Research Roundup: Student NAEP Civics Scores Vary by State
The AI Civic Lens
In the News
Coalition Member Spotlight — NCTE
New Members
Partner Resources for the 2024 Election
Elections, presidential cycles particularly, are pivotal periods for the civics community. The June 27 debate between incumbent President Joe Biden (D) and former President Donald Trump (R) marks a significant milestone in the campaign for President of the United States.The outcomes of not just the presidential contest but also control of Congress, state legislatures, and several governors’ mansions have major implications for our work to strengthen federal and state K–12 civic education policies.
As we head toward Election Day, we’ve compiled, categorized, and detailed the following resources from our CivXNow Coalition partners:
Personalized Voter Engagement: ActiVoteis an interactive platform designed to engage citizens in the democratic process by providing tools for voter education and participation. It helps users personalize voting information based on their preferences and location, track election dates, and understand the impact of their votes.
Historical Polling Data:Roper Center's Campaign Weathervane compiles and analyzes historical polling data from past U.S. presidential elections. This website provides insights into public opinion trends and the evolution of campaign strategies, serving as a valuable resource for researchers and political enthusiasts.
Comprehensive Voter Information:VOTE411, created by the League of Women Voters Education Fund, is a comprehensive voter information platform. It offers personalized voting details, including what's on your ballot, voter registration information, polling locations, and election deadlines. The website also features resources for first-time voters and checklists to ensure a smooth voting experience.
Simplifying the Voting Process: Vote.orgis an online platform dedicated to simplifying the voting process and increasing voter turnout. It offers a range of tools including voter registration, checking registration status, requesting absentee ballots, and finding polling places. The site also provides election reminders and voter ID information, aiming to make the voting process accessible and straightforward for all eligible voters.
Detailed Candidate Information: Vote Smart provides detailed information on candidates, including biographies, voting records, issue positions, ratings, speeches, and funding. The website also has a tutorial to refresh your knowledge of American politics by providing useful information about Congress, political parties, campaign finance, the Constitution, elections, and state government.
Happy debate watching, and please utilize and share the highlighted resources as November 5 quickly approaches!
Research Roundup: Student NAEP Civics Scores Vary by State
Student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in Civics (NAEP-C) varies significantly by state according to researcher Steven Michael Carlo in a report published by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University. Given that most states don’t assess students on civics through standardized tests and NAEP-C uses only a national sample, Carlo’s findings are valuable to a field searching for relationships between civic education policies, their presumptive implementation, and student outcomes.
Carlo analyzed NAEP-C data from the 2014 and 2018 assessments of 8th graders and used state-identifying data, student demographics, and political variables like party control of state legislatures and governors’ offices to predict student achievement ranges (see CivXNow Advisory Council member Dr. Peter Levine’s visual representation of the results):
A handful of states, including Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, and West Virginia, showed consistently higher scores.
Louisiana, New Mexico, Mississippi, and Vermont scored lower than average in both 2014 and 2018.
As in previous NAEP-C results, demographic differences in student performance surfaced in Carlo’s findings. These disparities are at least partly attributable to inequitable civic learning opportunities:
Mean scores for African American students were eclipsed by White students in 32 states (with no statistically significant differences in 19 states).
Mean scores for Hispanic students were lower in all 50 states plus DC.
While Carlo didn’t explore the relationship between state scores and related civics policies, it’s a necessary next step. Moreover, we must better understand the drivers of civic opportunity gaps and urgently address them through both policy and practice. Next, the NAEP-C framework itself needs an overhaul for a new generation of students as it was last updated in 1998. Finally, we look forward to NAEP-C’s promised state-level data beginning with the 2030 assessment cycle.
The AI Civic Lens
This past March, in partnership with the Listen First Coalition, we released the report Uncharted Waters to examine the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in preparing young people to seize the benefits and counter the harms of AI as it relates to our democracy and social cohesion. Now, our CivXNow partners are rising to the occasion. Each quarter, we will feature the work of our members in tackling one of the seven key lenses highlighted in our report.
This month we feature the work of CivXNow partners engaging youth with the ethical implications of AI. Among the efforts are a lesson plan from ADL Education, an ethical design certification by Digital Promise, and the work of Cortico + MIT Center for Constructive Communication around ethics in the design and testing of AI tools. Check out these efforts, and more, here. Have questions or want to engage further in the conversation? Contact Ace Parsi at ace.parsi@icivics.org.
Education Next discusses why we need more data on civic education so that the subject gets the attention it deserves.
Governing magazine takes a look at a new survey that shows that private schools are outpacing public schools when it comes to civics.
Coalition Member Spotlight — NCTE
While social studies remains a key anchor for schools' support of our constitutional democracy, that fundamental mission transcends the discipline. That is one of many reasons we are so proud to have the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) as a coalition member.
Whether it is getting a modern lens into history through novels like The Grapes of Wrath, embedding information literacy into instruction, or using current events to teach writing, English language arts teachers are often at the forefront of the civic learning movement. NCTE engages in various CivXNow collective activities, from our artificial intelligence project to Civic Learning Week to Teachers Advancing Civic Learning (TACL). Check out NCTE’s civic learning offerings, the Digital Democratic Dialogue (3D) Project, and find new ways to engage with the association by contacting Regis Shields at rshields@ncte.org.
New Members
CivXNow continues to grow, now officially standing at over 340 member organizations! The latest addition is:
We remain deeply appreciative of member efforts and all that we accomplish together. Our goal is to aggregate and activate large networks of support to expand and re-imagine civic education as a force for civic strength. To our members, thank you for your partnership.
If your organization is interested in joining CivXNow or in learning more, please contact us atCivXNow@icivics.org.
Our Mission
CivXNow is a coalition of partners from diverse viewpoints working to create a culture shift that elevates civic education and engagement as a national priority in order to protect and strengthen America’s constitutional democracy. This includes building a shared commitment to ensure that all young people are prepared to assume their rights and responsibilities to participate in civic life and address the issues facing students, their families, and communities in our increasingly dynamic, polarized, and digital society.
To achieve this goal, CivXNow advocates for bipartisan federal and state legislation that supports implementation of state and local policies that reimagine and deliver relevant, inclusive, and engaging K–12 civic learning, both in- and out-of-school.
A Team Effort
The CivXNow team produces this newsletter each month.
We are grateful for the energy, time, and guidance of the CivXNow Advisory Council and to many, many others who support individual projects.
