{"id":15196,"date":"2015-04-29T11:16:09","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T15:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=15196"},"modified":"2015-04-29T11:16:09","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T15:16:09","slug":"circles-release-todays-civics-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=15196","title":{"rendered":"CIRCLE’s release on today’s Civics results"},"content":{"rendered":"

23% of 8th-Graders \u201cProficient\u201d in Civics According to Nation\u2019s Report Card Released Today<\/strong>
\n Today\u2019s Release Shows Inequality in Civics Education, Serious Gaps by Racial and Economic Backgrounds Reflecting Unequal Education<\/strong><\/p>\n

Medford\/Somerville, MA<\/strong> \u2013 Today, the Federal Government released the Nation\u2019s Report Card: 2014 U.S. in Civics<\/a>. Experts on civic education from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE<\/a>) based at Tufts University\u2019s Tisch College \u2013 the preeminent, non-partisan research center on youth engagement \u2013 have been involved in both designing and analyzing the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Civics Assessment and can provide informed commentary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe quality and equality of civic education is a reflection of our investment in a healthy democracy,\u201d said Dr. Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of CIRCLE. \u201cThe National Assessment of Education Progress, or the Nation\u2019s Report Card, as it\u2019s also known, is a difficult and complex test that successfully measures some key areas of civic learning and how well civics is taught. However, as the new Nation\u2019s Report Card: 2014 shows, we are far from achieving an acceptable quality or equality of civics education.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2014 NAEP Civics, released today, finds that 23% of America\u2019s 8th graders are \u201cproficient.\u201d Although higher scores would certainly be desirable, many adults might be surprised by how difficult the NAEP Civics questions are. For instance, in 2014, 8th graders were asked to identify a power of the modern President not described in the Constitution and to understand that growth in the elderly population would affect Social Security spending.<\/p>\n

NAEP assessments in all other subjects yield roughly comparable proficiency levels to those found in civics. For instance, on the 2013 Mathematics NAEP, 27% of 8th graders scored proficient and 9% scored advanced.<\/p>\n

More significant than the overall proficiency levels are gaps by student groups. For instance, only 9% of African American students reached at least the \u201cproficient\u201d level in the 2014 NAEP Civics, compared to 40% of Asian\/Pacific Islander students. Students from urban areas, students whose parents didn\u2019t attend college, students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch, and students with disabilities all scored lower than average.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NAEP Civics measures education for citizenship, which is an essential purpose of schools,\u201d said Peter Levine, Associate Dean for Research at Tufts University\u2019s Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service and a member of the NAEP Civics Committee. \u201cIn 2014, due to budget cuts, the NAEP Civics was fielded only at the 8th grade level. It is important for the NAEP Civics to be administered regularly and at the 4th grade, 8th grade, and 12th grade levels so that we can assess our progress in educating America\u2019s kids for citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previous research by CIRCLE has shown that what students know about civics is related to how much and how well they are taught civics. The gaps in NAEP scores reflect inequality in civic education.<\/p>\n

Dr. Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg closely studied previous NAEP Civics results for a fact sheet entitled, \u201cDo Discussion, Debate, and Simulations Boost NAEP Civics Performance?<\/a>\u201d In that work, Kawashima-Ginsberg explored the relationship between three promising teaching practices and NAEP scores for various demographic groups.<\/p>\n

Dr. Peter Levine, Associate Dean for Research at Tisch College, has written a fact sheet entitled, \u201cWhat the NAEP Civics Assessment Measures and How Students Perform<\/a>.\u201d The fact sheet looks closely at what the NAEP Civics test measures, the skills and values that it doesn\u2019t capture, and in general how to interpret the results. Levine was a member of the committee that helped design the 2014 civics test.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

23% of 8th-Graders \u201cProficient\u201d in Civics According to Nation\u2019s Report Card Released Today Today\u2019s Release Shows Inequality in Civics Education, Serious Gaps by Racial and Economic Backgrounds Reflecting Unequal Education Medford\/Somerville, MA \u2013 Today, the Federal Government released the Nation\u2019s Report Card: 2014 U.S. in Civics. Experts on civic education from the Center for Information […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocating-civic-education","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15196"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15203,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15196\/revisions\/15203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}