civic education

What does civics education look like in America?

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July 23, 2018

How well are schools preparing students to be effective citizens, voters, and members of their communities? This question seems more relevant than ever in the current era of contentious and polarized politics. Students recently earned national attention by organizing the March for Our Lives, a student-led demonstration against gun violence with marches occurring worldwide. This surge of political activism by young people demonstrates a high capacity for political engagement among students. Yet at the same time, real concerns persist about the extent to which schools are equipping all students with the skills they need to be effective citizens, and whether some students will leave school more prepared than others.

In this context, the 2018 Brown Center Report on American Education focuses on the state of civics education in the U.S. Chapter 2 examines how states have incorporated certain practices into their requirements for civics education and uses survey data to assess whether student experiences reflect these practices. The data highlight how critical parts of a civics education, namely participatory elements and community engagement, are often missing from state requirements, whereas discussion and knowledge-building components appear more common.

What constitutes a high-quality civics education?

As with almost any attempt to identify a set of “best” practices in education, we find different perspectives from different experts, with a research base too thin to offer unambiguous guidance. In this context, we turn to what appears to be as close as we could reasonably expect to a consensus view from experts—the Six Proven Practices for Effective Civic Learning framework. Motivating this framework is a notion that teaching students facts about U.S. government is a goal, but not the exclusive goal, of civics education. The aim of civics education is broader and includes providing students with an understanding of how democratic processes work, as well as how to engage in these processes. A high-quality civics education thus includes opportunities for students to engage in activities within the classroom that model what democratic processes look like, as well as opportunities to participate in the civic life of their communities and learn from this participation as a formal part of their coursework.

Reflecting this concept of what constitutes an effective civics education, the Proven Practices framework recommends that civics instruction include a set of practices that, together, provide students with the civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions that will equip them to participate in American democracy. The PPs include six original practices (numbered 1-6 below) along with four recently proposed additions (numbered 7-10 below):

Classroom instruction in civics, government, history, law, economics, and geography
Discussion of current events
Service learning
Extracurricular activities
Student participation in school governance
Simulations of democratic processes and procedures
News media literacy
Action civics
Social-emotional learning (SEL)
School climate reform

Taking an inventory of state standards with respect to civics education

To what extent are states incorporating these practices into their civics standards and curricula? Because state policies dictate the knowledge and skills schools are required to teach their students, we created a 50-state inventory that examines whether states have adopted a subset of the PPs in their high school course graduation requirements, state standards, and curricula. We do not expect each of the 10 PPs to show up in these documents. For example, it is unlikely that states discuss extracurricular activities in their standards. Therefore, we focus on the practices most likely to be mentioned in graduation requirements, standards, and curricula: classroom instruction (PP 1), discussion of current events (PP 2), service learning (PP 3), simulations of democratic processes and procedures (PP 6), and news media literacy (PP 7).

Some states might have adopted rigorous civics standards in ways that escaped our view because their language does not align with the language of the PPs. This could be true, for example, of states that have used the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards in designing their standards or curricula. Similar to the PPs, the C3 framework emphasizes both knowledge acquisition and active participation in civic life. Therefore, in our state inventory we also note whether or not a state has adopted the C3 framework.

Of the PPs we examined, we found that the most common practices are classroom instruction, knowledge building, and discussion-based activities. These are far more common than participatory elements of learning or community engagement. For example, every state mentions discussion of current events in its standards or curriculum frameworks, and 42 states and Washington, D.C., require at least one course related to civics education. In contrast, just over half of states (26, plus Washington, D.C.) mention simulations of democratic processes or procedures, while only 11 states include service learning (a less strict definition of service learning brings this total to 20). The lack of participatory elements of learning in state accountability frameworks highlights a void in civics education, as experts indicate that a high-quality civics education is incomplete without teaching students what civic participation looks like in practice, and how citizens can engage in their communities.

The student experience

In addition to this analysis of state policy, we explore an important aspect of civics education: the student experience. Using data from the nationally representative 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) student survey on civics education, we look at the types of activities students report engaging in through their civics coursework. Similar to the policy inventory, students’ self-reported experiences reflect an emphasis on in-class, discussion-based civics education. Figure 1 illustrates that discussion of current events occurs regularly, whereas opportunities for community engagement and participation in simulations of democratic procedures occur considerably less frequently.

12th-grade students reported participation in civics-oriented activities

Looking forward: Improving civics education for U.S. students

Our analysis of state policy and self-reported student experiences indicates that most states do include important aspects of a quality civics education in their standards and curricula. However, there is room to grow in incorporating more participatory components of civics education into students’ experiences. Fortunately, a growing body of research on civics education and an increasing number of resources, such as the C3 framework, are available to help states and educators provide their students with a well-rounded civics experience.

For more in-depth analysis of civics education, and what the education community can do to ensure that today’s students are prepared to be tomorrow’s citizens, see the 2018 Brown Center Report on American Education .

