Civic Education Works
Research confirms that students who receive a comprehensive and high-quality civic education are more likely to be informed and actively engaged citizens and voters.
Independent research confirms our resources produce clear and tangible benefits to students—even after controlling for gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Even more promising: more than half the students that play our games in school play them again at home on their own time.
iCivics materials improve students’ civic knowledge, civic attitudes, and core literacy skills. Students are challenged to learn and engage with the material, and have fun in the process. New evidence is pointing to the power of matching iCivics games with authentic civic engagement experiences.
Key Findings
In the 51st annual Phi Delta Kappa poll of public attitudes on education (2019):
- 97% of Americans said civics should be taught;
- 81% of teachers say students should be required to take a civics class
- Parents (78%), all adults (79%), and teachers (85%) say schools should teach values as well as factual information
- 87–97% of all adults say public school classes on values should cover honesty, civility, respect for authority, and acceptance of people of different religions
- 81% say patriotism should be included
These findings mirror those of The Democracy Project report (2018) that found the most popular (89% support) initiative tested as a way to bolster democracy was to ensure that schools make civic education a bigger part of curriculum. This high level of support remained true across all age, gender, racial, political, socioeconomic, and geographic demographics.
A recent report found that experiential learning and a focus on core civic knowledge are critical pillars of a comprehensive civic education. Experiential Civic Learning for American Democracy, produced by the Task Force on the Value of Experiential Civic Learning—composed of several CivxNow partners—defines experiential civic learning and identifies its goals, teaching practices, and barriers to participation and implementation:
- The Task Force’s definition of experiential civic learning emphasizes the need to “actively practice democracy through real or simulated civic action.”
- The goals of experiential civic learning align with the standard set for the field: building civic knowledge; developing civic skills; and fostering civic dispositions and virtues.
- Barriers include policies that marginalize and deprioritize civics and a culture of conscious disengagement from our body politic. Acknowledging that traditional standardized tests fail to measure the skills and dispositions cultivated by experiential civic learning, the report also sets forth parameters for program evaluation.
The report is a companion to the 2021 Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy, and highlights best practices that can unite practitioners across diverse ideological contexts, open access to experiential learning to more students, and contribute to depolarizing the nation.
Interview conducted by the Philanthropy Roundtable in conjunction with the CivXNow Policy Summit (2021)
Interview conducted in conjunction with the CivXNow Policy Summit (2021)
What states can learn from the passage of an act to promote and enhance civic engagement (2020)
Interview with Michael A. Rebell regarding civic readiness in New York (2020)
Multiple developments in Florida promise to continue the state’s leadership in providing K-12 civic learning (2020)
Video from Democracy at a Crossroads Summit (2019)
CivxNow documentary showing Chicago’s George Washington High School’s transformation driven by the civic investment of teachers, students, parents, and community members (2019)
Report by the California Task Force on K-12 Civic Learning (2014)
