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Working Papers - K-12 Civic Education
In-depth analysis on a particular issue in the field of civic engagement can be found in CIRCLE’s working papers.
RSSWorking Papers - K-12 Civic Education
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 >
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 >
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.
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 >
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 >
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 >
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.
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)
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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).
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 >
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 >
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).
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 >