Francesca Royal contributed to this post.

Lessons in Civics

The Hechinger Report and Retro Report partnered to produce work about how students are participating in civic life and how they are being taught the significance of that activity.

COLUMN: Students want more civics education, but far too few schools teach it

Episode 1, citizen nation.

EPISODE 2, CITIZEN NATION

RETRO REPORT

Explore Retro Report’s collection of Citizen Nation videos

OPINION: We can and must start early and teach students to become active citizens

OPINION: Rethinking civics education starts with inviting teens to co-create

Teacher voice: the superbowl of civics.

What young Democrats have to say about higher education

What young Republicans have to say about higher education

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Teaching social studies in a polarized world

Beyond the Rankings: The College Welcome Guide

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Teacher voice: 27 years of perspective on civics.

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Teaching ‘action civics’ engages kids — and ignites controversy

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Teacher voice: the importance of civics education.

OPINION: Here’s an old-fashioned, win-win idea to get students engaged before this fall’s election

OPINION: Schools can and should address our country’s mounting moral quandaries

STUDENT VOICE: School boards are a critical piece of democracy. That’s why students must be on them

OPINION: More states should require teaching kids how to read the news and spot what’s true and what’s not

OPINION: Why university leaders must resist dangerous calls to silence student speech

TEACHER VOICE: White teachers need more skills and specific training to handle tough questions about race

Teacher voice: civics helps deeper thinking.

OPINION: We did not need the Nation’s ‘Report Card’ to tell us we must invest in civic education

OPINION: Our education system is not setting up students for success

TEACHER VOICE: The United States is not a democracy. Stop telling students that it is

OPINION: A better democracy starts in our schools

OPINION: Our schools must figure out a way to teach this presidential election

STUDENT VOICE: Will we be heard if the census count isn’t complete?

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Retro Report

Students want more civics education, but far too few schools teach it

Students from all over the country prepare for the annual We the People, national competition in Washington, D.C.

Three weeks before a ferociously contested U.S. election, the views and voices of students should be heard louder than ever – even those of young people who aren’t yet eligible to vote. Trouble is, many won’t have learned enough about the issues to develop informed and thoughtful opinions.

That’s partly because civics education in schools has significantly declined, a conundrum we’ve followed for years at The Hechinger Report. Many teachers say they are afraid to teach these topics in these sharply divided times while principals, too , fear discussing civics is simply too divisive.

Yet consider some of these startling, oft-repeated statistics:

Only 49 percent of students who took the most recent NAEP exam said they have a class that is mainly focused on civics or the U.S. government;
Only 29 percent said they had a teacher whose primary responsibility is teaching civics;
And more than 70 percent of Americans failed a basic civic literacy quiz; 1 in 3 couldn’t name or explain what our three branches of government do, a 2024 study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found. Most Americans could name only a single right guaranteed by the First Amendment in a recent Annenberg survey, and our civic knowledge has not improved since 1998.

Still, our schools have never made teaching civics a priority, Louise Dubé, executive director of iCivics, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing civic learning founded by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, told me, echoing what I hear from countless advocates and educators.

Amanda Perschall, a Retro Report Civics Teacher Fellow, explains the challenges of teaching civics in 2024.

“Teaching the election should be the Super Bowl of this re-engagement, as all eyes are on our single most important democratic process,” Dube said. “The K-12 education system is a reflection of what our society judges as important, and citizenship is low on the list.”

What’s happened in the age of social media is even more concerning: Young people share a distrust of the media no matter what their partisan bias: Half of 18- to 29-year-olds in the U.S. say they have some or a lot of trust in the information they get from social media sites, the Pew Research Center found, while 4 out of 10 young adults get their news from TikTok.

Stephanie Hasty, a Retro Report Civics Teacher Fellow, explains why civics education is important in helping her students discover who they are.

Clearly, there is enormous work to be done, and schools must do their part. The Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for Democracy will hold a virtual conversation about potential solutions this week.

Many students, meanwhile, want to be more informed and engaged in the issues, one reason why The Hechinger Report is teaming up with Retro Report to highlight the lack of civics education in the U.S., along with solutions, resources and ideas for solving it.

Students make the most convincing argument of all in Retro Report’s new four-part series “Citizen Nation,” which premiered on PBS on Oct. 8. The series follows teenagers from across the country competing in We the People , the nation’s premier civics competition. The competition stacks teams of students from 48 states against one another, and they must argue their points before a panel of judges acting as members of Congress.

“Citizen Nation” introduces us to public school students from Las Vegas to suburban Virginia and rural Wyoming. Theirs are the voices that will shape our future — and they are filled with determination. Watching these students learn about our constitution, answer tough questions and prepare to compete in a national contest is a reminder of what is at stake in our country — and gives me hope for the next generation.