We had a CIRCLE staff meeting

this morning. The most interesting question we dealt with was this: To

what extent is it useful to construct a broad index of civic engagement?

CIRCLE was part of an elaborate process that developed 19

survey questions covering a wide range of civic and political behaviors.

Is it useful to derive one number from these 19 questions, as an overall

measure of overall civic engagement? If we promote such an index, some

practitioners will use it to assess the condition of their own communities

(compared to the national average) and to see what happens as a result

of their programs. Is this beneficial or misleading?