Civic Education

 

What is Civic Education and Why is it Important
Research Civic Education
Civic Education Standards
Possible Reforms
Research Civic Education

Minnesota Civic Health Index

Augusburg's Center for Democracy and Citizenship has recently released its Minnesota Civic Health Index.  Among the findings:

"Productive citizenship builds civic confidence, ownership in civic life and public goods, motivation, and civic muscle -- a sense of empowerment. Minnesotans express such citizenship in many ways. None has been more important than the strong commitment of the state’s citizens to the ongoing public work of creating a world-class system of education, both formal and informal."

• Minnesota is 1st in voter turnout, with 77.8% of those eligible voting, 14.2% higher than the national average.
• 3rd in donations to charitable organizations.
• 4th in statewide volunteering, with 60.5% volunteering in the last year.
• 6th in working with others to fix something in the neighborhood.

Earlier generations of Minnesotans pioneered in what were then revolutionary ideas of productive citizenship such as free public libraries, rural self-education efforts, and public parks open to all. These greatly nourished the civic traditions and culture of the state. We need similar boldness and adventurousness now, to sustain and create a forward looking civic culture adequate to the great challenges of the 21st century.

What is Civic Education and Why is it Important

Civic education teaches not just the basics of our government institutions and our democracy. It also teaches the knowledge and skills necessary for students to become active and informed citizens in our society. As the framers of the constitution stated, only an informed citizenry would be able to maintain the freedoms and liberties spelled out in that document.

Unfortunately, many Americans struggle with some basic facts about their government. According to a report from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Our Fading Heritage, 71% of Americans fail their basic civic literacy test.

• Less than half of those surveyed can name all three branches of government.
• Only 21% could correctly identify the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people” as coming from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
• Only 27% knew that the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits the government from establishing an official religion.

Our ignorance, however, cannot be translated as not understanding the importance of civics in our democracy. The National Constitution Center found that 84% of Americans believe that citizens must be informed and active for our government to function properly. (reported by Eric Lane in Democracy Journal, America 101.)

Research Civic Education

Strengthening Democracy, Increasing Opportunities - Impact of Minnesota nonprofits 
Intercollegiate Studies Institute "Our Fading Heritage"
"America 101" by Eric Lane
National Standards for Civics and Governments
Minnesota's K-12 Graduation Requirements

Civic Education Standards

A common criticism of education has been that it has moved from training students to be good citizens and instead training good workers. Civic education used to be a regular part of an education. There has been a significant drop since 1976 in civic education and knowledge, according to a National Assessment of Education Progress report.

Many fear that the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the emphasis on standardized testing has made the decline even worse. There is no mandatory, national standardized test for social studies. With civic education not part of the mandatory assessment, it has fallen to the wayside.

Read More
Center for Civic Education
Civic Education in the NCLB Era, Elizabeth Hinde, published in the Journal of Curriculum and Instruction.

Minnesota Standards

Minnesota students are expected to take 3.5 credits in social studies prior to graduation. Those credits include United States history, geography, government and citizenship, world history, and economics. The Minnesota Department of Education’s website spells out the academic standards for social studies.

Studies on the content of social studies curriculum show that, even though civics is crammed in with many other topics, Minnesota’s students are getting some civics education. The Minnesota State Bar Associations 2007 survey found that

• Over 80% of schools require citizenship, democracy or U.S. government course. However, some schools offer students the chance to test out of this requirement.
• Most courses are only one semester long and may not be offered until senior year of high school.
• There are very few elective courses related to civics-Over 40% of respondents report that their teachers incorporate current events in their lesson plans.

Offered courses focus mostly on government institutions. Civic values and engagement are mentioned far less.

Possible Reforms

Participants in LWVMN’s State of Democracy forums on civic education offered the following comments on civic education in Minnesota.

“Civic education is not engaging to students – need to require more hands-on involvement.”

“ There are too few options for students who are not college-bound to be involved in the community. More needs to be done to engage these students and encourage them to learn about their communities and to affect the issues of the day.”

The following recommendations were developed out of the forums:

• Offering more than one semester of civic education and government as a part of the social studies curriculum in Minnesota
• Cooperate with the coalitions in other states to promote better standards for civic education at the national level.
• Reconvene a rountable discussion with a wide and diverse group of stakeholders for the purpose of creating a Minnesota Council on Civic Education who would have the responsibility to improve civic education and literacy.
• Encourage schools to incorporate service learning opportunities as a way to build civic engagement.