Presented to a Special Meeting of the

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Strengthening Democracy in the Americas through
Civic Education What the United States is
Learning from Empirical Research
Presented to a Special Meeting of the OAS
Permanent Council April 13, 2004 Lenore
Yaffee Garcia Director, International Affairs
Staff U.S. Department of Education
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Overview

• Quality education and civic learning are
  fundamental to democracy
• Findings from research
• Knowledge and skills
• Political engagement
• Community engagement
• Trust
• Schools can make a difference effective
  approaches

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Ways that Education Contributes to Democracy
Quality Education for All

• Education is key to strengthening democratic
  institutions, promoting the development of human
  potential, and alleviating poverty and fostering
  greater understanding among our peoples. To
  achieve these ends, it is essential that a
  quality education be available to all, including
  girls and women, rural inhabitants, and
  minorities. (Art. 16)
• Special attention shall be given to the
  development of programs and activities for the
  education of children and youth as a means of
  ensuring the continuance of democratic values,
  including liberty and social justice. (Art. 27)

Education in Civic Knowledge, Skills, and Values
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Quality of Education

• Quality measured by resultsstudent learning
• In the United States
• mediocre student achievement.
• persistent gap between advantaged and
  disadvantaged students.
• In Latin America
• only one in three finish secondary school.
• one-third repeat a grade or drop out before
  completing 6th grade.
• access has improved the real problem is poor
  quality.

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Math and Science Achievement of Eighth Graders
Math Singapore 604 Korea 587 Chinese Taipei 585
Hong Kong 582 Japan 579 U.S. 502 Chile
392 Philippines 345 Morocco 337 South Africa 275
Science Chinese Taipei 569 Singapore 568 Hungary
552 Japan 550 Korea 549 U.S. 502 Chile
420 Philippines 345 Morocco 323 South Africa
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Measuring Civic Education

• Knowledge
• Skills and Behaviors
• Attitudes and Values

National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP)
The Nations Report Card examines civics
achievement IEA Civic Education Study examines
each of these dimensions
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The IEA Civic Education Study

• The most rigorous research on knowledge,
  attitudes, and expected behavior of young people
  ever conducted.
• Wealth of data
• Scores on test of knowledge, skills
• Survey of student attitudes, beliefs
• Information on student background
• Teacher responses on classroom practices
• OAS 2004 study added data on curriculum standards
  and looked in-depth at four countries.

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Civic Knowledge and Skills in US

• About 75 of US fourth, eighth, and 12th graders
  lack proficiency in civic knowledge (NAEP 1999).
• About one-third of high school seniors lack
  basic understanding of how government works (NAEP
  1999).
• Students in high-poverty schools scored lower
  than those in low-poverty schools (NAEP 1999).
• Yet, overall, ninth grade students in the United
  States performed well when compared with students
  in the other 27 participating countries on civic
  knowledge (IEA, 1999). However, wider gaps in
  civic knowledge and skills among U.S. students.
• U.S. students did especially well on civic
  skills, like understanding a brief political
  article or cartoon.

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Percentage of students within each civics
achievement level range for the nation 1998 NAEP
SOURCE National Center for Education Statistics,
National Assessment of Educational Progress
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Results from IEA Civics Study
Source IEA Civic Education Study 1999
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(No Transcript)
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Schools can make a difference

• Students who studied social studies almost every
  day had higher scores.
• Schools that model democratic processes in
  classrooms, by creating an open climate for
  discussion of issues, are most effective in
  promoting civic knowledge, engagement.
• Students who participated in meetings or
  activities sponsored by any type of organization,
  even if they participated only a few times a
  month, had higher civic knowledge than students
  who did not participate at all.
• Students who engaged in non-school activities
  directly related to academics did better than
  their peers who did not.
• (Source NCES 2001)

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Political Engagement of U.S.Youth
Percentage of Persons Voting in Presidential
Elections 1972-2000 (Source US Census Bureau)
The percentage of young Americans that vote in
presidential elections has been falling since
1972. On one survey, almost half of US youth
said voting is not important.
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Students Reports on Expected Activities as an
Adult
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Community Engagement

• Young people more involved in community service,
  volunteering than in the past.
• In 2000, 81 of college freshmen said they had
  volunteered (up from 2/3 in 1989).
• 46 of US high schools offer service learning.
• US students more likely to say they have
  volunteered than those in any other country.

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Trust

• US students trust government more than those in
  Chile, but trust the media less than those in
  Colombia or Chile.
• Minority students in U.S. are less trusting of
  government, less optimistic about their ability
  to make a difference (CIRCLE-CEG Youth Survey
  2002).

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How are US students learning?

• Students more likely to report passive activities
  such as reading textbooks than active learning
  experiences.
• 85 of students reported being encouraged to make
  up their own minds.
• Two-thirds reported being encouraged to discuss
  political or social issues that people differ on.
• Television was the primary source that 9th grade
  students relied on to obtain information about
  politics.
• (NCES 2001)

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Effective Approaches

• Provide instruction about government by doing
  more than teaching rote facts
• Roadblock Crowded curriculum, non-skilled
  teacher
• Incorporate discussion of relevant current
  issues, including controversial topics
• Roadblock Teachers apprehensive, fear sanctions
• (Source Carnegie-CIRCLE 2003)

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Effective Approaches, contd.

• Link community service to formal instruction
• Promote extracurricular activities that involve
  young people in schools or communities
• Encourage students to participate in school
  governance
• Simulate democratic processes (voting, trials,
  mock legislative deliberations, diplomacy)
• (Source Carnegie-CIRCLE 2003)

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School culture linked to democracy

• Show respect and tolerance for ideas
• Encourage independent thinking
• Give real problems to solve
• Encourage teamwork
• Arm students with academic skills

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Conclusions

• Civic education alone is not enough
  (institutional framework, social and economic
  policies, education)
• Good civic education content, context,
  opportunities for effective engagement and
  expression
• Launch national dialogue, cross-national dialogue
• High-quality research supports good policy
• Engage young people through issues they care
  about and media they favor.

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Media encouraging youth participation

• In January 2004, MTV Music Television announced
  the official launch of the "Choose or Lose 2004"
  campaign to help mobilize more than 20 million
  young adults aged 18 to 30 to vote in the 2004
  election. The campaign slogan is "20 Million
  Loud."

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Main Sources
Strengthening Democracy in the Americas through
Civic Education. Organization of American
States, Washington, D.C., 2004. An empirical
analysis of IEA Civic assessment for four
countries, highlighting the views of students and
teachers. The Civic Mission of Schools. Carnegie
Corporation of New York and the Center for
Information and Research on Civic Learning and
Engagement (CIRCLE), 2003. The report is based
on a series of meetings involving some of the
nations mot distinguished scholars and
practitioners in this area.   Citizenship and
Education in 28 Countries. Judith Torney-Purta
et. al., International Association for the
Evaluation of Educational Achievment (IEA), 2001.
Comparative study of the civic knowledge of 14
year-olds from 28 countries.   What Democracy
Means to Ninth-Graders U.S. Results from the
International IEA Civic Education Study National
Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 2001.
This report focuses on the knowledge, beliefs,
and attitudes of U.S. students as well as the
school and classroom context of civic
education.   NAEP 1998 Civics Report Card for
the Nation. National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES), 1999. Reports on the civic
knowledge of U.S. fourth, eighth and twelfth
graders.