “In this paper I trace the development of three of America’s main civilian national service programs – the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) (1933-42), Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) (1965-93, when it was incorporated into AmeriCorps), and AmeriCorps (1993-present).” Download here (PDF).

October 31st, 2003
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Working Paper 10: Mobilizing the Latino Youth Vote

by Melissa R. Michelson January 2004 “This paper describes the results of a field experiment aimed at increasing turnout among young Latinos in Fresno, California conducted in the fall of 2002. Canvassers went door-to-door during the final two weekends before Election Day to urge registered young people to go to the polls. Young people of Read More >

August 31st, 2003
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Working Paper 09: The Effects of Catholic Schooling on Civic Participation

by Thomas S. Dee July 2003 “In this study, I present new empirical evidence on these issues by evaluating the relative effects of Catholic schooling on civic participation as an adult. This evidence is based on two nationally representative longitudinal surveys conducted by the U.S. Department of Education: High School and Beyond (HS&B) and the Read More >

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July 31st, 2003
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Working Paper 08: Are There Civic Returns to Education?

by Thomas S. Dee July 2003 “This study attempts to construct less ambiguous empirical evidence on this policy-relevant issue by identifying the causal effects of additional schooling on civic behaviors and knowledge.” Download here (PDF).

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May 15th, 2003
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Working Paper 07: The Civic Bonding of School and Family: How Kids Voting Students Enliven the Domestic Sphere

by Michael McDevitt July 2003 “The influence of Kids Voting USA, an interactive civics curriculum taught during election campaigns, is assessed in the context of three field experiments that took place during the fall of 2002. The research sites are Maricopa County, Arizona; El Paso County, Colorado; and Broward/Palm Beach counties, Florida. We present findings Read More >

May 5th, 2003
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Working Paper 06: The Role of Civic Skills in Fostering Civic Engagement

by Mary Kirlin June 2003 “As we will see, the idea of a set of skills, usually called civic skills, which are required to effectively participate in civic and political life, is integral to many concepts of political participation. This literature search is designed to investigate what is known about civic skills empirically and theoretically Read More >

April 15th, 2003
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Working Paper 05: Promoting Positive Citizenship: Priming Youth for Action

In working paper #5, authors hypothesize that influences in early adolescence lead to civic engagement in late adolescence. Civic engagement in late adolescence then leads to civic engagement in young adulthood.

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April 1st, 2003
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Working Paper 04: Identity Development and Feelings of Fulfillment: Mediators of Future Civic Engagement

by Jonathan F. Zaff March 2003 “We examine the relation between civic engagement in adolescence and in adulthood, and we also examine whether being engaged and fulfilled by the civic activity in adolescence and forming a positive citizenship identity partially mediates this relation.” Download here (PDF).

March 31st, 2003
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Working Paper 03: Socializing Youth for Citizenship

by Jonathan F. Zaff March 2003 “In the present study, we hypothesize that programs and policies to promote positive citizenship may need to begin by first focusing on informal interactions in youths’ lives, such as with parents and peers, and on the culture in which youth are raised.” Download here (PDF).

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March 31st, 2003
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March 30th, 2003
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Working Paper 01: Easier Voting Methods Boost Youth Turnout

By Mary Fitzgerald February 2003 “Overall, this analysis shows that some alternative voting methods have the potential to alter the political landscape by changing the way that young people participate in elections, the way that political parties mobilize voters, as well as who participates in elections.” Download here (PDF).

March 29th, 2003
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