The Dangerous Crisis in Civics Education in America
Cassidy Dezik, 2, stands at the voting booth while her mother, Katie Dezik, casts her vote on Election Day in the Sanford Street School in Glens Falls, N.Y., Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014. (AP Photo/The Post-Star, Steve Jacobs)
RCEd Commentary
If America’s national goal is to ensure that students are “college- and career-ready,” “core” subjects are certainly key to preparing them for an ever-advancing economy. But our public school system should have another equally important goal: ensuring that students are capable and knowledgeable citizens.
Earlier this month, when the leaders of the Senate HELP committee unveiled their proposal to reauthorize No Child Left Behind, they expanded the list of “core academic subjects” to include new topics like technology, engineering, and computer science. And unsurprisingly, you will find civics listed as a core subject under both NLCB and the recent Senate reauthorization bill.
The importance of civics education, however, has diminished over time as it gets pushed aside for other topics. According to the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, three courses in civics and government were common in American high schools until the 1960s, and these classes emphasized current issues and the role of citizens in the government and community. What we have now in many schools is simply a general course on “American government” that doesn’t dig much deeper than Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill.”
As a result, today’s students know little about their government. Last year, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, tested a national sample of eighth grade students in civics. Sadly, only 23 percent of those students scored at or above the proficient level.
The results also differed along socioeconomic and racial lines. Of eighth graders whose parents graduated from college, over a third scored at or above the proficient level. However, for those with parents that graduated from high school (but did not attend college), that number was only 10 percent. Similarly, 32 percent of white eighth graders scored at or above the proficient level, while that rate was only 9 percent and 12 percent for their black and Latino peers, respectively.
The same trends were seen with older students in 2010, when NAEP last tested 12th graders. Only 13 percent of 12th grade students whose parents graduated from high school scored at or above the proficient level, compared to a third of students with parents that finished college. And while 30 percent of white 12th graders performed at that level, only 8 percent of black students and 13 percent of Latino students did so. With such daunting racial gaps, is it any wonder that minorities average significantly lower voter turnout rates?
Voter turnout is also much lower for young voters – again highlighting the need for improved civics education. Since 2000, the average voter turnout rate in presidential elections is 59 percent, but for voters ages 18 to 24 that rate is only 43 percent. Meanwhile, voters 65 and older have turned out at 71 percent during the same span. But turnout among young voters has not always been so poor. In 1964 and 1968, for example, the turnout for voters ages 18 to 24 (who had the benefit of more civics education) was over 50 percent. As of 2010, that age group made up over 13 percent of the voting population, yet it has consistently failed to have an appropriate political voice since the decline of civics education.
In an effort to address this crisis in civic knowledge, some states are taking action. The governors of Arizona and North Dakota have recently signed bills that will require high school students to pass a citizenship test to graduate. A similar bill was passed by the Idaho legislature last month, and other states are planning to follow suit.
This approach is misguided. First, simply tacking on an additional testing requirement without addressing the current curriculum just creates an additional burden for teachers. Second, the United States’ citizenship test is not a high-quality assessment – frankly, it’s terrible. It consists of 100 basic questions with pre-approved answers that ask test-takers to “name one branch of the government,” or know how many amendments have been made to the Constitution. These memorization-style questions aren’t particularly illuminating, and many of the official answers aren’t even fully correct.
If states really want to ensure that young adults coming out of high school are competent citizens, they need to implement a robust civics curriculum. Students should be instilled with a strong understanding of their federal, state, and local governments, as well as current political issues. As our nation is increasingly controlled by polarization, identity politics, and unlimited political spending, an educated citizenry is needed now more than ever. John Adams once said that “liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.” Considering the current state of civics education in the United States, that general knowledge is dangerously lacking.
