What the Research Says...

On What Happens WITHOUT a Good Civic Education

  • Two-thirds of the people in the U.S. cannot name the three branches of government (source: Justice David Souter, ABA Keynote speech, 2009)
  • 75% of high school students erroneously believe flag burning is illegal (source: UConn Center for Survey Research and Analysis, commissioned by the Knight Foundation – surveyed 112,000 high school students, 8,000 teachers and more than 300 administrators)
  • 76% of high school students take the first amendment for granted or don’t know about it (source: UConn Center for Survey Research and Analysis, commissioned by the Knight Foundation – surveyed 112,000 high school students, 8,000 teachers and more than 300 administrators)
  • 75% of students scored at basic or below basic on the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Civics Assessment.
  • Less than ½ of 12th graders could describe the meaning of federalism on the 2007 NAEP Civics Assessment.
  • Less than ½ of voters age 18-24 turned out to vote in the last presidential election (source: U.S. Census Bureau News).

On What Happens WITH a Good Civic Education

  • We the People high school students outperformed college students on all items on a comprehensive political knowledge test (source: RMC research corporation) and made significantly greater gains than comparison students in their understanding of:
    • Core values and principles of democracy
    • Constitutional limits on governmental institutions
    • Rights and responsibilities of citizenships
  • We the People students surveyed in 2008 were found to (source: NAEP)
    • Outperform the national sample of high school students in every civic knowledge category
    • Correctly answered 5 key knowledge questions asked in the American National Election Studies at a rate of 73%, versus only 17% of adults and 8% of high school students
  • We the People National Finals students vote at rates of 92%
  • Project Citizen had a positive and statistically significant effect on (source: Indiana University 1999-2000, Drs. Vontz, Metcalf and Patrick):
    • Students’ civic knowledge
    • Students’ self-perceived civic skills
    • Students’ propensity to participate in civic and political life
  • Project Citizen students outperformed their peers in civic skills and knowledge (source: RMC Research Corporation 2006):
    • Increased their levels of civic knowledge
    • Improved their civic discourse skills
    • Demonstrated better public policy problem-solving skills
    • Improved their essay writing skills