An Assessment Playbook for Civics
Civics has been lamentably lost in the shuffle in this now-decades-long, high-stakes testing era. However, researchers Laura S. Hamilton and W. Christopher Grant contend that states, districts, and schools can creatively assess civic learning to ensure universal access, high quality, and students’ civic preparedness in their March 2026 report, Testing Democracy: How Large-Scale Assessment Systems Can Support Civic Learning (Center for Assessment).
The researchers cite CivxNow state policy scan data showing 29 states with some form of civic assessments, yet most employ some version of the U.S. Naturalization Test, an instrument not designed to assess standards proficiency nor course completion. By contrast, Florida’s high-stakes end-of-course assessments in middle and high school civics and American government, respectively, are the exception.
Civic seals, profiled in this month’s feature article are an incentive-based approach by which a growing body of states are assessing students’ civic preparedness. Seals hold significant promise as states and districts seek to measure desired student competencies like deliberation across differences and community engagement.
States, districts, and schools also draw upon school climate surveys to assess students’ civic learning opportunities, along with student participation in advanced courses. Taken together, there is no unified approach by which civics is assessed nationally, although recent news of state-level data from the next NAEP Civics Assessment in 2028 is a major step, yet insufficient by itself.
The researchers recommend that:
- Education leaders engage key stakeholders in conversation about local civic learning priorities;
- A theory of action flows from these conversations, connecting civic learning opportunities with intended student outcomes;
- Civics is integrated into large-scale reading and English/Language Arts (ELA) assessments; and
- This holistic approach to assessment informs ongoing civics-focused school improvement processes.
Thanks to the contributions of Hamilton and Grant, the civic learning field has a new playbook to strengthen and broaden civic assessment. In turn, this will help to ensure universal access to high-quality civic learning and students’ preparation for informed, effective, and lifelong engagement in our constitutional democracy.